During the Swadeshi movement, two Japanese artists who came to Calcutta with Kakuzo Okakura went to Shantiniketan to teach the wash technique of painting to Indian students. It was taught as an alternative to which of the following?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Western oil painting
Option (1) Western oil painting — Correct. The two Japanese artists taught the wash technique as an alternative to western oil painting.
Option (2) Company School painting — Incorrect. The Bengal School looked to Mughal and Pahari miniatures rather than the Company School of Painting. Wash is not named as its alternative.
Option (3) Cubist painting — Incorrect. Cubist style is seen in Gaganendranath Tagore’s paintings of building interiors, after modern European art reached India. It is not what wash replaced.
Option (4) Woodcut printmaking — Incorrect. Nandalal Bose used woodcuts to illustrate primers in Bengali. They are not linked to the wash technique.
NCERT (2026-27): “Pan-Asianism and Modernism …But following the Partition of Bengal in 1905, the Swadeshi movement was at its peak and it reflected in ideas about art. Ananda Coomaraswamy, an important art historian, wrote about Swadeshi in art and joined hands with a Japanese nationalist, Kakuzo Okakura, who was visiting Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta. He came to India with his ideas about pan-Asianism, by which he wanted to unite India with other eastern nations and fight against western imperialism. Two Japanese artists accompanied him to Calcutta, who went to Shantiniketan to teach wash technique of painting to Indian students as an alternative to western oil painting.” |