Home Institution
University of Puget Sound
Publication Date
Fall 2012
Abstract
What began as a general inquiry into the nature of nationalism in the paintings of “the Bengal School” turned into a project focused on tracing the pulse of nationalism between two distinct yet related groups in Bengal roughly between the years 1895 and 1920. The bulk of this paper deals with existing scholarship on the painter Abanindranath Tagore, whose name is most often mentioned in the discourse regarding nationalism and painting in Bengal; in addressing this scholarship, I deliver a critical analysis on the relationship between Abanindranath, his paintings, and the idea of nationalism. I then follow that discussion with a treatment of Rabindranath Tagore and his relationship with the swadeshi movement in Bengal during the first decade of the twentieth century, and his unique path of patriotic discourse that came after the fervor of Abanindranath’s art movement fizzled away. In my conclusion, I offer a final analysis of Rabindranath and Abanindranath’s “nationalisms.”
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Asian Studies | Place and Environment | Politics and Social Change
Recommended Citation
Cohen, Jasmin, "Nationalism and Painting in Colonial Bengal" (2012). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 1646.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/1646
Included in
Arts and Humanities Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons
Program Name
India: National Identity and the Arts