Nationalism and new ideas shaped modern Indian art. Arrange the follo…

Nationalism and new ideas shaped modern Indian art. Arrange the following developments in the order in which they took place:

(A) Jogen Chowdhury, Bikash Bhattacharjee and Ganesh Pyne in West Bengal paint the social problems that disturbed them.

(B) The Bengal School rises in Calcutta under the leadership of Abanindranath Tagore.

(D) Ramkinker Baij creates the open-air sculpture Santhal Family in the compound of Kala Bhavana, Shantiniketan.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → (B), (D), (C), (A)

(B) comes first. Nationalism in art is traced to the rise of the Bengal School under Abanindranath Tagore in Calcutta, in the late nineteenth century.

(D) comes second. Ramkinker Baij created Santhal Family at Kala Bhavana in 1937. This is after the Bengal School and before the 1940s.

(C) comes third. The Bombay Progressives and the Calcutta group worked during the 1940s and 1950s. Their subjects came largely from rural India.

(A) comes last. Since the 1970s, many artists moved to figures and stories that are easy to recognise. In West Bengal, Jogen Chowdhury, Bikash Bhattacharjee and Ganesh Pyne painted social problems.

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): “Tracing the Modern Indian Art …We have already discussed how nationalism in art can be traced to the rise of Bengal School under the leadership of Abanindranath Tagore in the late nineteenth century in Calcutta.…An interesting fact to note about modern Indian art is that the subject matter in painting and sculpture was largely drawn from rural India. This is the case even with the Bombay Progressives and the Calcutta group during 1940s and 1950s.…”

“The New Figurative Art and Modern Art from 1980s Since the 1970s, many artists began to move towards the use of figures and stories that are easy to recognise. Perhaps, this was a way to express their concern towards social problems, following the Indo-Pakistan war in 1971 and the birth of Bangladesh. While K. G. Subramanyan, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh and Bhupen Khakar in Baroda started using storytelling in their paintings, Jogen Chowdhury, Bikash Bhattacharjee and Ganesh Pyne in West Bengal, too, painted the social problems that disturbed them.…”

“Santhal Family This is an open air large-scale sculpture created by Ramkinker Baij in 1937. It is made out of metal armature and cement mixed with pebbles, and placed in the compound of Kala Bhavana, Shantiniketan, India’s first national art school.…”