M.F. Husain and the question of censorship

As a teenager, each time I crossed the boundaries of good behaviour, my father would remind me of the saying, ‘With freedom, comes responsibility.’ Liberty has an inseparable second half — that of being held accountable for actions. More recently, the Bombay High Court restrained the Customs department last October from destroying, yet again, paintings by Padamsee, stating, “Not every nude painting is obscene.” The words didn’t carry across state borders, though. But as Debottam Bose, a practising art lawyer, explains, “No society permits completely unrestricted speech because unchecked expression can lead to chaos, harm, and the erosion of other fundamental rights. “The recent court order to seize his paintings raises the concern that legal instruments meant to protect public order are often wielded to enforce cultural and political conformity rather than to prevent actual harm,” says Bose. “Artists like Banksy, Ai Weiwei, and Zehra Doğan have used provocative imagery to highlight oppression, war, and state censorship.” Does an artist have a duty to ensure their work contributes constructively to public discourse rather than merely inciting outrage?