Q Do you think that the Bengal Famine of 1943 was a watershed in practices of visual arts

in India ?
Ans - Yes I do think that the Bengal Famine encouraged the various art societies of that time to
think about it. I would like to start my view with a quote by late artist Somnath Hore that he has
written in his book, “My Concept of Art”.
“ Quite unbeknownst to me, the wounds of the 1940s famine, the uncertainty of war, the horror
of communal riots of 1946- all that we were sinking themselves into the techniques of my
drawings – the helpless around us, the neglected and the hungry”.
The Bengal famine of 1943 – was between the two wars that nearly killed three million people.
The memories of the hunger lasted for several years which helped in coloring the expressions of
bunch of painters from Bengal who has some socialist affiliations also. Chittoprasad
Bhattacharya, Sunil Jena, Kamala Das Gupta and the members if Calcutta group which was back
then working as a progressive group of artists who used the human suffering of famine to
construct a new artistic language and have tried to preserve the manmade disaster in line
drawing, ink, sketches, water color and prese photographs for the record while being around the
fact that disasters and tragedies encourages creativity to push it’s limits in terms of visual
expressions.
While many Historian say that Bengal famine of 1943 was partially manmade – the world wars
had massive impact on shortage of food. A series of crop failures, natural disasters also had a
helping hand in this. Famine and politics were linked in Bengal and in the rest of the country as
well. In 1943-1944 Chittoprasad Bhattacharya met many artist on his famine coverage.
Chittoprasad was recording famine on his sketchpad and notebook in Midnapur. Chittoprasad
was bit inclined towards being journalistic in his pictorial documentation of the famine. The
famine touched the socialist painters alike. Chittoprsad studied at Chittagong Government
College and he was a self-taught artist. He joined Communist party of India and worked as an
artist for its publications till 1948. In 1943 he travelled through famine-affected Bengal, When he
made his series of black-and-white drawings of the starving and diseased victims that still shake
us by depiction of these human being who has suffered those conditions. In the late 1940s,
Chittoprasad dissociated himself from the party but his political involvement continued through
his cartoons. He died in Calcutta in 1978.
Another major character whose involvement in art reform was undeniable was Sunil Janah , A
Communist Party of India(CPI) photographer, he stated the colonial state and horrific life reality
of three million rural people in his documentary named “Portrayal of Bengal Famine”. Janah
took lessons on the role of photography, particularly on a form of visual journalism that could
educate millions for the purposes of political expediency keeping in mind the urgency of the
event and sense of crisis and despair. Janah creatively countered the colonial censorship to focus
on the evidence of state oppression during that period, Because Famine was a important
phenomenon in the history of India, a catastrophe with abnormal levels of distortion, hunger and
death it was called. Studied of subject related to Famine by British photographers shows that
Famine was treated as a natural phenomenon, Janah’s used affective technique to imply famine
as a product of British governmentality. One important point about Janah’s work was that he
never really focused much on technical and artistic aspects of his work style he was mainly
focused on subject. His photographic eye was very powerful. It didn’t matter what the subject or
genre was , he was just making a beautiful print. Sunil Janah described the famine‘s affect in
South India in 1945 together with American documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White
who worked for Life magazine. He captured the lives of modern India’s political leaders, its
diverse civil society- including animals and tribal societies. An interesting fact worth noting from
work with Margaret was that while taking a pictures of an Old person’s house the effect of light
was important in that picture because it was taken inside a dark house for that Margaret had
camera bulb but Janah didn’t so they took the picture at the same time so that light bulb can also
help Janah, this particular fact states two things- one that foreign journalist were also working
profoundly with Indian artists and the second is the Financial state of the artist society. They
were dedicated towards their aim of exposing the imperialism and it’s effect on Bengal Famine
while getting censored every now and then. Most of artist’ work that British Officials did not like
was banned and censored or blocked in some ways but people were motivated enough to
continue their part that was there to be played to get the message and news to the right people.
The coordinated work with foreign journalists came to it’s mean when foreign media started
looking this matter from the serious point because till now it was just a problem in India for
Outsiders. Interest of world powerhouse resulted in pressure that was slowly started building on
British empire. The work of Bengal School of Art ,the immense effort of members of Calcutta
Group came to justice when people started taking interest in Bengal Famine with suspicious eye
towards British Government. The working situation of artist was different this time around it
was a encouraging step for them the challenges were different ,problems were different. The
British officials tried to suppressed every rising voice and burnt every printed paper that has
written anything against them.
The result of all these was that the authorities were stunned, and suppressed every voice almost
instantly, destroying copies in large numbers. Whatever was left did not noticed much for quite
some time, but later it got immense significance as the drawing had that rare mix of art.
A transition in the work of artists could be seen after the 1942-43. Because it made them to
responds suffering of affected people. During this time artists adopted various themes and
worked on them in their respective way. It shows that how style underwent transition with strong
brushstrokes and solid body of pigment, Which was quite different from the wash technique
they previously used.