Consider the subject matter of modern Indian painting and sculpture. In the 1940s and 1950s, even for the Bombay Progressives and the Calcutta Group, from where was this subject matter largely drawn?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → The life of rural India
Option (1) City and urban life — Incorrect. City and urban life rarely appeared in the works of Indian artists of this period.
Option (2) The life of rural India — Correct. The subject matter was largely drawn from rural India. Perhaps it was felt that real India lives in villages.
Option (3) Indian mythology and religious sources — Incorrect. M. F. Husain drew on these for his own art. They were not the main source for the artists of the period as a whole.
Option (4) The Ajanta frescoes and Mughal miniatures — Incorrect. These inspired Nandalal Bose and Asit Kumar Haldar at Kala Bhavana, in the earlier nationalist phase, not the groups of the 1940s and 1950s.
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): “…Artists like Nandalal Bose and Asit Kumar Haldar, students of Abanindranath Tagore, were inclined to draw inspiration from past traditions like the Ajanta frescoes, and Mughal, Rajasthani and Pahari miniature paintings, among others. … 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. City and urban life rarely appeared in works of Indian artists. Perhaps, it was felt that real India lives in villages.” |