The divide between anglicists and orientalists in Indian art was not based on race. Who among the following was in favour of a return to native art to create a true modern Indian art?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → E. B. Havell
Option (1) Gladstone Solomon — Incorrect. He was the Principal of the Bombay School of Art and trained its students in realistic studies.
Option (2) Benoy Sarkar — Incorrect. He sided with the anglicists and called the Oriental Bengal School of Art regressive and anti-modern.
Option (3) Raja Ravi Varma — Incorrect. He mastered academic realism from European paintings and used it for scenes from the epics.
Option (4) E. B. Havell — Correct. Havell, an Englishman, was in favour of a return to native art to create a true modern Indian art.
Note: This topic was not named in the CUET 2026 syllabus, but it was part of the NCERT chapter. In 2025 and 2026, NTA also asked questions on topics in NCERT that the CUET syllabus did not name. So our mocks have questions from every part of the NCERT chapter, to give you enough practice. Read the whole chapter, not only the sub-topics named in the syllabus.
NCERT (2026-27): “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 create a true modern Indian art. It is in this context that we have to view his collaboration with Abanindranath Tagore.” |