Google Doodle remembered M.F Hussain’s greatness, but did we?

When we woke up this morning and reached for our phones to make our presence felt on the internet, little did we expect Google’s homepage to pay tribute to a man whose birthday we’d forgotten over the birthday of our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the homecoming of Ganesha, popularly known as Ganesh Chaturthi.

Maqbool Fida Husain, the renowned Indian painter would have turned 100 today.

In keeping with his cubist style, Google used Husain’s favourite colours to come up with an abstract geometrical illustration comprising circles and a painted portrait of the late artist holding a brush, at the centre.

The Padma Shri award winner had relocated to London and Dubai after numerous death threats and lawsuits from right-wing Hindu fundamentalists over his depiction of Hindu gods.

At the age of 95, the maestro breathed his last in London on June 29, 2011 where he used to spend his summers while on his self-imposed exile.

The multi-faceted painter was also an accomplished illustrator, photographer and filmmaker.

However, despite his greatness, people of his own country forced him to go on a self-imposed exile and give up Indian citizenship.

If that was not enough, a section of people who took to social media to express their astonishment at Google choosing the late artist for its tribute and not Narendra Modi., while the rest joined in on the rituals of wishing the famed painter a Happy Birthday.

Soon enough, M. F Husain started trending on Twitter, as well- which brings me to my original point.

Would M.F Husain be the subject of all this fanfare had he not featured on the Google Doodle today? Would we have gone about our usual day celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi and wishing the leader of the largest democracy in the world, but forgetting to spare more than a minute for one of the greatest painters India has seen?

Before nodding your head to say ‘No, we would not,’ do bear in mind we are the same country who took offense to his painting depicting Hindu gods, labeled him anti-Hindu, mainly due to his religion, harassed him non-stop and protested against his existence in the country he was born in, while burning his posters.

We failed in giving him the treatment he deserved when he was alive and we would have failed in revering him today too, had it not been for Google reminding us about Husain's unapologetic devotion to beauty, people, and the world.

If that’s not enough, there are also some people who want Google to apologise for featuring Husain on their doodle.

A Happy Bithday indeed.