Gender in the Changing Perspective: Art and Nationalism in Bengal

Speaker: Ratnabali Chatterjee

February 4, 1999 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

The paper will try to open up the varieties in the orientalist and nationalist discourses on art by using illustrations as the writings of Havell, Coomaraswamy and Sister Nivedita. The themes to be explored will be the mystic essence of the Indian mind and the corresponding ideological notions about Indian womanhood and artistic creativity. The close links between what was marked as the nationalist Indian art and  cultural consciousness which predated colonialism could not fit into the neat juxtapositions of the colonial and colonised. On the other hand, a number of questions at once more complex and located in wider spheres were thrown up during the nationalist movement and even the more mass-based popular revolts ranging from the mid-nineteenth century which had a distinct bearing on the artists and their audience. Gender versus tradition emerged as an important question during this period.

Ratnabali Chatterjee teaches History and Art History in the Department of Islamic History and Culture, Calcutta University.