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Contribution by the Indian Artists towards National Freedom                                          Movement

As the glorious tradition of India classical art was about of be wiped out the advent of Muslim rule in the middle ages, in the same way Indian classical art of Rajasthani, Mughal Pahari  miniature painting was about to meet  the same fate with the establishment of British after the mutinity of 1857. The systematic propaganda by scholars like Lord Macaulay, an import member of the British Government, who drew up the  art and craft schools of Bombay, Madras and Lahore even established painters of the status of Burne Jones and Jeshua Reynolds were of the view India had no worthwhile traditional fine arts and Indians were incapable  of learning it. They their best to establish the superiority of western art and culture over the Indians. The newly English educated young men in those days around 1850-1900 sneered at anything Indian and learnt to at the pantheon of Indian Gods and Goddesses as near monsters.

       The average Indians whose lives were inextricable connected with artists paint and floral decorators as essential part of culture and religious celebration were totally confull and suffered from the sense of inferiority in comparison to the western educated person.

It was at this huncture thst a few extraordinary gifted artists and painters like Raja Ravi Verma, Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath, nandlal, Asit Kumar Haldar Kshitindranath Mazumdar, Abdul Rehman Chughtai, Samarendranath Gupta ably assisted Principal E.B Haveli of Calcutta Art School came out with their excellent art work to establish for all, the superiority of Indian like Bombay, Madras and Lahore were producing. The great artists gave a tremendous moral boost to the Indian nationalist movement which started in 1905 against the partition of Bengal.

         Indian Society of Oriental art was established in 1907 with renowned people and art lovers of Benagal. The society held art exhibition every year  and had some paintings  published every month through ‘Modern Review’ and  ‘Prabasi’ monthly magazines. They specially  sent artists to Japan and England to learn print making for the magazines. This created great enthusiasm among the Indian people to see paintings dear to their heart in print. It gave them the true  identity as descendants of a great  people. With the help and intervention of sister Nivedita , Nandlal Bose , Asit Haldar and Samarendranath accompanied Lady Herringham of India society  of London to Ajanta, Ellora and Bagh caves to copy the paintings in those caves. The copies were printed in different magazines in Europe which established positively the antiquity and greatness of Indian art. It swelled up the pride of the whole nation to call themselves Indians. In the mean time Abanindranath painted the picture of ‘Bharat Mata’ and the ‘Siddhas of the upper air’  which were praised everywhere as patriotic art, specially by Dr. A.K Coomerswamy, sister Nivedita, even Prof E.B.Havell.

   Another noted painting of ‘Bharat Mata’ by Shri Purma Gosh is based on a song by Dweijendralal Roy, the beginning of the song a ‘ The day when Bharat Janani rose from the blue waters of the ocean, the whole world bent down show reverene to her and the world was filled with laughter ‘. The painting shows a beautiful majestic lady , just risen from the sea, she is wearing coronet on her head and pearl necklace hanging from her neck . This is how the painter thought of India surrounded by blue seas and the snow covered Himalayas like a coronet on her head.

   A modern artist, Amrita Shergil who looked at India with more realistic eyes without any trace of romanticism paimted ‘ Bharat  Mata’ as a poor old wearing white saree and covering a naked child on her lap and holding another girl child wearing a worn out saree. There is a mark of deep sorrow on all their faces.

     The caricature entitled ‘Peace declared in the Punjab’ – by Gaganendranath made on the massacre of Jaliawalla bagh in 1921 brought out barbarous naked cruelty of the British rulers and hardened the hatred of the Indian people against the British.

Nandalal’s  ‘Sati ‘, The death of Sati’, ‘Ahalya’s release from her curse’, ‘Agnidevata’ won acclaim throught India which revived the traditional culture.

All these helped the people regain heir national identity and gave a boost to the national ‘Swadeshi movement for freedom. Indian lost the sense of rootless alien entity which is the greatest stumbling block to properity and self reliance for a nation, wrote Rabindranath Tagore.

     The panels on Indian folk art and Indian life in 1937 for Haripura Congress by Nandalal  Bose gave a great boost to this sense of Indianess to the people.