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| Amrita Shergal: A pro-sexual artist who was loved by both women and men |
It is said that the conversation stopped in the room where Amrita entered. People's breathing quickened and everyone started looking at them.
Amrita Bala was beautiful, slim, and delicate. Often she wore a bright green saree with a bright red blouse. As an ornament, only a Tibetan earring dangled from his ear. His black hair always covered his ears. He had a dot on his forehead and always had a twinkle in his eyes. She preferred to be alone.
Yashodhara Dalmia writes in her biography of Amrita Shergill, “She was extraordinary from birth. With long hair like silk, big eyes, broad forehead, she did not know how to cry as a child.
She further writes, 'Amrita was happiest when she saw her younger sister Indira taking a bath. At the age of about five, he started drawing with colored pencils. He had no competition in learning languages quickly. Apart from French, he was also proficient in Italian, English, Hungarian, Hindi, and Punjabi.
Music was his second love after painting. She used to play the piano. "Whenever she was in a bad mood or depressed, she would play the piano alone for hours," her husband Victor Egan said in an interview. She would feel much better after that.'
Gold medal for Amrita's painting 'Young Girls'
Amrita was the daughter of Umrao Singh, a wealthy Sikh, and Antoinette Shergal, a Hungarian woman. She was born on January 30, 1913, in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
Seeing his inclination toward art, his parents took him to Paris so that he could receive formal painting education there. Amrita was only 16 years old when she arrived in Paris.
He spent the next five years in Paris. Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were his favorite painters in those days. He was greatly influenced by the Mona Lisa painting in Paris.
At the age of 17, he made a portrait of himself.
He was very fond of making self-portraits. She often remains a self-observant of her own beauty.
In 1932, his painting 'Young Girls' won the Gold Medal of the Grand Salon. His sister Indra and his friend Denis Proto modeled the painting.
Amrita used to narrate a story, 'One of the jury members of Salona saw me and said that you are still a child, how is it possible that you have created this painting? We thought that the person who created the painting must be at least 30 years old. You seem to have learned to paint in the swing.
Engagement with Yusuf Ali Khan broke off
Amrita's mother wanted her to marry a noble. In those days Yusuf Ali Khan, a noble of Uttar Pradesh, was living in Paris. They were good to see. His father Raja Nawab Ali was a friend of Sitapur.
He established MARS College of Indian Music in Lucknow which was later called Bhatkhande College. At the encouragement of her mother, Amrita came in contact with Yusuf, and the two got engaged. But the nature of both of them was different from heaven and earth.
In a letter to her mother, Amrita wrote, “Yusuf is not faithful to me. Not only is he in love with Victor's sister Voila, but he has his eye on every beautiful girl on the street.'
Amrita breaks her engagement with Yusuf. Amrita's fear was justified. Yusuf later married three times. The first was an English girl, Ruth, whom he divorced. After that, he married Fakhr Nisa Rani, daughter of Bombay High Court Chief Justice Nawab Mirza. After divorcing her too, he married Elsa Williams, an Anglo-Indian girl.
Amrita's biographer N Iqbal Singh writes in her biography, "The effect of Yusuf's incident was that she stopped taking her relationships with men seriously." She became reckless and started having relations with many men.
Love affairs with many women and men
Going forward Amrita fell in love with many people including both men and women. One of them was Edith Lang, who studied piano in Paris.
She was much older than Amrita. At that time his age will be 27-28 years. He loved Amrita.
Iqbal Singh writes, “Later Amrita had to bear a lot of shame because of this same-sex relationship. Once, while she was in bed with Edith, Marie-Louise suddenly entered her room without knocking and was caught red-handed.
Amrita was 21 years old at that time. After that, Boris Tuslitzky came in contact with him. He openly declared that he loves Amrita. But Amrita's mother did not like this relationship.
Boris Tsaltzky later said in an interview with Yashodhara Damia, 'I was in love with him, for a few days he reciprocated, then one day he told me that he was in love with his cousin Egan Victor in Hungary. has gone And she will marry them.
Marrying cousin Victor Egan
Before the marriage, Amrita wrote several letters to Egan. These letters were often written in ink on sky-colored paper in very small letters. It was difficult for anyone to read them.
Victor and Amrita made some strange pacts before their marriage. The first agreement was that they would not have children. Not because they were my cousins but because they didn't want to have children.
Another agreement was that Amrita would be free to have relations with other men.
Victor didn't find it strange at all because he had understood by then that sexual diversity had become a part of Amrita's personality.
They were married without fanfare on July 16, 1938, in Budapest.
Victor later admitted that in the first few years of their marriage, Amrita had shown no desire to leave him or go elsewhere.
When Victor started his practice at a sugar factory in Saraya near Gorakhpur, he was getting a salary of Rs.160.
Apart from this, Amrita used to get Rs.100 from her family. Even in the cheap period, so much money was less for them.
In a letter to her mother, Amrita wrote, 'It is becoming difficult to run a household with so little money. We do not have money to buy utensils, plates, tea cups, and curtains.
Supporters of sexual freedom
Amrita had a long list of admirers, including Carl Khandalwala, Iqbal Singh, ICS officer Badruddin Tayyabji, All India Radio director Rashid Ahmed, and Statesman correspondent Malcolm McGregor.
Rashid Ahmed later moved to Pakistan where he retired as Director General of Pakistan.
Rashid Ahmed had said about her that 'Amrita used to observe everything very closely. He had a passion to experience and know everything. She was completely free from social constraints and restraints.'
She was attracted to men who were a little different.
Iqbal Singh writes, 'Amrita's definition of sexual morality was quite different from that of ordinary people. She had told me that she was once standing alone in a notorious area of Paris. She wanted to see how people interacted with her.
He told me that I had absolutely no intention of going out with anyone. I wanted to see how much people were willing to spend time with me. '
Amrita Shergill's closeness to Jawaharlal Nehru
Amrita Shergal also had several meetings with Jawaharlal Nehru. But there is no proof that there was a love affair between the two.
In 1937, when an exhibition of Amrita's paintings was held at the Imperial Hotel in Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru attended it.
At that time, Amrita wrote in a letter to Carl, 'I think Nehru liked me as much as I liked him.'
There used to be a lot of correspondence between Nehru and Amrita. A study of these letters could have predicted their relationship, but Amrita's mother burned many of the letters Amrita received, including Nehru's.
Once during Nehru's visit to Gorakhpur, Amrita and her husband visited Victor.
There is a photograph from that time in which Nehru is wearing a black shirt and khaki shorts. He has a cap on his head and Peshawari slippers on his feet.
On Amrita's death, Nehru wrote a heart-warming letter to Amrita's mother saying, 'In the last five years I have met Amrita only five or six times, but the first time I met her I was struck by her talent and her beauty. Believing.'
"I feel that he is a very valuable talent for India. I kept waiting for this talent to mature. Many people who came in contact with Amrita share your sorrow. Their memories are my legacy.
The painting sells for millions
Amrita created around 143 paintings in her career. These do not include the paintings he presented to his friends and relatives.
Many of his paintings are owned by his nephews Vivaan and Navina Sundaram. Her husband, Victor Egan, gave all of her paintings to the National Gallery of Modern Art, except for one of her own.
Many of his paintings were destroyed due to improper storage of these paintings. In 1998, an attempt was made to restore his damaged paintings.
Yashodhara Dalmia writes, “Amrita preferred to paint in natural light during the day. She did not like to paint in artificial light. She used to wear loose clothes and tie her hair while painting.
His hand moved quickly while painting. After painting, she would look at it upside down. If she didn't like it, she would tear it up and throw it away. He did this not once but many times.
Once when Mahatma Gandhi went to Cape Comoros, he painted him while addressing a prayer meeting. He did not try to meet them because there were too many people coming to meet him.
His major paintings are 'Young Girls', Gypsy Girl, Young Man with Four Apples, Group of Three Girls, Bride's Toilet, Brahmacharis, and Camille.
In the fifties, the famous writer and broadcaster Ashfaq Ahmed was roaming in the old bazaar of Lahore.
Iqbal Singh writes, “At a junk shop, he saw a painting by Amrita Sher Gul. A woman was sitting in this framed painting. The junkie asked Ashfaq to throw away the painting and take the frame home.
Ashfaq gave the frame to the shopkeeper and took Amrita Shergill's painting home. A few days later he met Zubaidah Agha, who runs an art gallery in Rawalpindi.
He asked to keep this painting in his gallery. From there, this painting reached the National Art Gallery of Islamabad.
His paintings usually do not sell in the art market, but when they do, they fetch millions.
It is an irony that Amrita always had to depend on others for money in her life but after her death, her paintings sold for crores of rupees.
ASuhal's victim
Amrita Shergal went to Lahore in her last days. There her husband Victor Egan opened a clinic. Amrita's friend Iqbal Singh came to know about her illness by chance.
Iqbal Singh writes in Amrita's biography, "When I went to meet her on December 3, there was a strange silence in the whole house. I knocked on the bedroom door and a very faint voice asked me to come in."
When I reached Amrita, I saw that her face had turned pale, I asked her what is the matter, Amri? He said that I had eaten pakoras at Lady Qadir's party, due to which I have developed dangerous diarrhea.
She used to go to the toilet every few minutes due to which all the water in her body was drained. That day I did not even think that she was so seriously ill and only a guest for a few days. Even that was the last time I saw him alive.
At the age of 28, close your eyes forever
After two days, on December 5, Iqbal again went to meet Amrita. At that time it was half past six in the evening.
Iqbal writes, 'As soon as I entered his house, I saw Victor coming down the stairs quickly. I asked him how Amri is. He replied I am trying my best to save him. I said what do you mean? He said he is seriously ill. I don't think she will survive.'
I asked him if I could see him. He said no because he is in a coma.
Chaman Lal, another friend of Amrita's, immediately called the best Dr. Sekri of Lahore and a German Dr. Kalish. Both saw him and said that it was too late.
They have developed peritonitis and their bowels are damaged.
All these people stayed at Amrita's house till 11 pm. After his departure, Amrita's cousin Charanjit Singh Mann called another famous doctor Raghubir Singh from Lahore.
But when he saw Amrita, Amrita had bid farewell to this world.
The next day, Amrao Singh, Amrita's father, arrived in Lahore from Shimla.
His body was wrapped in a Kashmiri shawl and taken to the cremation ground on the banks of the Ravi River.
His father Umrao Singh performed his last rites. He was only 28 years old at that time.
Cause of death: Miscarriage
Many people later said that diarrhea was not the only cause of Amrita's death.
"Dr. Raghubir Singh told me that Amrita had become pregnant and her husband was trying to stop her from aborting," Khushwan Singh later wrote. The operation was not successful and Amrita started bleeding.
Finally, Victor tells Dr. Raghubir Singh that he will give his blood to Amrita. Dr. Singh said that he could not do that without knowing his blood group. While this discussion was going on between the two doctors, Amrita died.
Most of Amrita's family believed that Victor had operated on Amrita.
The Hungarian wife of Indira Gandhi's cousin BK Nehru, who was very close to Amrita's mother, believed that Victor's operation was not successful because he was not a trained surgeon.
He did not call other doctors immediately because he was afraid of his disgrace. Anyway, abortion was illegal in India at that time.
Then on July 31, 1948, Amrita's mother Marie Antoinette committed suicide by shooting herself with Umrao Singh's gun. Amrao Singh, the father of Amrita, died in 1954 at the age of 84.
13 years after Amrita's death, Victor married Neena Hydari. Victor Egan died in 1997 at the age of 88.