Seeing poverty around them, many young artists in Calcutta were drawn to Marxism. What did these artists want their art to talk about?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Class differences in society
Option (1) Human labour in nation building — Incorrect. The importance of human labour in nation building is what Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury’s bronze Triumph of Labour shows. It is not what these Calcutta artists wanted their art to talk about.
Option (2) Class differences in society — Correct. Marxism asked questions about class difference in society, and these artists wanted their art to talk about these social problems.
Option (3) Social unrest after liberalisation — Incorrect. Social unrest came with the liberalisation of the 1990s, when artists turned to new media. It does not belong to these Calcutta artists.
Option (4) Freedom from art school conventions — Incorrect. Questioning the conventions of art schools was the aim of Souza, leader of the Progressives in Bombay, not of these Calcutta artists.
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): “Modern Ideologies and Political Art in India …Seeing abject poverty around them and the plight of people in villages and cities, many young artists in Calcutta were drawn to socialism, especially Marxism. This modern philosophy, which was taught by Karl Marx in the mid–nineteenth century in the West, asked important questions about class difference in society and appealed to these artists. They wanted their art to talk about these social problems.…” |