Modern art in India may have drawn some ideas from the West but it differed from it significantly. The fact that modernism as an art movement came to India when it was still a British colony is hard to deny. This is clear when we turn to artists like Gaganendranath, Amrita Sher-Gil and Jamini Roy, who began to be considered as modern during as early as 1930s. In the West, particularly in Europe, modern art came up when academic realism in art academies began to be rejected. These modern artists saw themselves as avant garde or at the frontier of change from tradition to modernity.

With the phenomenal development of technology after the Industrial Revolution, the traditional art that decorated churches and palaces lost its meaning. Early modern French artists like Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet and others saw themselves working outside the main art institutions. Cafes and restaurants became important places for artists, writers, film-makers and poets to meet and discuss about the role of art in modern life. In India, artists like F. N. Souza and J. Swaminathan, who rebelled against art institutions, identified themselves with these western artists. What made a big difference in the story of modern Indian art is that modernity and colonialism were closely connected.

What idea, related to art, was held by art historians like Ananda Coomaraswamy in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century?

Swadeshi in art

Answer: Swadeshi in art

With the phenomenal development of technology after the Industrial Revolution, the traditional art that decorated churches and palaces lost its meaning. Early modern French artists like Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet and others saw themselves working outside the main art institutions. Cafes and restaurants became important places for artists, writers, film-makers and poets to meet and discuss about the role of art in modern life. In India, artists like F. N. Souza and J. Swaminathan, who rebelled against art institutions, identified themselves with these western artists. What made a big difference in the story of modern Indian art is that modernity and colonialism were closely connected. Nationalism was not only a political movement that arose following the Indian Revolt of 1857 but it gave rise to cultural nationalism. Ideas like swadeshi in art were held by art historians like Ananda Coomaraswamy around the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It meant that we cannot understand Indian modernism as a blind imitation of the West but there was a careful process of selection carried out by the modern artists in India.