NCERT Textbook - The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism | Fine Art for Class 12 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

 Page 1


Company Painting
A
rt in India had a different purpose prior to the coming of 
the British. It could be seen as statues on temple walls, 
miniature paintings that often illustrated manuscripts, 
decoration on the walls of mud houses in villages, among  
many other examples. With the colonial rule around the 
eighteenth century, the English were charmed by different 
manners and customs of people of all ranks, tropical flora 
and fauna, and varying locales. Partly for documentation 
and partly for artistic reasons, many English officers 
commissioned local artists to paint scenes around them to 
get a better idea of the natives. The paintings were largely 
made on paper by local artists, some of whom had migrated 
from erstwhile courts of Murshidabad, Lucknow or Delhi. To 
please their new patrons, they had to adapt their traditional 
way of painting to document 
the world around them. This 
meant that they had to rely 
more on close observation, 
a striking feature of the 
European art, rather than 
memory and rule books, as 
seen in traditional art. It is 
this mixture of traditional and 
European style of painting 
that came to be known as the 
Company School of Painting. 
This style was not only popular 
among the British in India but 
even in Britain, where albums, 
consisting a set of paintings 
were much in demand.
6
The Bengal School and Cultural 
Nationalism
Ghulam Ali Khan,
Group of Courtesans,
Company Painting, 1800–1825.
San Diego Museum of Art, 
California, USA
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   85 01 Sep 2020   03:54:46 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
Page 2


Company Painting
A
rt in India had a different purpose prior to the coming of 
the British. It could be seen as statues on temple walls, 
miniature paintings that often illustrated manuscripts, 
decoration on the walls of mud houses in villages, among  
many other examples. With the colonial rule around the 
eighteenth century, the English were charmed by different 
manners and customs of people of all ranks, tropical flora 
and fauna, and varying locales. Partly for documentation 
and partly for artistic reasons, many English officers 
commissioned local artists to paint scenes around them to 
get a better idea of the natives. The paintings were largely 
made on paper by local artists, some of whom had migrated 
from erstwhile courts of Murshidabad, Lucknow or Delhi. To 
please their new patrons, they had to adapt their traditional 
way of painting to document 
the world around them. This 
meant that they had to rely 
more on close observation, 
a striking feature of the 
European art, rather than 
memory and rule books, as 
seen in traditional art. It is 
this mixture of traditional and 
European style of painting 
that came to be known as the 
Company School of Painting. 
This style was not only popular 
among the British in India but 
even in Britain, where albums, 
consisting a set of paintings 
were much in demand.
6
The Bengal School and Cultural 
Nationalism
Ghulam Ali Khan,
Group of Courtesans,
Company Painting, 1800–1825.
San Diego Museum of Art, 
California, USA
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   85 01 Sep 2020   03:54:46 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
86 An IntroductIon to IndIAn Art —PArt II
Raja Ravi Varma
This style declined with the entry of photography 
in India in the mid–nineteenth century as camera 
offered a better way of documentation. What, 
However, flourished in the art schools set up by 
the British was the academic style of oil painting 
that used a European medium to depict Indian 
subject matter. The most successful examples 
of this type of painting were found away from 
these art schools. They are best seen in the 
works produced by self-taught artist, Raja Ravi 
Varma of the Travancore Court in Kerala. By 
imitating copies of European paintings popular 
in Indian palaces, he mastered the style of 
academic realism and used it to depict scenes 
from popular epics like the Ramayana and 
Mahabharata. They became so popular that 
many of his paintings were copied as oleographs 
and were sold in market. They even entered people’s homes as 
calendar images. With the rise of nationalism in India by the 
end of the nineteenth century, this academic style embraced 
by Raja Ravi Varma came to be looked down upon as foreign 
and too western to show Indian myths and history. It is 
amidst such nationalist thinking that the Bengal School of Art 
emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century. 
The Bengal School
The term ‘Bengal School of Art’ is not fully accurate. It is true 
that the first move to create a modern, nationalist school 
happened in Bengal but it was not restricted to this region 
alone. It was an art movement and a style of painting that 
originated in Calcutta, the centre of British power, but later 
influenced many artists in different parts of the country, 
including Shantiniketan, where India’s first national art 
school was founded. It was associated with the nationalist 
movement (Swadeshi) and spearheaded by Abanindranath 
Tagore (1871–1951). Abanindranath enjoyed the support of 
British administrator and principal of the Calcutta School 
of Art, E. B. Havell (1861–1934). Both Abanindranath and 
Havell were critical of colonial Art Schools and the manner in 
which European taste in art was being imposed on Indians. 
They firmly believed in creating a new type of painting that 
Raja Ravi Varma,  
Krishna as envoy,
1906. NGMA, New Delhi, India
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   86 14-12-2021   15:23:41
Rationalised 2023-24
Page 3


Company Painting
A
rt in India had a different purpose prior to the coming of 
the British. It could be seen as statues on temple walls, 
miniature paintings that often illustrated manuscripts, 
decoration on the walls of mud houses in villages, among  
many other examples. With the colonial rule around the 
eighteenth century, the English were charmed by different 
manners and customs of people of all ranks, tropical flora 
and fauna, and varying locales. Partly for documentation 
and partly for artistic reasons, many English officers 
commissioned local artists to paint scenes around them to 
get a better idea of the natives. The paintings were largely 
made on paper by local artists, some of whom had migrated 
from erstwhile courts of Murshidabad, Lucknow or Delhi. To 
please their new patrons, they had to adapt their traditional 
way of painting to document 
the world around them. This 
meant that they had to rely 
more on close observation, 
a striking feature of the 
European art, rather than 
memory and rule books, as 
seen in traditional art. It is 
this mixture of traditional and 
European style of painting 
that came to be known as the 
Company School of Painting. 
This style was not only popular 
among the British in India but 
even in Britain, where albums, 
consisting a set of paintings 
were much in demand.
6
The Bengal School and Cultural 
Nationalism
Ghulam Ali Khan,
Group of Courtesans,
Company Painting, 1800–1825.
San Diego Museum of Art, 
California, USA
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   85 01 Sep 2020   03:54:46 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
86 An IntroductIon to IndIAn Art —PArt II
Raja Ravi Varma
This style declined with the entry of photography 
in India in the mid–nineteenth century as camera 
offered a better way of documentation. What, 
However, flourished in the art schools set up by 
the British was the academic style of oil painting 
that used a European medium to depict Indian 
subject matter. The most successful examples 
of this type of painting were found away from 
these art schools. They are best seen in the 
works produced by self-taught artist, Raja Ravi 
Varma of the Travancore Court in Kerala. By 
imitating copies of European paintings popular 
in Indian palaces, he mastered the style of 
academic realism and used it to depict scenes 
from popular epics like the Ramayana and 
Mahabharata. They became so popular that 
many of his paintings were copied as oleographs 
and were sold in market. They even entered people’s homes as 
calendar images. With the rise of nationalism in India by the 
end of the nineteenth century, this academic style embraced 
by Raja Ravi Varma came to be looked down upon as foreign 
and too western to show Indian myths and history. It is 
amidst such nationalist thinking that the Bengal School of Art 
emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century. 
The Bengal School
The term ‘Bengal School of Art’ is not fully accurate. It is true 
that the first move to create a modern, nationalist school 
happened in Bengal but it was not restricted to this region 
alone. It was an art movement and a style of painting that 
originated in Calcutta, the centre of British power, but later 
influenced many artists in different parts of the country, 
including Shantiniketan, where India’s first national art 
school was founded. It was associated with the nationalist 
movement (Swadeshi) and spearheaded by Abanindranath 
Tagore (1871–1951). Abanindranath enjoyed the support of 
British administrator and principal of the Calcutta School 
of Art, E. B. Havell (1861–1934). Both Abanindranath and 
Havell were critical of colonial Art Schools and the manner in 
which European taste in art was being imposed on Indians. 
They firmly believed in creating a new type of painting that 
Raja Ravi Varma,  
Krishna as envoy,
1906. NGMA, New Delhi, India
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   86 14-12-2021   15:23:41
Rationalised 2023-24
t he BengAl School And c ulturAl n AtIonAlISm 87
was Indian not only in subject matter but also in style. For 
them, Mughal and Pahari miniatures, for example, were  
more important sources of inspiration, rather than either the 
Company School of Painting or academic style taught in the 
colonial Art Schools.
Abanindranath Tagore and E. B. Havell
The year 1896 was important in the Indian history of visual 
arts. E. B. Havell and Abanindranath Tagore saw a need to 
Indianise art education in the country. This began in the 
Government Art School, Calcutta, now, Government College 
of Art and Craft, Kolkata. Similar art schools were established 
in Lahore, Bombay and Madras but their primary focus was 
on crafts like metalwork, furniture and curios. However, 
the one in Calcutta was more inclined towards fine arts. 
Havell and Abanindranath Tagore designed a curriculum 
to include and encourage technique and themes in Indian 
art traditions. Abanindranath’s Journey’s End shows the 
influence of Mughal and Pahari miniatures, and his desire to 
create an Indian style in painting.
Art historian Partha Mitter writes, “The first generation of 
the students of Abanindranath engaged in recovering the lost 
language of Indian art.” To create awareness that modern 
Indians could benefit from this rich past, Abanindranath 
was the main artist and creator of an important journal, 
Indian Society of Oriental Art. In this manner, he was also 
the first major supporter of Swadeshi values in Indian art, 
which best manifested in the creation of Bengal School of 
Art. This school set the stage for the development of modern 
Indian painting. The new direction opened by Abanindranath 
was followed by many younger artists like Kshitindranath 
Majumdar (Rasa-Lila) and M. R. Chughtai (Radhika).
Shantiniketan — Early modernism
Nandalal Bose, a student of Abanindranath Tagore, was 
invited by poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore to 
head the painting department in the newly established 
Kala Bhavana. Kala Bhavana was India’s first national art 
school. It was part of the Visva-Bharati University founded 
by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan. At Kala Bhavana, 
Nandalal founded the intellectual and artistic milieu to create 
an Indian style in art. By paying attention to the folk art forms 
that he saw around in Shantiniketan, he began to focus on 
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   87 01 Sep 2020   03:54:46 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
Page 4


Company Painting
A
rt in India had a different purpose prior to the coming of 
the British. It could be seen as statues on temple walls, 
miniature paintings that often illustrated manuscripts, 
decoration on the walls of mud houses in villages, among  
many other examples. With the colonial rule around the 
eighteenth century, the English were charmed by different 
manners and customs of people of all ranks, tropical flora 
and fauna, and varying locales. Partly for documentation 
and partly for artistic reasons, many English officers 
commissioned local artists to paint scenes around them to 
get a better idea of the natives. The paintings were largely 
made on paper by local artists, some of whom had migrated 
from erstwhile courts of Murshidabad, Lucknow or Delhi. To 
please their new patrons, they had to adapt their traditional 
way of painting to document 
the world around them. This 
meant that they had to rely 
more on close observation, 
a striking feature of the 
European art, rather than 
memory and rule books, as 
seen in traditional art. It is 
this mixture of traditional and 
European style of painting 
that came to be known as the 
Company School of Painting. 
This style was not only popular 
among the British in India but 
even in Britain, where albums, 
consisting a set of paintings 
were much in demand.
6
The Bengal School and Cultural 
Nationalism
Ghulam Ali Khan,
Group of Courtesans,
Company Painting, 1800–1825.
San Diego Museum of Art, 
California, USA
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   85 01 Sep 2020   03:54:46 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
86 An IntroductIon to IndIAn Art —PArt II
Raja Ravi Varma
This style declined with the entry of photography 
in India in the mid–nineteenth century as camera 
offered a better way of documentation. What, 
However, flourished in the art schools set up by 
the British was the academic style of oil painting 
that used a European medium to depict Indian 
subject matter. The most successful examples 
of this type of painting were found away from 
these art schools. They are best seen in the 
works produced by self-taught artist, Raja Ravi 
Varma of the Travancore Court in Kerala. By 
imitating copies of European paintings popular 
in Indian palaces, he mastered the style of 
academic realism and used it to depict scenes 
from popular epics like the Ramayana and 
Mahabharata. They became so popular that 
many of his paintings were copied as oleographs 
and were sold in market. They even entered people’s homes as 
calendar images. With the rise of nationalism in India by the 
end of the nineteenth century, this academic style embraced 
by Raja Ravi Varma came to be looked down upon as foreign 
and too western to show Indian myths and history. It is 
amidst such nationalist thinking that the Bengal School of Art 
emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century. 
The Bengal School
The term ‘Bengal School of Art’ is not fully accurate. It is true 
that the first move to create a modern, nationalist school 
happened in Bengal but it was not restricted to this region 
alone. It was an art movement and a style of painting that 
originated in Calcutta, the centre of British power, but later 
influenced many artists in different parts of the country, 
including Shantiniketan, where India’s first national art 
school was founded. It was associated with the nationalist 
movement (Swadeshi) and spearheaded by Abanindranath 
Tagore (1871–1951). Abanindranath enjoyed the support of 
British administrator and principal of the Calcutta School 
of Art, E. B. Havell (1861–1934). Both Abanindranath and 
Havell were critical of colonial Art Schools and the manner in 
which European taste in art was being imposed on Indians. 
They firmly believed in creating a new type of painting that 
Raja Ravi Varma,  
Krishna as envoy,
1906. NGMA, New Delhi, India
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   86 14-12-2021   15:23:41
Rationalised 2023-24
t he BengAl School And c ulturAl n AtIonAlISm 87
was Indian not only in subject matter but also in style. For 
them, Mughal and Pahari miniatures, for example, were  
more important sources of inspiration, rather than either the 
Company School of Painting or academic style taught in the 
colonial Art Schools.
Abanindranath Tagore and E. B. Havell
The year 1896 was important in the Indian history of visual 
arts. E. B. Havell and Abanindranath Tagore saw a need to 
Indianise art education in the country. This began in the 
Government Art School, Calcutta, now, Government College 
of Art and Craft, Kolkata. Similar art schools were established 
in Lahore, Bombay and Madras but their primary focus was 
on crafts like metalwork, furniture and curios. However, 
the one in Calcutta was more inclined towards fine arts. 
Havell and Abanindranath Tagore designed a curriculum 
to include and encourage technique and themes in Indian 
art traditions. Abanindranath’s Journey’s End shows the 
influence of Mughal and Pahari miniatures, and his desire to 
create an Indian style in painting.
Art historian Partha Mitter writes, “The first generation of 
the students of Abanindranath engaged in recovering the lost 
language of Indian art.” To create awareness that modern 
Indians could benefit from this rich past, Abanindranath 
was the main artist and creator of an important journal, 
Indian Society of Oriental Art. In this manner, he was also 
the first major supporter of Swadeshi values in Indian art, 
which best manifested in the creation of Bengal School of 
Art. This school set the stage for the development of modern 
Indian painting. The new direction opened by Abanindranath 
was followed by many younger artists like Kshitindranath 
Majumdar (Rasa-Lila) and M. R. Chughtai (Radhika).
Shantiniketan — Early modernism
Nandalal Bose, a student of Abanindranath Tagore, was 
invited by poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore to 
head the painting department in the newly established 
Kala Bhavana. Kala Bhavana was India’s first national art 
school. It was part of the Visva-Bharati University founded 
by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan. At Kala Bhavana, 
Nandalal founded the intellectual and artistic milieu to create 
an Indian style in art. By paying attention to the folk art forms 
that he saw around in Shantiniketan, he began to focus on 
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   87 01 Sep 2020   03:54:46 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
88 An IntroductIon to IndIAn Art —PArt II
the language of art. He also illustrated primers 
in Bengali with woodcuts and understood 
the role of art in teaching new ideas. For this 
reason, Mahatma Gandhi invited him to paint 
panels that were put on display at the Congress 
session at Haripura in 1937. Famously called 
the ‘Haripura Posters’, they depicted ordinary 
rural folks busy in various activities — a 
musician drumming, a farmer tilling, a woman 
churning milk, and so on. They were painted 
as lively colourful sketchy figures and shown 
as contributing their labour to nation building. 
These posters echoed with Gandhi’s socialist 
vision of including marginalised sections of 
Indian society through art. 
Kala Bhavana, the institution where Bose 
taught art, inspired many young artists to 
carry forward this nationalist vision. It became 
a training ground for many artists, who 
taught art in different parts of the country.  
K. Venkatappa in South India being a 
prominent example. They wanted art to reach 
out to a wider public rather than only the elite, 
anglicised class of people. 
Jamini Roy is a unique example of modern 
Indian artist, who after undergoing academic 
training in the colonial Art School rejected 
it only to adopt the flat and colourful style of 
folk painting seen in villages. He wanted his 
paintings to be simple and easy to duplicate 
to reach a wider public and based on themes 
like women and children, specifically, and rural 
life, generally. 
However, the struggle between the Indian 
and European taste in art continued as seen in 
the art policy of the British Raj. For example, 
the project for mural decorations for Lutyen’s 
Delhi buildings went to the students of Bombay 
School of Art, trained in realistic studies by its 
Principal, Gladstone Solomon. On the other 
hand, the Bengal School artists were allowed 
to decorate the Indian House in London under 
close British supervision.
K. Venkatappa, Rama’s marriage,
1914. Private Collection, India
Nandalal Bose, Dhaki, Haripura Posters, 
1937. NGMA, New Delhi, India
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   88 01 Sep 2020   03:54:47 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
Page 5


Company Painting
A
rt in India had a different purpose prior to the coming of 
the British. It could be seen as statues on temple walls, 
miniature paintings that often illustrated manuscripts, 
decoration on the walls of mud houses in villages, among  
many other examples. With the colonial rule around the 
eighteenth century, the English were charmed by different 
manners and customs of people of all ranks, tropical flora 
and fauna, and varying locales. Partly for documentation 
and partly for artistic reasons, many English officers 
commissioned local artists to paint scenes around them to 
get a better idea of the natives. The paintings were largely 
made on paper by local artists, some of whom had migrated 
from erstwhile courts of Murshidabad, Lucknow or Delhi. To 
please their new patrons, they had to adapt their traditional 
way of painting to document 
the world around them. This 
meant that they had to rely 
more on close observation, 
a striking feature of the 
European art, rather than 
memory and rule books, as 
seen in traditional art. It is 
this mixture of traditional and 
European style of painting 
that came to be known as the 
Company School of Painting. 
This style was not only popular 
among the British in India but 
even in Britain, where albums, 
consisting a set of paintings 
were much in demand.
6
The Bengal School and Cultural 
Nationalism
Ghulam Ali Khan,
Group of Courtesans,
Company Painting, 1800–1825.
San Diego Museum of Art, 
California, USA
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   85 01 Sep 2020   03:54:46 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
86 An IntroductIon to IndIAn Art —PArt II
Raja Ravi Varma
This style declined with the entry of photography 
in India in the mid–nineteenth century as camera 
offered a better way of documentation. What, 
However, flourished in the art schools set up by 
the British was the academic style of oil painting 
that used a European medium to depict Indian 
subject matter. The most successful examples 
of this type of painting were found away from 
these art schools. They are best seen in the 
works produced by self-taught artist, Raja Ravi 
Varma of the Travancore Court in Kerala. By 
imitating copies of European paintings popular 
in Indian palaces, he mastered the style of 
academic realism and used it to depict scenes 
from popular epics like the Ramayana and 
Mahabharata. They became so popular that 
many of his paintings were copied as oleographs 
and were sold in market. They even entered people’s homes as 
calendar images. With the rise of nationalism in India by the 
end of the nineteenth century, this academic style embraced 
by Raja Ravi Varma came to be looked down upon as foreign 
and too western to show Indian myths and history. It is 
amidst such nationalist thinking that the Bengal School of Art 
emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century. 
The Bengal School
The term ‘Bengal School of Art’ is not fully accurate. It is true 
that the first move to create a modern, nationalist school 
happened in Bengal but it was not restricted to this region 
alone. It was an art movement and a style of painting that 
originated in Calcutta, the centre of British power, but later 
influenced many artists in different parts of the country, 
including Shantiniketan, where India’s first national art 
school was founded. It was associated with the nationalist 
movement (Swadeshi) and spearheaded by Abanindranath 
Tagore (1871–1951). Abanindranath enjoyed the support of 
British administrator and principal of the Calcutta School 
of Art, E. B. Havell (1861–1934). Both Abanindranath and 
Havell were critical of colonial Art Schools and the manner in 
which European taste in art was being imposed on Indians. 
They firmly believed in creating a new type of painting that 
Raja Ravi Varma,  
Krishna as envoy,
1906. NGMA, New Delhi, India
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   86 14-12-2021   15:23:41
Rationalised 2023-24
t he BengAl School And c ulturAl n AtIonAlISm 87
was Indian not only in subject matter but also in style. For 
them, Mughal and Pahari miniatures, for example, were  
more important sources of inspiration, rather than either the 
Company School of Painting or academic style taught in the 
colonial Art Schools.
Abanindranath Tagore and E. B. Havell
The year 1896 was important in the Indian history of visual 
arts. E. B. Havell and Abanindranath Tagore saw a need to 
Indianise art education in the country. This began in the 
Government Art School, Calcutta, now, Government College 
of Art and Craft, Kolkata. Similar art schools were established 
in Lahore, Bombay and Madras but their primary focus was 
on crafts like metalwork, furniture and curios. However, 
the one in Calcutta was more inclined towards fine arts. 
Havell and Abanindranath Tagore designed a curriculum 
to include and encourage technique and themes in Indian 
art traditions. Abanindranath’s Journey’s End shows the 
influence of Mughal and Pahari miniatures, and his desire to 
create an Indian style in painting.
Art historian Partha Mitter writes, “The first generation of 
the students of Abanindranath engaged in recovering the lost 
language of Indian art.” To create awareness that modern 
Indians could benefit from this rich past, Abanindranath 
was the main artist and creator of an important journal, 
Indian Society of Oriental Art. In this manner, he was also 
the first major supporter of Swadeshi values in Indian art, 
which best manifested in the creation of Bengal School of 
Art. This school set the stage for the development of modern 
Indian painting. The new direction opened by Abanindranath 
was followed by many younger artists like Kshitindranath 
Majumdar (Rasa-Lila) and M. R. Chughtai (Radhika).
Shantiniketan — Early modernism
Nandalal Bose, a student of Abanindranath Tagore, was 
invited by poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore to 
head the painting department in the newly established 
Kala Bhavana. Kala Bhavana was India’s first national art 
school. It was part of the Visva-Bharati University founded 
by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan. At Kala Bhavana, 
Nandalal founded the intellectual and artistic milieu to create 
an Indian style in art. By paying attention to the folk art forms 
that he saw around in Shantiniketan, he began to focus on 
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   87 01 Sep 2020   03:54:46 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
88 An IntroductIon to IndIAn Art —PArt II
the language of art. He also illustrated primers 
in Bengali with woodcuts and understood 
the role of art in teaching new ideas. For this 
reason, Mahatma Gandhi invited him to paint 
panels that were put on display at the Congress 
session at Haripura in 1937. Famously called 
the ‘Haripura Posters’, they depicted ordinary 
rural folks busy in various activities — a 
musician drumming, a farmer tilling, a woman 
churning milk, and so on. They were painted 
as lively colourful sketchy figures and shown 
as contributing their labour to nation building. 
These posters echoed with Gandhi’s socialist 
vision of including marginalised sections of 
Indian society through art. 
Kala Bhavana, the institution where Bose 
taught art, inspired many young artists to 
carry forward this nationalist vision. It became 
a training ground for many artists, who 
taught art in different parts of the country.  
K. Venkatappa in South India being a 
prominent example. They wanted art to reach 
out to a wider public rather than only the elite, 
anglicised class of people. 
Jamini Roy is a unique example of modern 
Indian artist, who after undergoing academic 
training in the colonial Art School rejected 
it only to adopt the flat and colourful style of 
folk painting seen in villages. He wanted his 
paintings to be simple and easy to duplicate 
to reach a wider public and based on themes 
like women and children, specifically, and rural 
life, generally. 
However, the struggle between the Indian 
and European taste in art continued as seen in 
the art policy of the British Raj. For example, 
the project for mural decorations for Lutyen’s 
Delhi buildings went to the students of Bombay 
School of Art, trained in realistic studies by its 
Principal, Gladstone Solomon. On the other 
hand, the Bengal School artists were allowed 
to decorate the Indian House in London under 
close British supervision.
K. Venkatappa, Rama’s marriage,
1914. Private Collection, India
Nandalal Bose, Dhaki, Haripura Posters, 
1937. NGMA, New Delhi, India
1_6.Bengali Painting.indd   88 01 Sep 2020   03:54:47 PM
Rationalised 2023-24
t he BengAl School And c ulturAl n AtIonAlISm 89
Pan-Asianism and Modernism 
The colonial art policy had created a divide between those  
who liked the European academic style and those who favoured 
Indian style. But following the Partition of Bengal in 1905, the 
Swadeshi movement was at its peak and it reflected in ideas 
about art. Ananda Coomaraswamy, an important art historian, 
wrote about Swadeshi in art and joined hands with a Japanese 
nationalist, Kakuzo Okakura, who was visiting Rabindranath 
Tagore in Calcutta. He came to India with his ideas about 
pan-Asianism, by which he wanted to unite India with other 
eastern nations and fight against western imperialism. Two 
Japanese artists accompanied him to Calcutta, who went to 
Shantiniketan to teach wash technique of painting to Indian 
students as an alternative to western oil painting. 
If, on one hand, pan-Asianism was gaining popularity, 
ideas about modern European art also travelled to India. 
Hence, the year 1922 may be regarded as a remarkable 
one, when an important exhibition of works by Paul Klee, 
Kandinsky and other artists, who were part of the Bauhaus 
School in Germany, travelled to Calcutta. These European 
artists had rejected academic realism, which appealed to the 
Swadeshi artists. They created a more abstract language of 
art, consisting of squares, circles, lines and colour patches. 
For the first time, Indian artists and the public had a direct 
encounter with modern art of this kind. It is in the paintings 
by Gaganendranath Tagore, brother of Abanindranath 
Tagore, that the influence of modern western style of 
paintings can be clearly seen. He made several paintings 
using Cubist style, in which building interiors were created 
out of geometric patterns. Besides, he was deeply interested 
in making caricatures, in which he often made fun of rich 
Bengalis blindly following the European style of living.
Different Concepts of Modernism: Western and Indian
The divide between anglicists and orientalists, as mentioned 
earlier, was not based on race. Take the case of the Bengali 
intellectual, Benoy Sarkar, who sided with the anglicists 
and considered modernism that was growing in Europe as 
authentic in an article, ‘The Futurism of Young Asia’. For 
him, the Oriental Bengal School of Art was regressive and 
anti-modern. On the other hand, it was E. B. Havell, an 
Englishman, who was in favour of return to native art to 
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