POLITICS: PADMA SHRI, AN ARTIST AND A “SADHVI”

by Sharad Raj February 14 2025, 12:00 am Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins, 35 secs

In this poignant reflection, the author, Sharad Raj, contrasts the recognition of iconic artist Prof. Ranbir Singh Bisht with today's controversial Padma Bhushan awardees, highlighting the shift in India’s cultural and political landscape.

This article explores the legacy of Prof. Ranbir Singh Bisht, a renowned Indian artist and Padma Shri awardee, whose influence on art and politics shaped the nation's cultural identity. Comparing his recognition with today's controversial Padma Bhushan awards, the Sharad Raj reflects on the profound shift in India's political and social climate since the 1990s. Bisht's commitment to socialism, nature painting, and challenging the status quo stands in stark contrast to the current political climate marked by right-wing ideologies and divisive rhetoric. The article delves into the importance of art in shaping societal values and the stark differences between past and present honourees.

The Recognition of Prof. Ranbir Singh Bisht

The year was 1991, and the weekly Sunday call from my parents, while I was at FTII in the hostel, announced that the well-known Indian painter Prof. Ranbir Singh Bisht, a close family friend of my parents, had been awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to the field of art. Ranbir tauji (elder brother of my father), as I called him, was at my residence in Lucknow when my parents called, and I promptly congratulated him. It was only fitting that someone who had been introduced to me by my father as the “Picasso of India” was finally recognized by the Indian State, though not that it would have had any bearing on his artistic pursuits. Two years later, I married his eldest daughter, Dr. Ramila Bisht.

Prof. Bisht had a deep and profound influence on me in more than one aspect, but primarily in my artistic pursuit of cinema, and in shaping my social and political thought. When scandalized by the overtly explicit sexual content in Japanese New Wave cinema at FTII and other films from the West, I ran to him to understand the difference between “nakedness” and “nudity.” Nudes, until then, for me, were the exclusive domain of painters. Who can forget the erotic grace of Titian’s Venus, or all the wonderful nudes painted by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, among others? However, their presence in cinema gave them a sense of the real, even when used by abstract filmmakers. Cinema, as opposed to painting, has a physicality to it, while an abstract painting remains abstract. Ranbir tauji put things in perspective for me and helped me comprehend and assimilate the nude and its importance in cinema.

A particular nude by Prof. Bisht has a very special place in my heart and hangs on the walls of my living room even today. At a point when we were in a humble studio apartment in Juhu, the said nude found a place on the wall right in front of the main door. When Ramila suggested that having such a pulsating female body staring at our visitors might be a bit too much, I promptly told her, “Those visitors are free to stop visiting us, but the great painting stays where it is.” The female body has since then become an important part of my cinema, and the fact that it doesn’t amount to vulgar objectification is largely due to Ranbir tauji’s explanation of how to approach the body in the arts.

Prof. Bisht’s Influence and India’s Changing Landscape

It was this iconoclasm that I consider my most precious inheritance from Prof. Bisht. He was truly a person and an artist who would always question the status quo, both in life and in his art. Known largely as a nature painter, for him, painting nature was also a political statement—a rebellion against mindless concretization in the urban centres, perhaps. He often felt stifled in the city. Socially and politically active, Prof. Bisht was the first one to protest, lead, or guide against any atrocity or ridiculous State decision. He actively participated in the Uttarakhand movement since he was originally from Garhwal, though settled in Lucknow. He painted a whole series on state atrocities committed on Uttarakhand activists, calling it “Dark Days of Indian Democracy.”

Prof. Bisht was a confirmed socialist with firm faith in the responsibilities and role of the State in a country yet to recover from colonial rule and partition, and a fierce and open critic of what he felt was wrong. In a nutshell, for a growing town like Lucknow in the nineties, he was a representative of what our world was and what our world should be, without any nostalgia or sentimentality attached to it.

Such were the people from different walks of life associated with the Padma Awards as India stood at the cusp of Liberalization. The year Prof. Bisht was conferred with the Padma Shri, the Soviet Union split into fifteen states, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, Manmohan Singh took over as the Finance Minister in the Narsimha Rao government and opened the gates for foreign investments at a time when the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had downgraded India as an economic entity—an outcome for which socialism was held responsible, with no one questioning why and how it was allowed to happen. What was the larger agenda? Of course, the pettiness and corruption of these socialists were equally responsible.

With that, India was also set on a path not only toward rampant consumerism but also fascism. The Lal Krishna Advani Rath Yatra, as a response to the Mandal Commission Report implementation, had already happened. Privatization was to set the ball rolling for further discrimination, lack of opportunity for those on the margins, the birth of meritocracy, and the final takeover by the majoritarian, right-wing fascists.

Padma Awards were once again announced, as is the norm, on January 26, 2025. The ignobility of some of those announcements perfectly illustrated what had changed in the 34 years since people like Prof. Bisht and others were honoured by the State. If Ranbir tauji was what we had lost, then these 21st-century announcements were all that we have become, and there can be no pride in it.

The time when Prof. Ranbir Singh Bisht received the Padma Award, Sadhvi Rithambara, one of the Padma awardees this year, was spewing venom against Muslims. She labelled them as anti-national, comparing them to lemons which sour milk, or flies that multiply quickly and will soon outnumber Hindus. Filled with rage and shrillness in her speeches, she compared the Hindu nation to a female body undergoing desecration by non-Hindus. She drew parallels with the rapes of Hindu women during partition and appealed to Hindu masculinity for reclaiming their lands. Audio cassettes of her hate speeches were circulated in temples and public gatherings. Today, all I can do is imagine an anguished Prof. Bisht grinding his teeth in fury, as he used to whenever injustice prevailed, and then would paint as if there was no tomorrow.

Sadhvi Rithambara was one of the three key women lieutenants who led the Babri Masjid demolition, and she was found to be present at the disgraceful demolition by the Liberhan Commission. She was framed by the CBI court in 2017, only to be exonerated in 2020 by a CBI Special Court! Noble credentials indeed. She was an active member of the gang that was the forerunner to the present we live in.

On the 76th Republic Day (January 26, 2025), the Sadhvi was bestowed with the Padma Bhushan, which is higher than the Padma Shri. The contrast with Prof. Bisht cannot be starker, and nothing can better summarize the change and damage we have undergone as a people and a country.

Someone reacted to the news of her Padma Bhushan with the words, “Wah! For what? What does her citation read, I wonder?” That settles it, indeed!