SITUATION OF CHUGHTAI ART IN INDIA AFTER PARTITION IN 1947

AMAZING GUTTERISH ANALYSIS BY A BOMBAY CRITIC: “IT STINKS”

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru knew the value of M.A. Rahman Chughtai. He started a campaign to lure Chughtai to India. The very first step he collected about 15 paintings of M.A. Rahman Chughtai and made a special room namely Chughtai Room in the National Museum of Modern Arts in Jaipur House Delhi. He also persuaded the publisher Dhoomi Mal Dharam Dass to print a volume of Chughtai Art on Hindu themes which was done in 1951. Nehru had already enticed some talents of Pakistan to India, like Baray Ghulam Ali and Amrita Pritam. He went on a quest to promote Chughtai art and continued to present Chughtai originals to foreign Heads of State (including China) assuming  Chughtai as  an Indian artist. Actually even in 1960 in Lahore in front of Field Marshal Ayub Khan at Governors House Nehru was still trying go persuade Chughtai to leave Pakistan for India. Not realizing the companion of Dr Allama Iqbal would die before doing anything like that.

On the other hand the Indian Press was doing their natural thing. The same magazine offers different opinion in 1946 and then in 1951. The world changed objectivity of review maker. Some pages of the Illustrated weekly of India shows the sinister things. For instance the reviewer writes of him as:

“What limits his style is something which may perhaps be in his power to overcome- the excessive preoccupation with the formal and a sense of mission or message”

The MISSION OR MESSAGE was what made M.A. Rahman Chughtai the father of Art in Pakistan. But the weekly went further. A Bombay critic simply said of Chughtai Art:

“IT STINKS”.

It clearly shows the two nation theory in full perspective. The venom of the sinister Hindu would not come to rest and objectivity was alien to their thinking and feeling. The beautiful aura of a Chughtai’s painting had a paradise aroma and for such Hindu writers it stank. There are many things which actually stink and have charm for them. Obviously they can indulge in drinking stink. Need we say more!