I Don’t Expect Moral Goodness from Artists: Tishani Doshi at JLF

Poet, Journalist, Dancer and Writer Tishani Doshi.

(Photo: Facebook/ @Tishani.Doshi)

In a candid interview with The Quint at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2019, Tishani Doshi, poet and author of Girls Are Coming out of the Woods, talks about what the society take away from the #MeToo movement and the legacy of morally corrupt artists.

“I personally do not look to my artistic heroes for any moral guidelines. Artists have not been known to be wonderfully ethical people. We don't go to them for that. It would be lovely if they are. We can look at the long roster and understand most of them were denigrate characters, especially poets to which group I belong,” Tishani says.

She goes on to add that the situation is comparatively better now. “I think writers these days are much more well behaved, they take their wheat germ juice and go running and eat well.”

“If you look at the dynamic between men and women, of course the male genius has always been excused. Women have been having to deal with or make their space around a lot of this space that male genius takes,” the poet explains.

On the question of legacy of men who had women to support them, either as their muses, lovers and wives, Tishani says, these people are hidden, forgotten figures. And all we have left now is Picasso exhibition.

“It is not enough to be a male genius, you cannot get away with it anymore,” she says, with respect to the #MeToo movement.

“I don’t expect moral goodness from my artists. If you are breaking the law, you’re breaking the law and that’s a different question. I don’t need moral uprightness, I need that from a politician or a corporation. I don’t need that from an artist. I go to them for their work.”

Tishani Doshi, Poet

‘Still a Lot of Taboo Around #MeToo in India’

Talking about the #MeToo movement, Tishani goes on to explain that the context is still a lot different in India as the social dynamics bring their own set of challenges for survivors of sexual abuse.

“It is still quite difficult to get support. There is still a lot of taboo. A lot needs to be done in the legal structure. But I think, there has finally been a platform created whereby that silencing has stopped. Most people feel they can tell their stories and that they don't have to live with it in silence,” Tishani tells The Quint.

“I think most people take the stories of survivors seriously. With regards to Me Too, there has been a talk of backlash, or if it has gone too far.”

Tishani Doshi, Poet

The #MeToo movement does not stop at telling the stories and has a well paved path for it to tread on, Tishani believes.

“It really is about what happens next. The unleashing has happened, and it will continue to happen but it is about recreating a different way of how we live, and how we think of gender, and how we want to interact with each other and that's the long term project because it means dismantling patriarchy which people have been trying to do for a long time and finding another system which is more humane,” she says.

“Also I am not for the notion of ‘Let’s kick these guys out, ‘Let’s not allow them to do anything’, ‘Let’s throw them off the cliff’, ‘Let’s finish them off’ because I feel, with all misdemeanours and crimes, there is a path of justice and there are certain things you have to do.”

‘Distinguish Art From Artist’

Real rehabilitation, Tishani says, occurs when there is a shift of understanding and acknowledgement and understanding of what one has done. “How do you change that person rather than completely eliminating them from society because that seems very extreme to me,” she explains.

How can one distinguish art from an artist when the artists are no different as several get accused of sexual harassment? Tishani says we need not conflate the two.

“When we talk about creativity now, it is important, that we not confuse, conflate life and art because it is not the same thing. As an artist, you are transforming life. It makes us human, we are flawed in all sorts of ways and the reason we know that is because we have art. People who make it are sensitive and are flawed and morally corrupted in many many ways. We are not going to become puritanical about it and say that, "To be able to write a novel, you have to not abandon your child or beat you wife” but if you are breaking the law, then you serve your time," she says.