Bengal School Of Art: Features & Role In Promoting And Inculcating Indian Nationalism

7^th August, 2021 marked the 150^th birth anniversary of Abanindranath Tagore. He was the leading light of the Bengal School of Art. It was associated with the nationalist Swadeshi movement and was 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).

• The Bengal School of Art, also called the Renaissance School or the Revivalist School, was an art movement and a style of painting that originated in Calcutta, the centre of British power.
• It later influenced many artists in different parts of the country, including Shantiniketan, where India’s first national art school was founded.
• It emerged in early 20th-century India during the British Raj and sought to establish a distinctly Indian art that celebrated an indigenous cultural heritage rather than Western art and culture.

Features of Bengal School of Art

• Bengal artists inculcated confidence in the traditional values and rich heritage of Indian art by giving the Indians a new cultural consciousness. The Bengal artist adopted a new Japanese water colour technique which synthesized with European transparent water colour and Indian tempera called ‘Wash technique’. Wash became the hallmark of Bengal School.
• Bengal painters were inspired by Ajanta and Bagh, Mughal and Rajput paintings and Shilpasastra. They also inculcated features of Chinese cloth painting and Japanese wood cut technique.
• The themes were mostly from Indian mythology and religion, epics and classical literature. The common paintings were of religious, social and historical events, birds and animals and landscapes.

Role of Bengal School of Art in Promoting and Inculcating Indian Nationalism

• The Bengal School grew out of Swadeshi: In the early part of the 20th century, the concept of Swadeshi, a movement of self-reliance, promoted by Indian nationalist leaders was specifically effective in the province of Bengal. Along with social, political and economic unification during Swadeshi, cultural movements were organized to dispose of British or Western literature and visual arts, and to produce works of uniquely Indian qualities, turning to Hindu themes and ancient Indian painting styles.
• The Bengal School Emerged as a Form of Resistance: During the British Raj, when the British crown ruled the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947, traditional Indian painting conventions and styles had fallen out of popularity and European painting techniques and subjects were taught in art academies.
  • The Bengal School of Art emerged as a response to Company Paintings by turning to Mughal influences, and Rajasthani and Pahari styles that highlighted distinct Indian traditions and daily life.
• Support of few Britishers: One of the major founders of the Bengal School was Ernest Binfield Havell who was an English art historian, teacher, arts administrator, and author. He rejected the academic tradition typically promoted in British art schools and encouraged students’ discovery of Mughal art.
• Contribution of Artists of Bengal School: Moved by the Swadeshi movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata in which Bharat Mata is portrayed as an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual. Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one’s nationalism.
  • Nandalal Bose, a student of Abanindranath Tagore, became one of the movement’s major artists. He adopted Swadeshi notions of developing a distinctively Indian modern Art. He took inspiration from the murals of Ajanta, scenes from Indian mythology and contemporary daily village life.
  • Asit Kumar Haldar, the nephew of Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian artist to be appointed as the principal of a Government Art School, and was the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London, in 1934. In addition to his artistic production and poetry, Haldar, like his fellow artists of the Bengal Art School, committed his life to social reforms and educational programs that would build a sense of Indian nationalism for contemporary and future generations.

Thus, originating in Calcutta and Shantiniketan, the Bengal School of Art promoted and inculcated Indian Nationalism by bringing a dynamic voice to Indian identity, freedom, and liberation via synthesizing folk art, Indian painting traditions, Hindu imagery, indigenous materials and depictions of contemporary rural life.