The Progressives was a group of young artists formed in 1946. Conside…

The Progressives was a group of young artists formed in 1946. Consider the following statements about this group.

(A) The group was formed in Calcutta.
(B) Francis Newton Souza was the outspoken leader of the group.
(C) The group included M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara and S. H. Raza.
(D) Souza wanted to question the conventions that had prevailed in art schools.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

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

(A) The group was formed in Calcutta — Incorrect. The Progressives was formed in Bombay. The group formed in Calcutta, in 1943, was the Calcutta Group.
(B) Francis Newton Souza was the outspoken leader of the group — Correct. Souza was its outspoken leader.
(C) The group included M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara and S. H. Raza — Correct. These three were members, along with S. A. Bakre and H. A. Gade.
(D) Souza wanted to question the conventions that had prevailed in art schools — Correct. For Souza, modern art stood for a new freedom that could challenge the traditional sense of beauty and morality.

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): “The Progressive Artists’ Group of Bombay and the Multifaceted Indian Art The desire for freedom — political, as well as, artistic — soon spread widely among young artists, who witnessed Independence from the British Raj. In Bombay, another set of artists formed a group, called The Progressives in 1946. Francis Newton Souza was the outspoken leader of the group, which included M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara, S. A. Bakre, H. A. Gade and S. H. Raza. Souza wanted to question the conventions that had prevailed in art schools. For him, modern art stood for a new freedom that could challenge the traditional sense of beauty and morality.…”

The Progressives was a group of young artists formed in 1946. Consider the following statements about this group.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

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

(A) The group was formed in Calcutta — Incorrect. The Progressives was formed in Bombay. The group formed in Calcutta, in 1943, was the Calcutta Group.
(B) Francis Newton Souza was the outspoken leader of the group — Correct. Souza was its outspoken leader.
(C) The group included M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara and S. H. Raza — Correct. These three were members, along with S. A. Bakre and H. A. Gade.
(D) Souza wanted to question the conventions that had prevailed in art schools — Correct. For Souza, modern art stood for a new freedom that could challenge the traditional sense of beauty and morality.