CHENNAI : It is Gautama Buddha’s birthday today. Just the sound of his name and a sense of tranquility descends upon us — such is the power of the greatest teacher. Long after the days of its founder, Buddhism continues to heal the world with its calm chants and profound philosophies. We adorn our homes with ceramic Buddhas on our walls and in our gardens — where he silently smiles at us with half-closed eyes, imploring us to trade our hates for tenderness.
Sadly, it is the ideology of hate that once shattered this apostle of enlightenment. The Bamiyan Buddhas, dating back to the 5th century AD, were one of the tallest standing statues of Buddha in the world. Cut into sandstone cliffs in the mountains of Afghanistan, both statues were destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban who condemned them as mere idols. Today, the empty niches remain, crying out the harsh realities of intolerance.
It wasn’t the case with just the Buddha statues. Art has consistently been under attack by those with uncontrollable power. The Nazis, dreaded for their cold-blooded extermination of Jews, also never spared art. Almost 6,00,000 works of art by acclaimed artists were confiscated during the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and most of them were destroyed. So, what made him unleash his fury on seemingly harmless works of art? Hitler was an artist himself in his earlier days but was rejected twice by Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts. Perhaps this rejection triggered his reactions towards art in the later years. As the Nazis spread their reign of terror, art that was modern ( a genre that Hitler despised) was systematically destroyed and the artists had to either conform or flee.
Art took another blow from Communism in Russia when Josef Stalin came to power. In 1932, he abolished all independent art and wanted artists to owe allegiance to the party. Images were altered and films were destroyed. Officially approved art was supreme. The Soviet Communist Party went on a rampage against religion- destroying art and architecture in churches due to its religious content. A few museum workers desperately strived to save the art before the demolition by secretly storing them in various locations. It was only after the Soviet Union collapsed that many of these artworks were restored.
The same happened in China when the Chinese Revolution sought to eradicate traditional art as well as those that did not fit in. Many artworks were destroyed by the Communist Party and artists were persecuted. Mao Zedong, the founding member of the Party, proclaimed that art cannot be for art’s sake but instead, needed to speak the language of the peasant’s life and the glories of the regime. Similarly, artists who painted wall murals were tortured during the tyranny of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
Why has art been repeatedly assaulted by the powerful? Artists have always strived to be the conscience keepers of society. They have challenged authoritarianism throughout history and taken on carefully built power structures. Silencing art is about ensuring control and creating a society that does not dissent. This is precisely why the world needs art, for if art is stifled, all light will be extinguished.
Jitha Karthikeyan
jithakarthikeyan2@gmail.com
(Jitha Karthikeyan is an artist and curator, passionate about making art accessible to the larger public)