NANDALAL BOSE (1882-1966)

Nandalal Bose and his oeuvre may be situated in the midst of and reflecting the trajectory of modern India's cultural development, submerged under colonial power and struggling for independence. A student and follower of Abanindranath and Rabindranath Tagore, like his teachers, Bose was drawn to the nonviolent Satyagraha (literally, "holding on to truth") freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, particularly during the 1930s until Independence in 1947.

In the spring of 1930, in a major act of nonviolent resistance, Gandhi and his followers walked to Dandi in order to make salt to protest against British salt tax. The British government arrested Gandhi for his historic twenty-three day march to the coastal village of Dandi and upon hearing this news of Gandhi's arrest Bose created this image of Gandhi - shown walking with a purposeful and powerful stride. Bose's talent for making an aesthetic statement with the simplest materials inspired Gandhi, who invited Bose to work on various exhibitions for Indian National Congress pertaining to the use of local material and political message. At one of the openings of a Congress session, Gandhi declared, "God has given me a sense of art, but not the organs to give it shape. He has blessed Nanda Babu with both." (K. G. Subramanyan, The Nandalal- Gandhi-Rabindranath Connection, Rhythms of India - The Art of Nandalal Bose, San Diego Museum of Art, 2008, p. 99).

Another version of this print is in the Collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.