Comments on: PostColonial Skins

By: sepoy

sepoy — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 19:37:56 +0000

sarah: I seem to remember seeing a reference for a reprint in an Art journal; but its been a while. It _does_ exist and the usual search indexes should bring it up.

By: sarah

sarah — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 06:25:11 +0000

Hi - sorry to come into this 2 years late! I’m trying to track down a hard copy of this painting and I’m wondering if you’ve any ideas?

By: hoopoe

hoopoe — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

err…I am a little ambivalent on this–it does seem like the opposition has a point. perhaps my reservations arise out of my ignorance and sepoy can elaborate a little more: was this painting truly intended in the spirit of universal humanism or was it targetted to converts…perhaos placing the image in its historical context will help?

sepoy?

By: hoopoe

hoopoe — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

of course, i appreciate the sentiment that you express…and im all for it, in fact i personally feel very strongly about it!

By: hoopoe

hoopoe — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

reminds me of (i believe its midnights children) the whole thing with jesus being blue and mary pereira
eh?

By: rob

rob — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

If you really want it, email me your postal address and I’ll see what I can do. The fact it’s a 68p stamp makes it somewhat easier. I think I know the postcard for you..

By: neha

neha — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Give Address - Will post. :) It’s beautiful. And with offers pouring in - you can surround yourself with Mughal Christmas Cheer!

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

oh, that is gorgeous, and i think it will mean a lot to a person very dear to me. must go out and buy some promptly.

reminds me of the year a friend put USPS’s (also lovely) Eid stamp on all her Chanukah cards, which caused some interesting fireworks. At one time I used them on various sorts of correspondence to the Middle East, on the grounds that the juxtaposition of “USA” and “Eid Mubarak” in sulus script might be pleasingly thought-provoking. also they are just very pretty. does anyone know if they’re still available?

By: emullah

emullah — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I was thinking same as hoopoe. Like people Islamize or Christianize things same way the painter Hinduize Jesus and seems like Jesus converted to Hindusinm. …

No blasphemy intended but this is what you end up thinking.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

hoopoe: “was this painting truly intended in the spirit of universal humanism or was it targetted to converts…perhaos placing the image in its historical context will help?” the tradition of painting madonnas in localized settings is quite tremendous. The arrival of the Jesuists in Akbar’s court bought many of these styles creating new hybrids. Seeing your blog-name, you’d be interested in reading this. I will go get another Madonna from the library and post on it soon.

Also of interest should be Kunal Basu’s Miniaturist.

elizabeth: the Eid stamp is still available [and lovely] and my stamp of choice whenever I buy some - an extremely rare event, nonetheless.

and to all well-wishers in UK, willing to drop me a line on a postcard [with the _right_ stamp]:

Address: 1115 E 58th Street
Walker 202B
Chicago, IL 60637

By: gerry

gerry — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I can certainly see why the Hindu Council *might* be offended by the public use of this image. By interpreting the painting only in the context of contemporary debate on Hindu conversions to Christianity., however, they have excluded other possible interpretations, some of which are much more neutral. The painting clearly could be seen as both culturally and religiously syncretic, folding Hindu and Christian traditions into one. A third interpretation might be that the painting adds Mary and the Christ Child to the Hindu pantheon, assimilating key Christian figures to Hindu faith, rather than assimilating Hindu believers to Christianity. Why assume that the *worshippers* are somehow “the converts” in the painting?
Does anyone know where to find the complete painting?

By: emullah

emullah — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Gerry you are right. I have had attended and had discussion with several Hindu lecturers on religion (all of them were Brahmin’s) and they believe that they are on the top and try to define the Hinduism in a way that everything else falls under it. So I go with your third interpretation that “the painting adds Mary and the Christ Child to the Hindu pantheon, assimilating key Christian figures to Hindu faith, rather than assimilating Hindu believers to Christianity. Why assume that the *worshippers* are somehow “the converts” in the painting?”

By: masale.wallah

masale.wallah — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I think all the hullabaloo is uncalled for. It’s a beautiful painting and should be treated as such.
It will be a shame if the Royal Mail caves in and withdraws the stamp. It is indeed a sad state of affairs that the first conclusion members of the Hindu Forum drew was concerning Hindus converting to Chirstanity and not the potentially (and quite possibly, intended) syncretic nature of the painting that Gerry mentions.

By: hoopoe

hoopoe — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Emullah: I think the concerns of the Hindu orthodoxy are justified. Every religious orthodoxy is more or less insecure about the threat of usurpation. If I am not mistaken, there is an insistence in mainstream Islam to avoid the adoption of non-Islamic religious symbolism; I know this because at a point in my life I was considering growing dreadlocks and came across some information on the web in regard to Islamic perspectives on dreadlocks. On a sidenote, I never did grow dreads…but anyway.

I don’t think the concerns of the Hindu Council should be dismissed just like that, even though I don’t agree with their objections to the painting.

I really don’t know how to resolve a conflict of interest such as this. I want to be able to respect the view of other people (recognizing that some people more or less are working with an indispensible teleology, which is very dear to them…people fall apart when their “things fall apart”) but at the same time, how does one come to terms with the Taliban destruction of the Buddhist monuments? I don’t even know if that is a correct analogy.

But this is my dilemma.

Sepoy: thanks a lot for the links :-)

By: antje

antje — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

this is all superb. but what about that other, grayer, figure in the upper right corner? i say: put a “Hindoo marking” on her and watch what goes down.