essay on progressive india

The Bombay Progressives: Breaking New Ground at the Dawn of India’s Independence

Witness the radical shift in visual language that coincided with the historic events of 1947, through the paintings of the bombay progressive artists in the kerala museum.

By Kerala Museum

Progressive Artists Group at their first exhibition Kerala Museum

The Bombay Progressives

The year of Indian independence, 1947, also marked the formation of the  Progressive Artists Group (PAG) in Bombay. FN Souza, HA Gade and others were founder members. Their first formal exhibition was at Bombay Art Society's Salon, then located at Rampart Row in 1949.  These young artists had leftist leanings and were impressed by the new art movements such as Cubism and Expressionism in post-war Europe. They rejected the historicism of the Bengal School and set out to develop a new modern visual language for independent India. They experimented with form and colour, and many veered towards abstract art.  Most of the Progressive Artists Group artworks in the Kerala Museum collection are from the later phase of these artists' careers. They are excellent examples of the iconic styles that these artists are celebrated for.

Although the group lasted only a year (it was disbanded in the 1950s), each member of the Progressive Artists Group went on to stellar international careers. They continue to be among the most recognised Indian artists to this day. This photograph is of the Progressives' first formal exhibition at the Bombay Art Society's Bombay Art Salon. From left to right: MF Husain, FN Souza, SK Bakre, KH Ara, SH Raza, and HA Gade.

Untitled (1989) by Francis Newton Souza Kerala Museum

Labelled as the 'angry young man of Indian art', Souza was expelled from college for creating 'obscene' graffiti and later from JJ School of Art in Bombay for participating in the Quit India Movement.  A founding member of the Progressive Artists Group, Souza's paintings were commentaries on religion, human relationships and society.

Memoir (Revisit) by Murali Cheeroth at Kerala Museum - Part I Kerala Museum

Watch artist Murali Cheeroth speak about reactions to the idea of acquiring a Souza work for Kerala Museum.

Untitled (1975) by Francis Newton Souza Kerala Museum

Souza is famous for his figurative work - often distorted, aggressive and sexualised, full of passionate energy. Also an articulate writer, Souza wrote the Progressive Artists Group's manifesto and many acclaimed essays after his move to London in 1949.

Faces (1978) by Maqbool Fida Husain Kerala Museum

Maqbool Fida Husain

MF Husain is perhaps one of India's most recognised artists, both in India and internationally. Largely self-taught, he started his career in Bombay painting cinema posters and designing furniture and toys. He arrived with a bang on the Indian art scene after joining Progressive Artists Group.  His artistic output was immense and varied and included paintings, prints and films. Husain's vibrant works celebrated all things India, and he drew inspiration from various sources, including Indian mythology and history, nature and urban spaces. Some of his later works drew harsh criticism from conservative groups in India, and he had to spend the last years in exile in Doha and London.

Varanasi (1988) by Maqbool Fida Husain Kerala Museum

In 1973, Husain executed a series of black and white serigraphs capturing the essence of India's spiritual centre: the ancient city of Varanasi. The serigraph in the Kerala Museum depicts women bathing at Varanasi, probably in the River Ganga.

Untitled (1989) by Hari Ambadas Gade Kerala Museum

Hari Ambadas Gade

Hari Ambadas Gade was one of India's earliest abstract expressionist painters. His paintings mainly consisted of landscapes, rural scenes and still life. Gade used watercolours extensively in the early stage of his career before switching to oils on canvas.

Gade uses lines sparingly to depict daily life in this idyllic rural scene. Interestingly, his subjects are scattered around the edges of the work, and the centre remains devoid of detail.

In the foreground, a woman in a red and yellow saree works an instrument at the well, probably to gather water to fill the pot next to her.

Next to her, a bull drinks from a trough…

...and a dog watches them both from the corner.

A turbaned man, probably a barber, sits with two others on the stairs of a house.

His neighbour walks towards the open door of her house carrying a pot of water.

Still Life (1967) by Hari Ambadas Gade Kerala Museum

In Gade's later works, forms were reduced to minimalist shapes and lines. In this work, geometric forms are overlaid to convey a dense cluster of structures.

Rear View (1991) by Krishen Khanna Kerala Museum

Krishen Khanna

Krishen Khanna was working in a bank in Bombay when he was invited to show his works alongside the Progressive Artists Group artists by MF Husain in 1949.  Born in Lyallpur (now in Pakistan), he trained to be an artist in Lahore and London, migrating to India during Partition.  Khanna's works are primarily figurative, and he draws on everyday, myth and memory for subjects. This work, 'Rear View,' was probably made specifically for the Kerala Museum.

Khanna's 'Rear View' series depicts the condition of rural migrant labourers he saw in Delhi. The figures in these paintings are often executed in grim greys and browns indicative of the dust that covers them at the end of a hard day.

These anonymous men are usually depicted seated in the back of trucks or huddled together, looking away from the viewer.

In this painting, these labourers seem to be walking away into the evening, over discarded sacks they have around every day.

Boy Eating Watermelon by Krishen Khanna Kerala Museum

This work is a part of a series depicting children eating fruits. Its bright colours and playful subject are evocative of the simple pleasures of childhood.

Untitled (1992) by Akbar Padamsee Kerala Museum

Akbar Padamsee

Akbar Padamsee was a student at Bombay's influential Sir J.J. School of Art when the Progressive Artists Group was formed. He later exhibited his works with the other artists of the group.  Padamsee's works are experiments with form and colour. His intellectual exploration of the self and the nature of art has significantly influenced his works.  Padamsee spends long periods exploring specific styles and themes – for example, he devoted a year in the 1950s to painting only in grey. He works with a range of mediums, from oils on canvas to computer graphics and films.

Untitled (1992) by Ram Kumar Kerala Museum

Ram Kumar is one of India's foremost abstract painters. He started his career painting figures of dispossessed labourers in grim urban landscapes.

Untitled (1991) by Ram Kumar Kerala Museum

A visit to Varanasi in the 1960s with MF Husain turned out to be a pivotal moment in Ram Kumar's artistic journey. Inspired by the city's spirituality, terrain and structures, he started painting increasingly abstract landscapes. He began to reflect on the impact of human habitation upon nature. As we can see in this painting, the human figure was to disappear from his canvas eventually.

Exhibit Curation : Supriya Menon Content Editors : Arundhathy Nayar, Aditi Nayar, Jyothi Elza George & Gopika Krishnan Malayalam Translator : Geeta Nayar Video : Memoir (Revisited), by artist Murali Cheeroth, created for the inauguration of the exhibition Collecting the Artist: The Madhavan Nayar Collection . This project received support from the India Foundation for the Arts under the Archival and Museums Fellowship Initiative, with support from the Tata Trusts. Video recording and editing by Sooraj and Jose Mohan. Photo of the Progressive Artists Group courtesy DAG Modern.

Diversity & Individuality: Experiments in 1960s Calcutta

Kerala museum, the emergence of indian modernism: santiniketan and the bengal school, rhythm, flow and line: where dance and painting meet, from some, for all: pioneers of print making in india, eyes, windows into the soul: the maya of sanat kar, rama varma, artist thampuran, travancore painters: within and beyond the court, flying horses, sleepy tigers and colossal crows: objects of admiration and allegory, women artists in the kerala museum collection.

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The Progressive Artists' Group And Its Impact on Indian Modern Art

• April 24, 2017
• by Artisera Editorial

A collective of some of the most iconic artists of India, the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG), formed in 1947 in Bombay, transformed the modern art scenario of the country. The founding members were rightly referred to as ‘heralds of a new dawn in the world of Indian art’ by celebrated author Mulk Raj Anand. They challenged the conservative artistic establishments of their times, and espoused a worldly mindset. The result was a beautiful synthesis of Indian art history with modernist styles such as post-impressionism, cubism and expressionism.

The Impetus

The PAG (initially comprising F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara, H. A. Gade, and S. K. Bakre) came into being sometime after August 14, 1947 when the partition of India wreaked havoc on humanity, with many losing their lives or being dislocated. The partition is believed to have sowed the seed among the founding members to set new standards in the country, beginning with art.

Challenging the conservative art establishment of their times, the members desired to break away from the revivalist nationalism formed by the Bengal School of Art, and instead, promote a progressive style that was on par with international developments. The basic principle was to come out of the colonial hangover, and espouse a worldly mindset.

How It All Began

Consumed by their desire to transform the art establishment of their times, Souza, Raza, Ara and critic Rashid Husain got together on December 5, 1947. They expressed their disillusionment with the state of the judging process at exhibitions. By setting up a judging committee, they wished to do away with the arbitrary selection process, and bring in greater transparency where emerging talents could get a fair platform to showcase their work.

Raza, Souza, Ara and Bakre (convinced by Ara) had already made up their mind earlier to showcase their work together. Souza roped in Husain, and Raza initiated Gade into the world of PAG and thus, the group came into being. They initially choose to stick to six members to avert stylistic scramble.

Later, however, PAG did expand, and revered artists such as Manishi Dey, Ram Kumar and Tyeb Mehta became associated with the group. By 1950, Krishen Khanna, Mohan Samant and V.S. Gaitonde joined the bandwagon as well. And while the venerated artist Akbar Padamsee was never an official member of the PAG, he established a lifelong bond with its members.

Varied Styles

It is hard to club the vast body of work produced by the Progressive Artists’ Group under one category, as each artist was influenced by different movements and styles, and had a unique artistic approach and temper. The PAG members often merged Indian themes and imagery with western artistic techniques such as European modernism, post-impressionism, cubism and expressionism.

While K.H. Ara created striking watercolour and gouache paintings that resembled folk and native tribal art styles, F.N. Souza showcased an unconventional distortion of form and interestingly merged Goan folk art with western styles such as cubism. In contrast, H.A. Gade, is considered among the first abstract painters of post-independent India, who often painted themes related to landscapes.

Perhaps the most recognized members of the PAG today, are S.H. Raza and M.F. Husain. A groundbreaking artist, Raza brought into his works the fluidity of Indian watercolour paintings. He mastered several forms, initially adopting an expressionistic style depicting lyrical landscapes, later moving towards an abstract style showcasing strong influences of geometric forms.

M.F. Husain rendered a beautiful melange of folk art, tribal art and mythology, and was responsible for bringing to the country the most authentic flavor of cubism through his works, that often had resonances of symbolism as well.

The only sculptor cum painter in the group, Sadanand Bakre became renowned for introducing independent imagery in Indian art that differed from the traditional style of employing realism. His works were marked by their sensitive modelling, and distinct expression.

The Decline of the PAG

By 1951, three of the key members of PAG moved abroad. Souza and Bakre departed for London, whereas Raza moved to Paris. Husain too began shuttling between Mumbai and Delhi. As a result, the group no longer functioned together, and the focus shifted to their individual work. After periodic exhibitions, the group dismembered sometime around 1956. The artists continued on their own accord, creating powerful works. One of the members, Gade even went on to create a group of his own, named Bombay Group of Artists, in the late 1950s.

Though short-lived, PAG had an immense bearing on the modern art scene of India. The ethos and works produced by members of the PAG, still reverberate in today’s art world. 

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Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: 75 Years of Progressive India

• August 17, 2022

Anil Trigunayat

75 years of free India are replete with stupendous achievements. These become more remarkable because the country had to make a ‘Tryst with Destiny’ bringing out an exploited 1/6 th  of the humanity from the vagaries of the colonial yoke.

The major challenges at the time of independence in 1947 included socio-economic development and nation-building through education and industrial development, eradication of poverty, and food self-sufficiency in a drought-hit era with a divided nation by the colonial masters who were forced to lift their colonial shackles by the Gandhian non-violent movements.

This was even more difficult as the world was divided into Cold War adversaries and bloc politics which India could not have subscribed to. Hence, India not only stood and helped in the emancipation of a large number of colonised countries but also created a third way with a more equitable force in the form of NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) to serve national interest and cause of peace and development, especially for the developing and underdeveloped world. It became a champion for the rights of oppressed people at the international fora while discharging its obligations as a responsible international actor and a voice of reason. 

India, before the advent of the colonial powers, contributed to over a quarter of the global GDP which went down to less than 4% when they left with her industry decimated and an administrative system that was geared to serve the interests of the colonial masters.

In the last over seven decades, India has engineered Green, Yellow and White Revolutions with continuous upgradation in technology in the agricultural and food processing areas not only to meet the demand of a burgeoning population but has also emerged as a net exporter and helper to the world. India has also emerged as credible nuclear and space power in the world- the tools it intends to employ for the global good.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while speaking at the inaugural of curtain raiser activities of the  Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav  reiterated and reaffirmed that “We are proud of our Constitution. We are proud of our democratic traditions. The mother of democracy, India is still moving forward by strengthening democracy. India, rich in knowledge and science, is leaving its mark from Mars to the Moon. Today, India’s startup ecosystem has become a centre of attraction in the world.

Today, India is moving out of the darkness of scarcity to meet the aspirations of more than 130 crores (1.3 bn) people.” India has the largest young aspirational population and the fastest growing market economy which is ready to cater to the needs of teeming billion-plus people who take pride in the Indian story. 

As a result of umpteen initiatives by the present government, hundreds of archaic laws have been dispensed with. India‘s global ranking for DBI (Doing Business with India) has moved up significantly even as more needs to be done. India has become a favourite investment destination garnering the highest annual FDI inflow of $83.57 billion in FY21-22 despite the Pandemic.

Computer Software and Hardware became the top recipient sector of FDI Equity inflow with a share of around 25% which indicates that India figures prominently for the investors as the AI-driven Industrial Revolution 4.0 moves to a higher orbit. India also boasts of fast growth in billionaire Unicorns globally. Moreover, the FDI equity inflows in Manufacturing rose by 76% in FY 2021-22 well supported by the Indian policy framework and ‘Make in India’  and PLI ( Performance Linked Initiative) schemes. This is a remarkable achievement and a testament to Indian economic and political resilience. 

Likewise, for the first time, Indian exports of goods and services reached over $600 billion in 2021-22 despite the global problems and supply constraints due to the pandemic and the ongoing Eurasian war. India has always been a trading nation and is working hard to reclaim that status yet again. Along with this, India is also focusing on self-reliance with a global footprint – ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, especially in the manufacturing sector and to be an integral part of alternate value and supply chains that are resilient and reliable for the national interest and the global good.

In this context, India’s participation in the I2U2, Quad, Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and other regional and sub-regional connectivity-oriented frameworks acquires a renewed salience and focus. Likewise, vigorous move to expeditiously implement INSTC (North-South Transport corridor), strategic connectivity projects like Chabahar in Iran to Afghanistan to Central Asia and Europe or North-Eastern India to ASEAN corridors aim at providing crucial trade and economic linkages for India’s centrality in global supply chains.

As India wishes to lead through the AI-driven Industrial revolution 4.0, its Digital India, Innovate, Start Up and Stand Up India campaigns have become the hallmark of a unique digital footprint. Some initiatives like access to the internet, banking at the doorstep and direct payment into accounts to nearly a billion Indians are the game changer and are providing the leadership position to India in the comity of nations. PM Modi recently, while speaking at the inaugural of the first bullion exchange, claimed that India already accounts for 40% of global digital payments. 

India’s foreign policy has become more robust and confident with impeccable credentials as the country pursues a value-based foreign policy clearly driven by strategic autonomy to subserve her own national interests which are aligned with the global welfare and has emerged as a voice of reason at the global stage. India at the UNSC no longer pleads for a place on the horseshoe table but claims it on the basis of her credentials. Meanwhile, India continues to play the global leadership role as a voice of the developing and underdeveloped countries be it for the waiver of Intellectual Property Rights for Vaccines or at the WTO negotiations on fishing and agriculture and on the reforms for the multilateral institutions. 

India is also at the forefront of the fight against Climate Change. The International Solar Alliance (ISA), Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and ‘One Planet One Health’ are the initiatives that India has launched with and for the global community as it has emerged as a first responder in crisis situations from natural disasters to the pandemic.

With a clear focus on multilateralism and primacy of the UN Charter, India navigates her foreign and security policy with dignity and confidence as she engages with diverse partners across various groupings like the Quad, BRICS, SCO, G20 and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) where India becomes a pivot. Her Neighbourhood First, Act East and Link West and Africa for Africans policies provide her with the effective fulcrum for mutually beneficial partnerships.

India’s capacity-building assistance under the ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) to over 160 countries and supply of essential medicines, medical supplies and deputing professionals and paramedics during the pandemic have given it unparalleled heft as a responsible global-centric power always rising to the occasion. India has emerged as a first responder during the crises with the ‘Share and Care’ attitude, immensely adding to its Soft Power which has translated into unprecedented support for India at the international fora including at the declaration of June 21 as the International Yoga Day. 

As a new global order emerges out of the current churn and transition, India is all set to take up a benign leadership role during the ‘ Amrit Kaal ’ – next 25 years with a strong polity, stronger economy and efficient foreign policy which is robust, resilient and result oriented and with the global good at the core. 

This article was first published in The Australia Today as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: 75 Years of Progressive India on 14 August 2022.

Read more by Anil Trigunayat here:

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Joe Biden’s Middle Eastern Safari | 18 July 2022

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The Afghan Crisis | 28 June 2022

India-UAE: The FTA Harvest | 23 June 2022

Two years after Galwan Clash | 19 June 2022

Calming West Asia | 16 June 2022

Quadization of the Indo-Pacific | 5 June 2022

भारत में आतंकवाद की बढ़ती चुनौतियां | 26 May 2022

Stronger India- EU Ties | 19 May 2022

India’s China challenge | 16 May 2022

Pakistan’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and UAE | 12 May 2022

The Government and Media building Brand BIMSTEC | 9 May 2022

Rapprochement in West Asia needs to move forward | 5 May 2022

West’s foreign policy exposes hypocrisy, double-standards | 19 April 2022

India-USA: 2+2 Could be 5 | 17 April 2022

Pakistan’s Democracy Dance | 15 April 2022

Ukraine-Russian Conflict and its Impact on West Asia | 31 March 2022

India’s Stance on Global Issues | 27 March 2022

Youtube- Watch Anil Trigunayat at IMPRI #WebPolicyTalk as part of the panel discussion on the topic  Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Implications for India and Emerging Geopolitics

About the Author

Anil Trigunayat ,  former Indian Ambassador to Jordan, Libya, and Malta; Distinguished Fellow and Head of the West Asia Experts Group at the Vivekananda International Foundation

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“We do not need acts, but action” says Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his promise to the nation to make it a superpower and create a landmark by the year 2022, the 75th year of independence for India.

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The Progressive Artists Group

Post-Independence India was a new revolution in India’s history. As the struggle for freedom was finally achieved, new mindsets were formed. The new free India respected and worshiped humanity at its best along with promoting freedom of expression. At this point, a group of supreme artists came together who shared a common art type: modern art for the new free India and called themselves the Bombay Progressives Art Group!

They intended to " paint with absolute freedom for content and technique, almost anarchic, save that we are governed by one or two sound elemental and eternal laws, of aesthetic order, plastic co-ordination and color composition ." [3]

An Introduction to The Progressive Artists Group

The Progressive Artists Group was formed in 1947 by F.N Souza, S.H Raza, M.F Husain, K.H Ara, H.A Gade, and S.K Bakre. Notable artists like Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Bhanu Athaiya, Krishen Khanna, and Mohan Samant also joined the group later. Since the group was formed in Bombay it is often referred to as the Bombay Progressive Artists Group. All the six founding members hailed from different parts of the country with each one’s journey being completely different from the other but the only aspect that united them was their skill of painting and more than that a determination to break through traditional art rigidness and explore new art forms. 

This powerful team of six wanted to pass on art forms that were forced upon during the British Raj. This included:

Academic Art: a painting style influenced by European Academies of Art featuring movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism.

The Bengal School of Art also known as ‘The Indian Style of Painting’: an art movement of the early 20th century inspired by Indian nationalism. It was led and promoted by Abanindranath Tagore and British arts administrators. Artworks of this form took inspiration from Mughal art, Indian spirituality, and rejected materialism. F.N Souza criticized the Bengal School of Art paintings as ‘sentimental pictures’ for the nostalgic gouaches of pining damsels (ref: The Progressive Revolution, Page 17).

Art for the Progressives rejected these traditional art forms and believed in experimentation for new art types, the most popular being abstraction which was never seen before. They wanted to associate not only with art in India but also at an international level. As every member of the group hailed from their different life type each one of them was influenced by modernism in their way. For F.N Souza it was Expressionism whereas for Vasudeo S. Gaitonde it was abstract art and for M.F Husain it was influenced by his posters.

Anything new especially something that is against the traditions and society norms is difficult to establish. This was also the case with Modern Art and members of the Progressive Artists Group faced harsh criticism for their art. Souza was criticized for his erotic paintings (especially a painting in his early exhibition in which he painted full length nude of himself), Akbar Padamsee was taken to court.

Despite these criticisms’ members of the Progressive Artists Group continued their movement and traveled from all parts of Bombay to meet up at Chetna restaurant, Bombay Art Society, Marine Drive, and Rampart Row to discuss their art. S.H Raza describes their meetings as:

“ What we had in common besides our youth and lack of means was that we hoped for a better understanding of art. We had a sense of searching and we fought the material world. There was at our meetings and discussions a great fraternal feeling, certain warmth, and a lively exchange of ideas. We criticized each other's work as surely as we eulogized it. This was a period when there was no modern art in our country and a period of artistic confusion ” (ref: The Progressive Artists Group, Pg 30)

Each member had its unique journey exploring modern art. In this blog, we highlight the artistic journeys of the founding members. Souza and Raza left India in the late 1950s, followed by S.K. Bakre also leaving the group which ultimately led to the group being dissolved in 1956.

Ebrahim Alkazi: A Significant Supporter and Promoter of the Progressive Artists Group

Ebrahim Alkazi and his wife Roshen Padamsee were significantly responsible for promoting many members of the Progressive Artists Group not only in India but also at an international level. Apart from Alzaki; Mulkraj Anand, Walter Langhammer, Emmanuel Schlesinger, Rudi Von Leyden, and Kekoo Gandhy were also active as collectors.

Alkazi strongly believed that modern art in India needed to be fuelled by international exposures. New ideas were the need of the hour. 

Alkazi established himself as a theatre director making plays inspired from the West along with being tweaked to have Indian viewpoints. Loving the work of members of the Progressive Artists Group, Alzaki was friendly to most of them. He invited M.F Husain to design the sets and costumes (for example half masks in Alkazi’s production of T.S Eliot’s Murder in The Cathedral) of his plays to showcase both Greek and Indian realism.

Alkazi also launched a monthly arts publication called the Theatre Group Bulletin to promote the emerging art scenario in India. He paid specific attention to works of The Progressive Artists by putting them on the cover page, encouraging writers to review their painting, mentioning their awards and invitations they received to go abroad. This helped the Progressive Artists Group gain popularity not only in India but also among Theatre Group Bullentin’s international subscribers.

Francis Newton Souza

“I do not believe that a true artist paints for coteries or for the proletariat. I believe with all my soul that he paints solely for himself. I made my art a metabolism; I express myself freely in paint in order to exist. I paint what I want, what I like, what I feel.”

F. N. Souza, Words and Lines

This quote by F.N. Souza pretty much sums up his belief as a true member of the Progressive Artists Group. Very boldly, he breaks through stereotypes of paintings made to please the viewers. His art is a way to stress out and enjoy what he loves the most: the freedom to paint whatever he feels like.   

Souza was born in Goa to Roman Catholic parents. His birthplace Goa inspired a lot of his paintings until he left for London. He often painted Roman Catholic households showcasing their beautifully maintained gardens and trees, Churches, and his perception of spirituality.

When he moved to Bombay, he joined JJ School of Arts. In 1947 he was expelled from his college for participation in the Quit India Movement. From the shift of Goa's scenic beauty to Bombay city hustle-bustle his paintings in the 1940s depicted scenes from Bombay. Soon his paintings started featuring various scenes and inspirations from different parts of India, for example, South Indian bronzes and erotic designs portrayed in the Khajuraho temples of Madhya Pradesh. Souza was often criticized for eroticism in his works of art. When he formed the Progressive Artists Group in Bombay he aimed to promote international avant-garde art in India and explore as much of art as he can. 

Art historian Yashodhara Dalmia describes him as:

" At the heart of Souza's creativity was the belief that society's destructive aspects shouldn't be suppressed, they should be aired and confronted. Be it the hypocrisy of the church, the corruption of the upper classes, or the repression of sexuality in a country that has a Khajuraho , he was uncovering the underbelly of existence. ”

When Souza moved to London he worked as a journalist side by to make a living. He wrote an autobiographical essay in Stephen Spender's Encounter Magazine and that is when Spender introduced him to the owner and art collector of Gallery One. That was his turning point! Souza's 1955 exhibit of paintings was sold out!

Sayed Haider Raza

S.H. Raza another co-founder of the Progressive Artists Group hailed from Madhya Pradesh and in 1950 moved to France to explore his career as an artist. He is significantly known for the projection of Indian ethnographic concepts like Bindu, Purush Prakriti, and Nari in his geometric abstract art pieces. Raza bagged various awards and recognitions like Padma Shri, Fellowship of The Lalit Kala, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Prix de la critique for his path-breaking journey as an artist. He has studied at Nagpur School of Art followed by J.J School of Arts in Bombay and further at École Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts  (ENSB-A) in  Paris .

During the partition of India and Pakistan Raza's brothers and sisters migrated to Pakistan but Raza chose to be in India.

Krishen Khanna during the Gallery Cruz exhibit in Paris describes Raza’s artistic style as being the most unique one:

“ Souza and Padamsee painted in a quasi-modern fashion. Raza, however, made a throwback to the Mughal period, creating jewel-like watercolors, with the pigment rubbed in with a shell. He was vastly successful and acquired by important collectors. "

Raza experimented with Western Modernism, Expressionism, Abstract art, and Tantrism. His most famous works highlighted landscapes in the 1944 exhibit which was admired by critics as 'juicer' and 'delightful'. His greatest contribution to the Progressive Artists Group was rejecting naturalistic ways of painting landscapes and adopting new art forms to depict nature's beauty.

Krishnaji Howlaji Ara

K.H. Ara fled away from his birthplace Hyderabad and came to Bombay where he took up a job of a houseboy for an English family. In his leisure time, he explored his hobby for painting which he didn't realize was a great talent until it caught the attention of Times of India art critic Rudy Voh Leyden and later Walter Langhammer who was so impressed that he enrolled Ara in J.J School of Arts to sharpen his skill.

Ara was the first contemporary artist to use female nudes as his subject. However, his painting of female nudes has been criticized as being not accurate and a false depiction by several critics. Just like other members of the Progressive Artists Group, Ara experimented not only with the subject of his art but also with his artistic style. His most celebrated artistic style was the impasto effect where he used a thin pigmentation to highlight his paintings. Ara rose to fame when he won the Governor’s prize at Bombay Art Society in 1944 for his painting ’Two Jugs’.

Hari Ambadas Gade

Hari Ambadas Gade was famous for his mastery in colors. Most of his works included landscape paintings that were brought to life with watercolors followed by his later techniques of oil paintings. He came in the limelight with two of his paintings: ‘Narrow Lane’ and ‘Fountain Jubbalpore’ displayed in the 1947 exhibition of Bombay Art Society. These landscape paintings were praised for their emotional understanding of colors and for being in a hand to hand relation with Raza's landscapes. Unlike other members of the Progressive Artists Group, Gade had a strong educational background holding a degree in Science and Mathematics from Nagpur University followed by a diploma from J.J School of Art. His paintings reflect his knowledge of science with geometrically designed landscapes which also relate to the art of cubism.

Gade won a gold medal at the Bombay Art Society in 1956 for his avant-garde style of landscape artwork.

Sadanand Bakre

Sadanand Bakre was the only sculptor of the Progressive Artists Group. His friendship with Ara encouraged him to be part of the Progressive Artists Group founders’ team.

Bakre was born in Baroda and started working under sculptor Raghunath Phadke from his early teenage years. Mastering the art of sculpting, Bakre was always inclined towards exploring painting but did not have the funds to pursue a painting course or buy the materials.

Image Via: Sotheby's

After reading about modernism, Bakre was inspired to try out distinctive styles of both painting and sculpting. Bakre’s artworks were extremely unique as he portrayed the subject sharply rather than focusing on its features or structure. He was also praised for his accurate sense of color combinations.

He returned to India in 1975 and later lived a solitary life. Bakre also won a lifetime achievement award from the Bombay Art Society in 2004.

M.F. Husain

Maqbool Fida Husain is one of the most renowned pioneers in the history of Indian art and also a significant founding member of the Progressive Artists Group. 

Partition of India and Pakistan and the idea of a secular India had a huge impact on his paintings and he strongly believed that a new modern art should prevail as the nation celebrates freedom.

He quotes "When the British ruled, we were taught to draw a figure with the proportions from Greek and Roman sculpture … That was what I thought was wrong…the walk of a European is erect and archaic .”

Husain believed that India no longer needed the influence of the Western culture and that Indian history and the religion of Hinduism already has a lot to inspire from. He believed that modern Indian art should follow the concept of 'Indianness' and should be recognized by the people on the streets of India.

Husain also took inspiration from strong pillars of India like Mother Terresa and Indra Gandhi for his paintings. His painting of a nude Bharat  Mata was heavily criticized following right-wing organizations to file an arrest on him for hurting religious and political sentiments.

The group which was founded in 1947, disbanded around the mid-1950s. Three group shows are recorded - 1949, 1950, and in 1953. The group disbanded as most of the founding members went overseas.

"It is a sad commentary on the cultural situation in our country and the level of art criticism. Our most creative talents in the field of art, music, and literature have had to turn to other countries through frustration and lack of recognition in their homeland. Just a few years ago three of our most eminent painters, namely Padamsee, Raza and Souza were almost hounded out of the country, not only through lack of appreciation but also through ignorant and inept attacks by the public and the press. These same painters have not only won recognition for contemporary Indian art abroad but have also carried away awards in international competitions." [1]

References:

[1] The Progressive Revolution: Modern Art For a New India edited by Zehra Jumabhoy and Boon Hui

[2]  M.F Husain’s Modern India by Bowdoin Journal of Art

[3] The Progressive Artist Group - by Rudra Majithia

[4] Bindu Period by Gayatri Sinha, India Today, 8/8/2016

[5] God, sex & Souza by Neelam Raj, Times News Network, 5/5/2010

[6] Francis Newton Souza- Enfant Terrible of Modern Art  by Neha Berlia

[7] Wikipedia

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As a rising global power, what is India’s vision for the world?

India has the opportunity to put in place a new framework for its own security and growth, and that of developing countries around the world. Image:  REUTERS

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Seventy-one years ago – on 15 August 1947 – India gained independence. Over the subsequent decades, the country has managed its evolution in an international system largely created and guided by the United States and its partners. While it was not easy for India to pursue independent domestic and foreign policies within this system, the American-led order was preferable to the British Empire from which New Delhi had liberated itself.

Today, this global system is under serious threat. Washington, along with capital cities across the European Union, finds itself caught in a polarizing debate on the social contracts of its society – questions of domestic inequality and identity have left the US and its allies incapable of effectively championing the values of the international order. Simultaneously, the balance of global economic power has once again tipped in favour of Asia.

Within this shifting global landscape, India has the opportunity to put in place a new framework for its own security, growth and development, and that of developing countries around the world. As a rising global power, this must be India’s principle endeavor in the coming decades.

The changing international order

The extraordinary rise of countries in Asia has spawned at least two new dynamics. First, political boundaries – many of them colonial legacies – are steadily becoming more porous through economic cooperation. Markets are converging across the Eurasian landmass as well as facilitating the geo-economic “union” of the Indian and Pacific oceans. This has resulted in new integrative dynamics; as cultures, markets and communities aspire for development and new opportunities. Second, even though territorial considerations acknowledge economic linkages, political differences are still being reasserted – not just to contest the consensus of the past, but to shape a new order altogether.

Asia is coming together economically but is also threatening to grow apart politically; market-driven growth in the region sits uneasily with a diverse array of political systems.

China is, in large part, responsible for both. While offering a political vision that stands in sharp contrast to the “liberal international order”, China has been equally assertive about advancing free trade, raising new development finance, and offering a new model for development and global governance. The prospect of China using its economic clout to advance its own norms is worrying for India.

A consensus to shape a new order

Given the velocity of change underway, the challenge for India on its Independence Day is to shape an inclusive and equitable international order by the centenary of its independence. To achieve this, India must prepare to act according to its capabilities: by mid-century it must build the necessary state capacity, industrial and economic heft and strategic culture that would befit its status as a leading power. The country could present this as a model for much of the developing world to emulate, and anchor faith in the liberalism and internationalism of the world order.

India, then, requires a “consensus” – a new proposition that will not only guide its own trajectory for the better part of the 21st century, but one that appeals to communities around the world.

What then are the tenets of a “New Delhi Consensus”?

First, India must sustain and strengthen its own trajectory of rapid economic growth, and show to the world that it is capable of realizing its development goals within the rubric of liberal democracy. No argument for the New Delhi Consensus can be more powerful and alluring than the economic success of India. By IMF estimates, India already accounts for 15% of global growth. Even though nearly 40% of its population live in various shades of poverty and barely a third are connected to the internet, India is still able to proportionately shoulder the world’s economic burden. Imagine the possibilities for global growth if India can meet, and even exceed, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

States in the developing world yearn for replicable templates of growth, yet they find themselves with a binary choice between Western democracy, which is ill suited for deeply plural and socially stratified societies, and autocratic systems that have little room for individual freedom.

India, on the other hand has “emerged as a bridge between the many extremes of the world”, as former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once remarked . India’s plural and composite culture, he said, was “living proof of the possibility of a confluence of civilizations”. The global 2030 development agenda, for the most part, may as well be a story of India’s domestic economic transformation and of its defence of diversity and democracy.

Second and flowing from the above, Delhi must claim leadership over the global development agenda. It is worth pointing out that India sits at the intersection of the world’s two most dynamics regions, Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific. The largest bulk of development finance will emerge from, and be invested in, these regions. It is incumbent on India to ensure that this is not a new means to maximize political interference, but a moment to offer unfettered opportunities.

In his recent address to the Ugandan Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed that “India’s development partnership will be guided by [African] priorities” – a position that contrasts sharply with the West’s evangelical focus on governance reforms and China’s economic policies in the region. India’s recipient-led partnership framework will allow states to secure development pathways that are economically sustainable and politically acceptable. India now needs to articulate its intentions and the principles that will shape international development cooperation in the days ahead.

Third, Delhi must create and protect the space for equitable and inclusive global governance. For too long, leadership in the international system was considered a free pass to monopolize the global commons. India has always bucked this trend, emerging as a leading power that has never tempered its idealism of “having an interest in peace, and a tradition of friendliness to all”, as one official put it. Whether it is on free trade, climate change or international security, India’s non-interventionist and multilateral approach is well suited to support and sustain global governance in a multipolar world: the new reality of this century.

Finally, India must incubate a new social contract between its own state, industry and civil society. At the turn of the century, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee lamented that India’s democratic growth was held back by three failures: of the government to heed industry voices, of industry to appreciate the objectives of government, and of both in their commitment to the common individual.

Nearly two decades later, the imperative for India to correct these failures is even greater. The spread of information communication technologies and global supply chains implies that businesses and civil society must be made equal stakeholders if India is to develop its own unique consensus. Not only will this add greater legitimacy to India’s proposition, it will also create natural and grassroots champions for the country around the world.

For the first time since the end of the Second World War, a nation state that is wary of hegemonic tendencies and identifies itself with the equitable governance of the global commons is in a position to shape the international order. India is home to one-sixth of the global population and has sustained a unique democratic ethos and a foreign policy that is defined not only by national interest but also by solidarity with the developing world.

As a leading power, India must look beyond raw indexes of economic, political and military might, and craft a consensus that is consistent with its ancient and historic view of the world.

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On the 75th anniversary of the Progressive Artists’ Group, remembering their seminal role in shaping Indian art

In their effort to synthesise tradition and modernity, the collaboration between artists such as kh ara, ha gade, sh raza, fn souza, mf husain and others, has produced some of the most seminal works in indian art.

At his Gurugram home, artist Krishen Khanna recalls one of his earliest interactions with MF Husain in 1948. The latter had seen his work at an exhibition at the Bombay Art Society organised by SB Palsikar and wanted to invite him to exhibit alongside members of the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG) at their upcoming exhibition at the Bombay Art Society salon. A young artist himself, Husain was already making an impression within the art fraternity, as were the other founding members of the PAG — KH Ara, HA Gade, SH Raza, FN Souza and SK Bakre.

“It was a small art community then. I had seen their works and met them before,” says Khanna. While he was accepted as a member of the group later, his association began soon after the 1948 meeting with Husain at his Churchgate home. “Sab dost the (we were all friends). We discussed everything, from art to family to politics or anything that bothered or interested us. Now, I am the lone survivor of that group, all my friends are gone,” says Khanna.

In the month that marks the 75th anniversary of the PAG, Khanna, 97, is cautiously hopeful about the future of Indian art. “One thing about art is that it is not limited to one person. It’s multidimensional. It continues to live more than anything else… I don’t go around as much but I hope discussions between artists happen because that is what keeps the candle burning,” says Khanna.

The most celebrated names of Indian art — who produced some of its most recognised works and continue to lead auction records — could have hardly imagined their global fame when the six young artists came together in December 1947 in Mumbai , with a desire to develop avant-garde art in independent India. They aspired to break away from the revivalist nationalism espoused by the Bengal School of Art as well as the course prescribed by cultural institutions founded by the colonial rulers. The pluralist perspective they nurtured was informed by diverse sources — from Mughal and Pahari miniatures to works of Western masters such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Paul Klee. Its name, inspired by the Progressive Writers’ Association which had been producing literature of socialist realism since the 1930s, was telling. In the catalogue for the group’s first exhibition in 1949, Souza wrote, “Today we paint with absolute freedom for content and techniques almost anarchic… We have no pretensions of making vapid revivals of any school or movement in art. We have studied the various schools of painting and sculpture to arrive at a vigorous synthesis.”

The aesthetics of the group was informed by the crossroads at which art in India found itself at the time. In volume 58 of Art Journal, in the essay titled “Modern Indian Art: A Brief Overview” (1999), art historian and curator R Siva Kumar writes, “The 1940s marked a turning point in the Indian attitude to modernism. This decade saw the emergence of artists group… who doubted the wisdom of striving for an indigenous modernism that bypassed modern Western art… The Bombay Progressive Group (1947) was last to be formed but represented the modernist assertion of this generation at its clearest.”

Art historian Dr Zehra Jumabhoy, who co-curated “The Progressive Revolution: Modern Art for a New India”, a 2018 exhibition at Asia Society in New York, dedicated to the PAG, notes how the group also posed a “visual counterpoint to founding Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru ’s plea for unity in diversity”. “It was a time of great intellectual ferment, and these artists genuinely embodied Nehru’s vision of a secular India that was multi-religious and inclusive… For Muslims artists like MF Husain and SH Raza, it is particularly important to consider their commitment to the idea of India. Raza’s family moved to Pakistan and his brother, Ali Imam, was vital in the formation of the Lahore Art Circle. Why did they decide to throw their lot in with the Indian national dialogue, to form an image code for this notion of an inclusive Indian-ness. Is there not something we can learn from them today?” she asks.

It was, perhaps, Raza himself who best described the vision of the founders of PAG in a 1984 interview in Bombay Magazine. He said, “What we had in common besides our youth and lack of means was that we hoped for a better understanding of art… ”

Belonging to different parts of India and coming from varied backgrounds, the Progressives were unified in their vision for modernism but pursued independent artistic vocabularies. While Gade was one of India’s pioneering abstract expressionists, Ara is known for his landscapes and female nudes. If Souza’s bold strokes borrowed from Goan folk, primitivism, cubism and expressionism, Raza’s oeuvre included idyllic landscapes, abstracts and geometric forms. The only sculptor-painter in the group, Bakre moved from academic realism to abstraction. Husain’s works, meanwhile, were a confluence of his varied interests, from Cubism to symbolism to mythology, folk and tribal art and the very ethos of India. “The group was truly representative of the Indian social fabric. Each one of them had a distinctive aesthetic vision and style but that did not come in the way of their warm-hearted camaraderie. This is remarkable and has not been seen before or after,” says Ashok Vajpeyi, managing trustee, The Raza Foundation.

The group’s foremost supporters were expats. Mumbai-based German art critic Rudi von Leyden and Austrian painter Walter Langhammer introduced them to the trends in European art, and Austrian connoisseur Emmanuel Schlesinger and German art historian Hermann Goetz were among their earliest patrons. Provided a space to exhibit their works by Kekoo Gandhy at his Chemould framing store that later became an art gallery, the artists were described as the ‘heralds of a new dawn in the world of Indian art’ by author Mulk Raj Anand. But not everyone was congratulatory. In a 1992 interview with Yashodhara Dalmia, Husain recalled: “Some of the professors at the JJ (Sir JJ School of Art) used to tell students ‘Don’t mix with these fellows. They are destroying Indian art’.” The artists, however, were undeterred. They would meet at regular spots, from the bustling Marine Drive to Bombay Art Society and Chetana Restaurant, where Ara also had his first solo in 1942, and talk for hours.

While the group had held several informal exhibitions, its inaugural show was organised at the Bombay Art Society salon in 1949. Critical acclaim and public interest followed and many artists drifted in and out of their ranks. Some of the better-known ones who formed an enduring association included Khanna, VS Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, Mohan Samant, Tyeb Mehta, Akbar Padamsee, and it. There was also a keenness to learn from the world. They would travel across India to explore artistic trends, and by the early ’50s, three founding members moved abroad. Souza and Bakre were in London and Raza was in Paris. Husain began shuttling between Mumbai and Delhi. While that meant the gradual decentralisation of the PAG, Khanna asserts it did not imply dissolution. “It meant that people went to different places for jobs, opportunities,” says Khanna.

As they worked and exhibited across the world, they invited attention and acclaim not just for themselves but also Indian art. The modernism they sought was realised and the bonds forged only strengthened over time. “We were always in touch, writing letters, staying at each other’s houses when we were travelling. Akbar and Husain stayed with me in Delhi and Shimla . When I went to London for my first exhibition in 1959, Raza shared a list of people whom I should interact with. He took me on his scooter and introduced me to people in Paris. Later, Akbar showed me around Paris. He came to New York when I was on a Rockefeller scholarship in the US, for which I’d recommended him,” recalls Khanna.

In its active lifetime, the PAG only had a handful of formal exhibitions but its contribution to Indian art is enormous. “They created a unique Indian modernity that was full of plurality, bearing comradeship with the West, but remaining deeply Indian. No other group produced so many masters and their individual achievements are so astoundingly lofty that Indian art must be grateful,” says Vajpeyi.

Like their art, their generosity is also legendary. “They were concerned about the younger generation. Remembering their own younger days, when they had to take up jobs to survive — Husain painted cinema hoardings and Raza did block printing — they wanted to offer assistance to the young,” says Vajpeyi. Husain often obliged fans with a quick drawing on a paper bill or a napkin and Raza’s home in Paris was always open for young Indian artists. Padamsee and Mehta were never shy of giving honest feedback. As a student at Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai, Atul Dodiya remembers spending hours with Padamsee and Mehta at their studio and visiting Raza in Paris when he was on a scholarship at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the early ’90s. “For me they were superstars who influenced generations of artists… Not just art, Akbar and Tyeb would talk about philosophy, Italian writers, cinema. Whenever Raza would have a show in Mumbai, he always invited young students for the opening. When I was in Paris, he often invited me and (my wife) Anju for dinner. We discussed the Vedas, the Upanishads, and man’s relationship with the cosmos,” he says.

Though hailed as masters of Indian art , their idea of modernity has been described by some as derivative of the West, while the liberalism the Progressives proposed was also questioned at numerous junctures. In 1954, Padamsee fought a landmark court battle, that ended in acquittal, to defend nudes exhibited at his solo at Mumbai’s Jehangir Art Gallery. On a self-imposed exile following persistent death threats from the Hindutva forces for his depiction of Hindu gods and goddesses, Husain died in London as a Qatari citizen in 2011.

Nothing, however, could overshadow the group’s artistic achievements. The group continued to reinvent and experiment. While Husain was tapping diverse inspirations, Raza’s iconic bindu was born in the ‘80s as a quest for a deeper understanding of Hindu iconography. In 1969-71, Padamsee set up an inter-art Vision Exchange Workshop, where artists and filmmakers could experiment across disciplines. “As an artist, I learnt one of my greatest lessons from Tyeb, who told me it is important to know what you should do but what is more important is to know what you should not be doing,” says Dodiya.

This desire to explore still takes nonagenarian Khanna to his studio. “I work every day and it’s hard at times, but I enjoy it,” says the artist. Last week, as he interacted with the audience at Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi, where his works from the ’70s and ’80s are on view at the exhibition “Beyond the Beginning” alongside Kumar, Husain and Raza , he was also their voice. At home, he treasures the files containing letters they’d exchanged. “There was not a painting that happened among any one of us that wasn’t discussed at that time. I was very fortunate that I had such wonderful people with such wonderful insights into art in my life,” says Khanna.

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Progressive Writers in Postcolonial India

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Orientalism left a hysteresis effect as our English-educated leaders diminished the vast pluralistic culture into a monolithic Hindu India. They diligently maintained the human degradation in Caste and created Quotas, levels, and sub-levels of the society. We live in a fractured society, and post-colonial modernism is its critical frame. Modernism challenges the reliability of elitist history that gave birth to the structure of the "national-popular" where the claim is: the ideas of the Nationalist elites motivated the people to the arena of "politics" from their "pre-political" state. Gandhi significantly created a vital strategy with 'mass,' using a larger front of the population in his peaceful protests. Since then, the presence of a large mass, the Janata, became a front in post-colonial politics. But this mass, ahistorical as they are, sometimes Hindus sometimes Muslims or Christians, the tribal or the city workers, but they always took the brunt of social maladies. They died in Bengal Famine, once crossed the borders during the Partition of India; now, they are the migrant-workers in millions lost job, shelter, and food, due to the sudden lockdown of the nation in the Covit-19 pandemic. This mass has no profile, never had, but essential in endless Yojanas, Bollywood scripts, and political rhetoric. Modernism has a historical belonging to the west. But ideas always traveled and found another context in new localization. In the Indian context, modernism could not be viewed as a simple translation as much of the realities and innovations have had different challenges. With the larger population outside the cities, modernism is not all urban-centric dialogue, like in Europe. It has its autonomous space and critical expressions, such as in literature, cinema, theatre, music, and contemporary folk expressions; it is a search in academic discourses and the Mantra in all developmental dynamism. Modernism creates ideas and consciousness but does not control individual or social action. However, within change and chaos, the tolling bell is already ringing. In essence, the emergence of corporatization created another sense of 'authenticity,' contextualizing global modernism. As it prioritized the global system, it already foreclosed on the autonomous trends of culture, focusing on transregional expansion. Westernism is yet the central theme where post-modernism flourishes with another connotation, the global modernism.

Literature Compass

Amardeep Singh

... his periodic taunts directed at the Progressive movement, have not prevented recent scholars of Urdu literature, such as Priyamvada Gopal, from ... essay/story titled 'Sa'adat Hasan Manto.' Also in this category are Manto's genre-defying 'open letters,” including 'Pandit Manto's First ...

Dr. Tariq Rahman

Khwaja Ahmad Abbas was a versatile man of letters, who wrote in English as well Urdu. He was famous as a novelist, short story writer, playwright, and screen writer. He also wrote a travelogue and his own autobiography and was a very well known journalist. We have grown up watching his movies but hardly ever hear his name. Strangely enough, critics do not accept him as a writer, calling him a mere a journalist. Many even went so far as to call him ‘adab farosh’, because he sold his literary works to film industry which was considered taboo by them. His first novel was written in English, and he himself translated many of his works from Urdu. He wrote a column Last page for the English Blitz newspaper, the longest running column in the history of Indian journalism, as well as for its Urdu edition. Despite all this I could hardly find a well researched work on him. Not a single good book on him in English, or in Urdu can be found. There are some, but they are not well researched, and they underestimate Abbas’s accomplishments. For my dissertation I have chosen only a few of his works—his English novel Inqilab, considered a masterpiece, some famous short stories, and his travelogue. The first chapter introduces the Progressive Writers’ Movement, its formation, its objectives, and its influence on Indian literature. As Abbas was part of this, his writing has been influenced by this movement. The second chapter provides an introduction to Abbas’s life, his background, his books and style. The third chapter examines his masterpiece novel Inqilab. The chapter discusses the background of the novel and the autobiographical elements in it, and then analyses it thoroughly along with what other critics have said about it. The fourth chapter discusses his short stories. Here I have chosen only those of his short stories that have literary merit and are representative of his progessive worldview. The fifth chapter discusses his travelogue, Aik Musafir ki Diary, which is considered to be important as in it Abbas constantly presents pictures of exploitation in different, so called, affluent countries of the world. II Finally, the conclusion sums up Khwaja Ahmad Abbas’s literary achievements and legacy.

Introduction Culture is a much complex term. It not only includes the fine arts such as painting, drawing, music, dance etc., but also includes literature, drama, media, science and technology, knowledge, architecture, religion, philosophy, foods and clothes etc., everything that is valuable and has been achieved by mankind through ages. All have their origin in the activities of man and nature, acting on each other. Man by his activities transformed nature to suit to his needs. His existence depends on either whatever is available to him in nature or whatever he has produced by acting on nature. Therefore, the process through which he produces his livelihood and which sustains him is basic to him and the rest of the other things are the results of this process and his relationship to his fellow men, and are called as superstructures. Relationship of base and superstructure in Marxist theory has been much discussed and debated by various writers. Here, we will first discuss Marx’s conception of it, its dimensions in various fields i.e. philosophy, religion, culture, etc., and move on to Gramsci and Raymond Williams’ analysis of it and their new concepts regarding hegemony and the material conditions determining the consciousness explaining the things more clearly rather than the concepts of base and superstructure and the clarifications of Engels to the questions raised in his time and will try to understand that the concepts expressed by Gramsci and Raymond Williams etc., are not new and we find them in the writings of Marx and Engels but Marxism is not a static but a living and evolving concept and these writers have not denied or contradicted what has been laid down by the founders of Marxism but further elaborated these concepts in the more developed and modern situations. We will also try to understand the workings of the hegemony in the field of culture, media, literature and theatre both by the ruling classes and the emerging classes and how they have evolved in our country and what are their effects.

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आज़ादी का अमृत महोत्सव | 75 years of india’s independence.

‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of independence of progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ by flagging off ‘Dandi March’ from Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad on 12th March, 2021. The celebrations started 75 weeks before our 75th anniversary of Independence and will end on 15th August, 2023.

Department of Higher Education and Department of School Education & Literacy have planned various activities under ‘आज़ादी का अमृत महोत्सव’.

Activities planned by D/o School Education & Literacy

• Shikshak Parv focusing on the evolving role of Teachers since independence will be organised
• International Webinar
• On India’s Unique Toy-based Pedagogy
• Incorporated in the National Curriculum Framework, in the period between August-December 2021.
• Essay Competitions / Seminars /Cycle Rallies in every Schools
• School Assemblies to focus on Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsava
• Special School Badge with logo of Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsava
• National Initiative for Proficiency and Understanding Numeracy and literacy is the National Mission for achieving Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in five years.
• National Digital Educational Architecture – a digital architecture to support teaching and learning activities educational planning, governance and administrative activities of the Centre and the States/ Union Territories in accordance with NEP 2020
• Change in QP pattern in Board exams (10% change in class 12 and 20% change in class 10) in accordance with NEP 2020
• Certification of approximately 24 lakhs elementary school teachers for completing NISHTHA
• School Nutrition Gardens – teaching gardening and agriculture concepts and skills to students that integrate with several subjects, such as math, science, art, health and physical education, and social studies, as well as several educational goals, including personal and social responsibility
• Launch of Vidyanjali portal – connect volunteers/ alumni/ community/ organisations etc. to schools
• Launch of an interesting Yoga Quiz, Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Story writing competition on “The contribution of Paired state in India’s struggle for freedom” for children on MyGov platform
• History through Grandparents – all schools to participate
• Launch of NISHTHA modules for secondary school teachers and teachers at foundational levels
• Introduction of optional one-time improvement exams in CBSE
• Schools post celebration of Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsava on social media, and works of art/craft, music, dance, etc. on this occasion.
• Online music competition by KendriyaVidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas on patriotic songs of paired states under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat
• Celebration of Rashtriya Ekta Diwas on 31st October under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat
• Pilot launch of new 4-year integrated B.Ed programme
• Development of dictionary of approximately 2000 words in ISL
• International Webinar on Toy-based learning and pedagogy
• Webinar on India’s freedom

Activities planned by D/o Higher Education

• Mentoring Yuva Scheme
• Publications
• National Seminars
• International Seminars
• Regional Seminars
• Special Lecture Series
• Research Projects
• 75 articles in three volumes to be completed by 15th Aug 2022
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• Special volume and publication based on seminars/ lectures held
• Research studies
• Seminars under IMPRESS Scheme
• Projects under IMPRESS Scheme
• Write ups on lesser known personalities
• Chair for Research Study
• Publication
• Storytelling, literature building and archiving contributions of unsung heroes
• Dissemination of lesser known traditions
• Achievements @75 (workshop)
• Research study on freedom struggle
• India:Resolve@100 by NCVET
• Webinars, cultural events, workshops etc.
• AKAM – Innovation Week Celebration (10 to 16 January, 2022)
• AKAM – Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Week in February, 2022

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Illusions of empire: Amartya Sen on what British rule really did for India

It is true that before British rule, India was starting to fall behind other parts of the world – but many of the arguments defending the Raj are based on serious misconceptions about India’s past, imperialism and history itself

T he British empire in India was in effect established at the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757. The battle was swift, beginning at dawn and ending close to sunset. It was a normal monsoon day, with occasional rain in the mango groves at the town of Plassey, which is between Calcutta, where the British were based, and Murshidabad, the capital of the kingdom of Bengal. It was in those mango groves that the British forces faced the Nawab Siraj-ud-Doula’s army and convincingly defeated it.

British rule ended nearly 200 years later with Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous speech on India’s “tryst with destiny” at midnight on 14 August 1947. Two hundred years is a long time. What did the British achieve in India, and what did they fail to accomplish?

During my days as a student at a progressive school in West Bengal in the 1940s, these questions came into our discussion constantly. They remain important even today, not least because the British empire is often invoked in discussions about successful global governance. It has also been invoked to try to persuade the US to acknowledge its role as the pre-eminent imperial power in the world today: “Should the United States seek to shed – or to shoulder – the imperial load it has inherited?” the historian Niall Ferguson has asked . It is certainly an interesting question, and Ferguson is right to argue that it cannot be answered without an understanding of how the British empire rose and fell – and what it managed to do.

Arguing about all this at Santiniketan school, which had been established by Rabindranath Tagore some decades earlier, we were bothered by a difficult methodological question. How could we think about what India would have been like in the 1940s had British rule not occurred at all?

The frequent temptation to compare India in 1757 (when British rule was beginning) with India in 1947 (when the British were leaving ) would tell us very little, because in the absence of British rule, India would of course not have remained the same as it was at the time of Plassey. The country would not have stood still had the British conquest not occurred. But how do we answer the question about what difference was made by British rule?

To illustrate the relevance of such an “alternative history”, we may consider another case – one with a potential imperial conquest that did not in fact occur. Let’s think about Commodore Matthew Perry of the US navy, who steamed into the bay of Edo in Japan in 1853 with four warships. Now consider the possibility that Perry was not merely making a show of American strength (as was in fact the case), but was instead the advance guard of an American conquest of Japan, establishing a new American empire in the land of the rising sun, rather as Robert Clive did in India . If we were to assess the achievements of the supposed American rule of Japan through the simple device of comparing Japan before that imperial conquest in 1853 with Japan after the American domination ended, whenever that might be, and attribute all the differences to the effects of the American empire, we would miss all the contributions of the Meiji restoration from 1868 onwards, and of other globalising changes that were going on. Japan did not stand still; nor would India have done so.

While we can see what actually happened in Japan under Meiji rule, it is extremely hard to guess with any confidence what course the history of the Indian subcontinent would have taken had the British conquest not occurred. Would India have moved, like Japan, towards modernisation in an increasingly globalising world, or would it have remained resistant to change, like Afghanistan, or would it have hastened slowly, like Thailand?

These are impossibly difficult questions to answer. And yet, even without real alternative historical scenarios, there are some limited questions that can be answered, which may contribute to an intelligent understanding of the role that British rule played in India. We can ask: what were the challenges that India faced at the time of the British conquest, and what happened in those critical areas during the British rule?

T here was surely a need for major changes in a rather chaotic and institutionally backward India. To recognise the need for change in India in the mid-18th century does not require us to ignore – as many Indian super-nationalists fear – the great achievements in India’s past, with its extraordinary history of accomplishments in philosophy, mathematics, literature, arts, architecture, music, medicine, linguistics and astronomy. India had also achieved considerable success in building a thriving economy with flourishing trade and commerce well before the colonial period – the economic wealth of India was amply acknowledged by British observers such as Adam Smith.

The fact is, nevertheless, that even with those achievements, in the mid-18th century India had in many ways fallen well behind what was being achieved in Europe. The exact nature and significance of this backwardness were frequent subjects of lively debates in the evenings at my school.

An insightful essay on India by Karl Marx particularly engaged the attention of some of us. Writing in 1853, Marx pointed to the constructive role of British rule in India, on the grounds that India needed some radical re-examination and self-scrutiny. And Britain did indeed serve as India’s primary western contact, particularly in the course of the 19th century. The importance of this influence would be hard to neglect. The indigenous globalised culture that was slowly emerging in India was deeply indebted not only to British writing, but also to books and articles in other – that is non-English – European languages that became known in India through the British.

Figures such as the Calcutta philosopher Ram Mohan Roy, born in 1772, were influenced not only by traditional knowledge of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian texts, but also by the growing familiarity with English writings. After Roy, in Bengal itself there were also Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Madhusudan Dutta and several generations of Tagores and their followers who were re-examining the India they had inherited in the light of what they saw happening in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their main – often their only – source of information were the books (usually in English) circulating in India, thanks to British rule. That intellectual influence, covering a wide range of European cultures, survives strongly today, even as the military, political and economic power of the British has declined dramatically.

I was persuaded that Marx was basically right in his diagnosis of the need for some radical change in India, as its old order was crumbling as a result of not having been a part of the intellectual and economic globalisation that the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution had initiated across the world (along with, alas, colonialism).

There was arguably, however, a serious flaw in Marx’s thesis, in particular in his implicit presumption that the British conquest was the only window on the modern world that could have opened for India. What India needed at the time was more constructive globalisation, but that is not the same thing as imperialism. The distinction is important. Throughout India’s long history, it persistently enjoyed exchanges of ideas as well as of commodities with the outside world. Traders, settlers and scholars moved between India and further east – China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and elsewhere – for a great many centuries, beginning more than 2,000 years ago. The far-reaching influence of this movement – especially on language, literature and architecture – can be seen plentifully even today. There were also huge global influences by means of India’s open-frontier attitude in welcoming fugitives from its early days.

Jewish immigration into India began right after the fall of Jerusalem in the first century and continued for many hundreds of years. Baghdadi Jews, such as the highly successful Sassoons, came in large numbers even as late as the 18th century. Christians started coming at least from the fourth century, and possibly much earlier. There are colourful legends about this, including one that tells us that the first person St Thomas the Apostle met after coming to India in the first century was a Jewish girl playing the flute on the Malabar coast. We loved that evocative – and undoubtedly apocryphal – anecdote in our classroom discussions, because it illustrated the multicultural roots of Indian traditions.

The Parsis started arriving from the early eighth century – as soon as persecution began in their Iranian homeland. Later in that century, the Armenians began to leave their footprints from Kerala to Bengal. Muslim Arab traders had a substantial presence on the west coast of India from around that time – well before the arrival of Muslim conquerors many centuries later, through the arid terrain in the north-west of the subcontinent. Persecuted Bahá’ís from Iran came only in the 19th century.

At the time of the Battle of Plassey, there were already businessmen, traders and other professionals from a number of different European nations well settled near the mouth of the Ganges. Being subjected to imperial rule is thus not the only way of making connections with, or learning things from, foreign countries. When the Meiji Restoration established a new reformist government in Japan in 1868 (which was not unrelated to the internal political impact of Commodore Perry’s show of force a decade earlier), the Japanese went straight to learning from the west without being subjected to imperialism. They sent people for training in the US and Europe, and made institutional changes that were clearly inspired by western experience. They did not wait to be coercively globalised via imperialism.

O ne of the achievements to which British imperial theorists tended to give a good deal of emphasis was the role of the British in producing a united India. In this analysis, India was a collection of fragmented kingdoms until British rule made a country out of these diverse regimes. It was argued that India was previously not one country at all, but a thoroughly divided land mass. It was the British empire, so the claim goes, that welded India into a nation. Winston Churchill even remarked that before the British came, there was no Indian nation. “India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the equator,” he once said.

If this is true, the empire clearly made an indirect contribution to the modernisation of India through its unifying role. However, is the grand claim about the big role of the Raj in bringing about a united India correct? Certainly, when Clive’s East India Company defeated the nawab of Bengal in 1757, there was no single power ruling over all of India. Yet it is a great leap from the proximate story of Britain imposing a single united regime on India (as did actually occur) to the huge claim that only the British could have created a united India out of a set of disparate states.

That way of looking at Indian history would go firmly against the reality of the large domestic empires that had characterised India throughout the millennia. The ambitious and energetic emperors from the third century BC did not accept that their regimes were complete until the bulk of what they took to be one country was united under their rule. There were major roles here for Ashoka Maurya, the Gupta emperors, Alauddin Khalji, the Mughals and others. Indian history shows a sequential alternation of large domestic empires with clusters of fragmented kingdoms. We should therefore not make the mistake of assuming that the fragmented governance of mid-18th century India was the state in which the country typically found itself throughout history, until the British helpfully came along to unite it.

Even though in history textbooks the British were often assumed to be the successors of the Mughals in India, it is important to note that the British did not in fact take on the Mughals when they were a force to be reckoned with. British rule began when the Mughals’ power had declined, though formally even the nawab of Bengal, whom the British defeated, was their subject. The nawab still swore allegiance to the Mughal emperor, without paying very much attention to his dictates. The imperial status of the Mughal authority over India continued to be widely acknowledged even though the powerful empire itself was missing.

When the so-called sepoy mutiny threatened the foundations of British India in 1857, the diverse anti-British forces participating in the joint rebellion could be aligned through their shared acceptance of the formal legitimacy of the Mughal emperor as the ruler of India. The emperor was, in fact, reluctant to lead the rebels, but this did not stop the rebels from declaring him the emperor of all India. The 82-year-old Mughal monarch, Bahadur Shah II, known as Zafar, was far more interested in reading and writing poetry than in fighting wars or ruling India. He could do little to help the 1,400 unarmed civilians of Delhi whom the British killed as the mutiny was brutally crushed and the city largely destroyed. The poet-emperor was banished to Burma, where he died.

As a child growing up in Burma in the 1930s, I was taken by my parents to see Zafar’s grave in Rangoon, which was close to the famous Shwedagon Pagoda. The grave was not allowed to be anything more than an undistinguished stone slab covered with corrugated iron. I remember discussing with my father how the British rulers of India and Burma must evidently have been afraid of the evocative power of the remains of the last Mughal emperor. The inscription on the grave noted only that “Bahadur Shah was ex-King of Delhi” – no mention of “empire” in the commemoration! It was only much later, in the 1990s, that Zafar would be honoured with something closer to what could decently serve as the grave of the last Mughal emperor.

I n the absence of the British Raj, the most likely successors to the Mughals would probably have been the newly emerging Hindu Maratha powers near Bombay, who periodically sacked the Mughal capital of Delhi and exercised their power to intervene across India. Already by 1742, the East India Company had built a huge “Maratha ditch” at the edge of Calcutta to slow down the lightning raids of the Maratha cavalry, which rode rapidly across 1,000 miles or more. But the Marathas were still quite far from putting together anything like the plan of an all-India empire.

The British, by contrast, were not satisfied until they were the dominant power across the bulk of the subcontinent, and in this they were not so much bringing a new vision of a united India from abroad as acting as the successor of previous domestic empires. British rule spread to the rest of the country from its imperial foundations in Calcutta, beginning almost immediately after Plassey. As the company’s power expanded across India, Calcutta became the capital of the newly emerging empire, a position it occupied from the mid-18th century until 1911 (when the capital was moved to Delhi). It was from Calcutta that the conquest of other parts of India was planned and directed. The profits made by the East India Company from its economic operations in Bengal financed, to a great extent, the wars that the British waged across India in the period of their colonial expansion.

What has been called “the financial bleeding of Bengal” began very soon after Plassey. With the nawabs under their control, the company made big money not only from territorial revenues, but also from the unique privilege of duty-free trade in the rich Bengal economy – even without counting the so-called gifts that the Company regularly extracted from local merchants. Those who wish to be inspired by the glory of the British empire would do well to avoid reading Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, including his discussion of the abuse of state power by a “mercantile company which oppresses and domineers in the East Indies”. As the historian William Dalrymple has observed: “The economic figures speak for themselves. In 1600, when the East India Company was founded, Britain was generating 1.8% of the world’s GDP, while India was producing 22.5%. By the peak of the Raj, those figures had more or less been reversed: India was reduced from the world’s leading manufacturing nation to a symbol of famine and deprivation.”

While most of the loot from the financial bleeding accrued to British company officials in Bengal, there was widespread participation by the political and business leadership in Britain: nearly a quarter of the members of parliament in London owned stocks in the East India Company after Plassey. The commercial benefits from Britain’s Indian empire thus reached far into the British establishment.

The robber-ruler synthesis did eventually give way to what would eventually become classical colonialism, with the recognition of the need for law and order and a modicum of reasonable governance. But the early misuse of state power by the East India Company put the economy of Bengal under huge stress. What the cartographer John Thornton, in his famous chart of the region in 1703, had described as “the Rich Kingdom of Bengal” experienced a gigantic famine during 1769–70. Contemporary estimates suggested that about a third of the Bengal population died. This is almost certainly an overestimate. There was no doubt, however, that it was a huge catastrophe, with massive starvation and mortality – in a region that had seen no famine for a very long time.

This disaster had at least two significant effects. First, the inequity of early British rule in India became the subject of considerable political criticism in Britain itself. By the time Adam Smith roundly declared in The Wealth of Nations that the East India Company was “altogether unfit to govern its territorial possessions”, there were many British figures, such as Edmund Burke, making similar critiques. Second, the economic decline of Bengal did eventually ruin the company’s business as well, hurting British investors themselves, and giving the powers in London reason to change their business in India into more of a regular state-run operation.

By the late 18th century, the period of so-called “post-Plassey plunder”, with which British rule in India began, was giving way to the sort of colonial subjugation that would soon become the imperial standard, and with which the subcontinent would become more and more familiar in the following century and a half.

H ow successful was this long phase of classical imperialism in British India, which lasted from the late 18th century until independence in 1947? The British claimed a huge set of achievements, including democracy, the rule of law, railways, the joint stock company and cricket, but the gap between theory and practice – with the exception of cricket – remained wide throughout the history of imperial relations between the two countries. Putting the tally together in the years of pre-independence assessment, it was easy to see how far short the achievements were compared with the rhetoric of accomplishment.

Indeed, Rudyard Kipling caught the self-congratulatory note of the British imperial administrator admirably well in his famous poem on imperialism:

Take up the White Man’s burden – The savage wars of peace – Fill full the mouth of famine And bid the sickness cease

Alas, neither the stopping of famines nor the remedying of ill health was part of the high-performance achievements of British rule in India. Nothing could lead us away from the fact that life expectancy at birth in India as the empire ended was abysmally low: 32 years, at most.

The abstemiousness of colonial rule in neglecting basic education reflects the view taken by the dominant administrators of the needs of the subject nation. There was a huge asymmetry between the ruler and the ruled. The British government became increasingly determined in the 19th century to achieve universal literacy for the native British population. In contrast, the literacy rates in India under the Raj were very low. When the empire ended, the adult literacy rate in India was barely 15%. The only regions in India with comparatively high literacy were the “native kingdoms” of Travancore and Cochin (formally outside the British empire), which, since independence, have constituted the bulk of the state of Kerala. These kingdoms, though dependent on the British administration for foreign policy and defence, had remained technically outside the empire and had considerable freedom in domestic policy, which they exercised in favour of more school education and public health care.

The 200 years of colonial rule were also a period of massive economic stagnation, with hardly any advance at all in real GNP per capita. These grim facts were much aired after independence in the newly liberated media, whose rich culture was in part – it must be acknowledged – an inheritance from British civil society. Even though the Indian media was very often muzzled during the Raj – mostly to prohibit criticism of imperial rule, for example at the time of the Bengal famine of 1943 – the tradition of a free press, carefully cultivated in Britain, provided a good model for India to follow as the country achieved independence.

Indeed, India received many constructive things from Britain that did not – could not – come into their own until after independence. Literature in the Indian languages took some inspiration and borrowed genres from English literature, including the flourishing tradition of writing in English. Under the Raj, there were restrictions on what could be published and propagated (even some of Tagore’s books were banned). These days the government of India has no such need, but alas – for altogether different reasons of domestic politics – the restrictions are sometimes no less intrusive than during the colonial rule.

Nothing is perhaps as important in this respect as the functioning of a multiparty democracy and a free press. But often enough these were not gifts that could be exercised under the British administration during imperial days. They became realisable only when the British left – they were the fruits of learning from Britain’s own experience, which India could use freely only after the period of empire had ended. Imperial rule tends to require some degree of tyranny: asymmetrical power is not usually associated with a free press or with a vote-counting democracy, since neither of them is compatible with the need to keep colonial subjects in check.

A similar scepticism is appropriate about the British claim that they had eliminated famine in dependent territories such as India. British governance of India began with the famine of 1769-70, and there were regular famines in India throughout the duration of British rule. The Raj also ended with the terrible famine of 1943. In contrast, there has been no famine in India since independence in 1947.

The irony again is that the institutions that ended famines in independent India – democracy and an independent media – came directly from Britain. The connection between these institutions and famine prevention is simple to understand. Famines are easy to prevent, since the distribution of a comparatively small amount of free food, or the offering of some public employment at comparatively modest wages (which gives the beneficiaries the ability to buy food), allows those threatened by famine the ability to escape extreme hunger. So any government should be able stop a threatening famine – large or small – and it is very much in the interest of a government in a functioning democracy, facing a free press, to do so. A free press makes the facts of a developing famine known to all, and a democratic vote makes it hard to win elections during – or after – a famine, hence giving a government the additional incentive to tackle the issue without delay.

India did not have this freedom from famine for as long as its people were without their democratic rights, even though it was being ruled by the foremost democracy in the world, with a famously free press in the metropolis – but not in the colonies. These freedom-oriented institutions were for the rulers but not for the imperial subjects.

In the powerful indictment of British rule in India that Tagore presented in 1941, he argued that India had gained a great deal from its association with Britain, for example, from “discussions centred upon Shakespeare’s drama and Byron’s poetry and above all … the large-hearted liberalism of 19th-century English politics”. The tragedy, he said, came from the fact that what “was truly best in their own civilisation, the upholding of dignity of human relationships, has no place in the British administration of this country”. Indeed, the British could not have allowed Indian subjects to avail themselves of these freedoms without threatening the empire itself.

The distinction between the role of Britain and that of British imperialism could not have been clearer. As the union jack was being lowered across India, it was a distinction of which we were profoundly aware.

Adapted from Home in the World: A Memoir by Amartya Sen, published by Allen Lane on 8 July and available at guardianbookshop.com

This article was amended on 29 June 2021. Owing to an editing error, an earlier version incorrectly referred to Karl Marx writing on India in 1953. The essay was written in 1853.

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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA | MINISTRY OF PANCHAYATI RAJ

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of progressive India and the glorious history of it’s people, culture and achievements.

This Mahotsav is dedicated to the people of India who have not only been instrumental in bringing India thus far in it’s evolutionary journey but also hold within them the power and potential to enable Prime Minister Modi’s vision of activating India 2.0, fuelled by the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav is an embodiment of all that is progressive about India’s socio-cultural, political and economic identity. The official journey of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” commences on 12th March, 2021 which starts a 75 week countdown to our 75th anniversary of Independence.

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I’m a big fan of America’s investments in the health and well-being of the world’s poor.

20 Years of Growth

In India I saw how aid and spending on health can make a difference.

India’s progress over the past 20 years has been quite phenomenal. It deserves recognition especially now, as rich countries consider whether to continue investing in global development assistance despite all the economic problems they face at home.

India still faces many challenges. More than 400 million Indians live in extreme poverty. The country is home to half of all the world’s malnourished and underweight children and one fourth of the world’s tuberculosis.

But over the past 20 years, India has really emerged as a dynamic, influential country. It’s been one of the world’s fastest growing major economies, and it’s playing an increasingly important role in world affairs, including as a member of the G20 and the BRICS group of newly industrialized nations.

The current situation in India is quite hopeful. The country has a lot of talented people. The universities are improving. Government spending is going up because of the nation’s economic strength. Some reforms are needed, and that’s progressing, gradually. India represents all the challenges you face when you have lots of people living in poverty. And so India can contribute to how we solve problems globally.

A lot of progress has come from the nation’s culture of innovation, which has produced some really original and creative solutions. Yet, aid also has played an important role. Our foundation has invested more than $1 billion USD in programs to fight disease and poverty in India. I’m pleased with the results, and we will invest more in the future.

During my recent visit, I had a chance to see the latest progress on things that matter a lot to us: on eradicating polio and curtailing the spread of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, for example. And I saw how India is emerging as a model and increasingly a catalyst for improvement in other developing countries. For example, India has become a world leader in the development of high-quality, low-cost vaccines and other bio-pharmaceuticals, which are playing a huge role in improving health not only in south Asia but also in Africa and elsewhere.

Ending Polio

It’s now been more than a year since the last new case of polio was reported in India. In February, India was officially removed from the list of polio-endemic countries.

This is especially great when you look at it in context. Three years ago, India had more polio cases than anywhere else in the world. Its polio problem seemed like the toughest to tackle. Compared with the countries where polio persists, India is bigger by far, with the most kids, and still has regions where sanitation is poor. Within the country there’s lots of movement, which tends to spread infection.

Yet, India really stepped up to the challenge on polio. The government funded its own eradication program. They really educated mothers about why vaccination is good for kids. Twice a year, 2 million volunteers prepare 800,000 vaccination booths around the country—at schools, hospitals, and community centers. They immunize more than 172 million children one by one. Working with partners like  Rotary International ,  WHO , and  UNICEF , they have built an impressive infrastructure for delivering health services to some of the most underprivileged children in the world. And they have been very persistent in following up to find kids, even the kids of migrant workers, to get vaccination levels up above 90 percent. And so the disease stopped.

India is very proud of this achievement, and rightly so. It’s a direct result of political will, dedicated resources, and rigorous management and accountability. The commitment of government leaders has been critically important.

And that commitment is helping with other health problems. By extending vaccination into the poorest and most inaccessible places, the drive against polio has helped establish better public-health delivery systems that can improve the well-being of millions of children and families.

India’s experience carries lessons for developing and newly industrialized countries around the world. It proves that success can be achieved – against polio and other diseases, as well – even in the most challenging circumstances.

Curbing HIV/AIDS & Tuberculosis

Another great example of India’s progress is in its work to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. Our foundation has been helping with this for a long time. With a number of Indian partners, we started the Avahan program. It’s fighting HIV/AIDS in communities and at the street level, helping local groups deploy peer-to-peer counselors, distribute condoms and provide HIV testing, treatment and care.

Important leadership has been provided by the national government, which has increased funding for HIV/AIDS and established a national strategic plan that includes community-led HIV prevention. The National AIDS Control Organization has done great work. NACO and Avahan have contributed to a 50-percent reduction in the incidence of HIV/AIDS over the past six years. That’s saved India something like $100 million USD in health costs averted because of fewer AIDS cases.

Now, NACO is facilitating a smooth transition of Avahan to management by the state governments. This transition is very important and encouraging because it indicates India’s resolve to sustain the fight against HIV/AIDS for the long haul, which is what it will take to really beat this thing. This is a great example of what collaboration between funders and governments can achieve.

Lessons learned from HIV/AIDS work have helped with other critical health efforts, like the Ananya partnership, which is really scaling up programs to improve maternal and child health. India is also a model for other countries on how to scale up HIV prevention efforts.

The country faces many other health challenges. For example, India has the largest tuberculosis epidemic in the world, with nearly one thousand deaths from TB each day. But there’s a solid basic TB control program and a real commitment to getting TB under control. The government has an ambitious strategic plan to provide universal access to good diagnosis and treatment to all TB patients. This plan can prevent the emergence of multidrug resistant TB thru prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

India has begun to execute this strategy by making TB a nationally notifiable disease, which means cases must be reported to authorities. This will help ensure they get the care they need regardless of whether they are being treated by government or private doctors.

India is also using its leadership in information technology, which could be a big help to government and private health providers in monitoring the spread of the disease, improving the efficiency of the TB control program and in treating patients.

Leading on Low-cost Vaccines

Just a few decades ago in India, many basic vaccines were hard to get. They were almost all imported from overseas. But today, Indian manufacturers play a critical role in driving down prices for vaccines and making them available to not only Indians but also millions of poor people worldwide.

One of the leaders in this transformation is the Serum Institute, in Pune. I visited with Serum’s chairman Cyrus Poonawalla and other executives. Their work is absolutely vital to our foundation’s work around the world, because Serum is extremely good at making high-quality vaccines for many different diseases – and doing it at low cost so that poor countries can afford them.

Serum has gradually evolved from making relatively simple vaccines for things like tetanus to making more advanced ones. In response to a request from African leaders for a better weapon against meningitis epidemics, Serum developed a vaccine for meningitis A, the first vaccine created specifically for poor countries. Serum is developing important new vaccines against rotavirus, which causes diarrhea and vomiting that kills hundreds of thousands of children in poor countries every year.

Serum's the world's highest-volume provider of vaccines – does it at very high quality, very low price. It’s a great example of the potential for innovation in developing and newly industrializing countries – innovation that can benefit poor people everywhere.

Achieving Progress through Collaboration

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently committed to raising government investments in health to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2017, which will really help extend health services to more people and will pay big economic dividends in the long term.

During my recent India trip, I was very glad to see the evolution and strengthening of our partnerships with government.  I spoke with many government leaders including the dynamic chief ministers of two states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which are among the poorest in the country. I was very impressed with the forward strides they’re making. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, is under 40, the state’s youngest chief minister ever.

In Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar has helped drive remarkable improvements in farm productivity and is taking steps toward big improvements in health. Bihar’s maternal mortality rate is among the highest in India. But good things are happening. Last year our foundation launched a five-year, $80-million USD grant made in partnership with the state government and leading Indian and international non-government organizations. Bihar is becoming one of the nation’s biggest success stories.

As in Bihar, one important reason we invest in India is that we’ve found the government can be a very effective partner. Our government partners there are especially good at scaling up the very best ideas and sustaining them over the long term, as they’ve done with polio and now with HIV/AIDS.

This pattern has been repeated across the country over the past several decades. And as a result, aid has steadily become a smaller and smaller portion of the national economy. This is the good that can happen when aid donors and governments work hand in hand.

Meet some of the heroes who are fighting poverty and saving lives.

Lost crops like fonio could help us fight climate change and malnutrition.

We already know how to save millions of newborn lives.

Here are a few pictures from my latest visit to this amazing country.

This is my personal blog, where I share about the people I meet, the books I'm reading, and what I'm learning. I hope that you'll join the conversation.

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My Vision For India In 2047 Essay

India has come a long way since gaining independence in 1947 and becoming a republic in 1950. In 2047, it will have completed 100 years as a republic, and it is exciting to think about what the country might look like then. As a nation, we have made significant progress over the past few decades, especially at the beginning of the 2000s. It is easy to imagine that in the next 25 years and make even greater strides. Here are a few sample essays on “ My Vision For India In 2047 ”.

100 Words Essay On My Vision For India In 2047

I envision India as a global leader in 2047 in innovation and technology. With a highly educated and skilled workforce, India will be at the forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, driving the development of cutting-edge technologies and solutions.

Additionally, I see India as a hub for international trade and commerce, with a thriving business environment that attracts investment from around the world. The country's diverse culture and rich history will continue to be a major draw for tourists, making it a top destination for cultural exchange and exploration.

Overall, my vision for India in 2047 is one of prosperity and progress, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and social responsibility. By prioritising education, innovation, and international cooperation, India has the potential to become a beacon of hope and motivation for the world.

200 Words Essay On My Vision For India In 2047

My vision for India in 2047 is of it to be a world leader in technological innovation and sustainable development. With a population of over 1.5 billion people, we must prioritise the well-being of our citizens and the environment.

Shift To Renewable Energy | One major aspect of this vision is the widespread adoption of renewable energy sources. Solar panels and wind turbines will be common, providing clean and efficient energy for households and businesses. This shift towards clean energy will reduce our carbon footprint and create jobs and stimulate the economy.

Advanced Transportation | Another important aspect is the implementation of advanced infrastructure. High-speed trains and efficient public transportation systems will connect major cities, reducing road pollution and congestion.

Technology | Smart cities will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology to optimise resource management and enhance the quality of life for citizens.

Education Hub | In addition, I envision India as a hub for education and research. Our universities will attract top talent from around the globe, and our scientists and engineers will make groundbreaking discoveries in fields such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

Overall, my vision for India in 2047 is for it to be a country that is technologically advanced, environmentally conscious, and socially progressive. We will lead the way in creating a sustainable and equitable future for all.

500 Words Essay On My Vision For India In 2047

In 2047, India will be a country that will be thriving in every aspect of life. It will have successfully harnessed the power of technology, innovation, and education to transform itself into a global leader. The government will be proactive in addressing the needs of its citizens and will have implemented policies that ensure the overall well-being of the population.

Thriving Infrastructure

One of the most striking features of India in 2047 will be the rapid development of infrastructure. The country will have a well-connected network of roads, railways, and airports, making it easy for people to travel within and abroad. The government will have also invested heavily in developing smart cities, which will be equipped with state-of-the-art amenities and facilities. These cities will be designed to be energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, making them ideal places to live and work.

Accessible Healthcare

In terms of healthcare, India 2047 will be home to some of the best hospitals and medical facilities in the world. The government will have prioritised healthcare and implemented policies that make it accessible to all citizens. Many trained medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, and specialists, will work in the public and private sectors to provide top-quality care to patients.

Improved Education

Education will also be another area where India will have made significant progress. The government will have invested heavily in developing schools and universities, and there will be many highly qualified teachers and professors who will be helping to shape the minds of the next generation. A wide range of educational resources will be available to students, such as books, computers, and other technological aids, which will enhance their learning.

Thriving Economy

One of the most notable features of India in 2047 will be its thriving economy. The country will have a diverse range of industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, and services, contributing to its rapid growth. Many successful businesses will operate in the country, and the government will implement policies that encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.

Strong International Relations

In terms of international relations, India in 2047 will be a respected member of the global community. The country will have strong diplomatic ties with many countries and will be a key player in regional and international organisations. It will have also taken a leading role in addressing and tackling major global challenges, such as climate change and terrorism. It will be working closely with other nations to find solutions to these pressing issues.

Embracing Technology And Innovation

For example, in 2047, India will become a leader in renewable energy, with a significant portion of its energy needs being met through solar and wind power. The government will implement policies that encourage the use of clean energy and invest heavily in developing infrastructure to support it.

A Nation Full Of Potential

In conclusion, India in 2047 will be a country that is full of potential and will have the potential to become a global leader in the 21st century. It will be a nation that has embraced technology, innovation, and education to drive its growth and development and will be well-positioned to take on future challenges.

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Essay on Role of Youth in Modern India

Students are often asked to write an essay on Role of Youth in Modern India in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Role of Youth in Modern India

The power of youth.

Youth are the backbone of any nation. In modern India, they play a crucial role in shaping the country’s future. They are the torchbearers of change and progress, brimming with innovative ideas.

Education and Development

The youth of India are actively participating in education. They are harnessing the power of technology to learn and grow, contributing to India’s development.

Political Participation

Youth are also becoming more politically active, voicing their opinions, and influencing policy-making. They are the driving force behind a more democratic India.

To conclude, the youth are the future of India. Their role in shaping a modern, progressive India cannot be overstated.

250 Words Essay on Role of Youth in Modern India

Introduction.

India, known for its rich culture and history, is now facing an era of change. At the heart of this transformation are the country’s youth, who make up a significant proportion of the population. Their role in shaping modern India is crucial.

The youth of India are the architects of tomorrow. They possess a dynamic spirit of innovation and disruption, which is crucial in a rapidly evolving world. As digital natives, they are at the forefront of technological advancements, driving India’s transition into a digital economy.

In the political sphere, the youth are not just spectators but active participants. They are increasingly involved in policy-making, leveraging social media platforms to voice their opinions and influence change. Their involvement is vital for a vibrant democracy.

Social Reformation

The youth are also pivotal in social reform. They challenge traditional norms and advocate for issues like gender equality, environmental sustainability, and human rights. Their progressive thinking fosters a culture of acceptance and inclusivity.

Challenges and the Way Forward

Despite their potential, the youth face several challenges such as unemployment and inadequate access to quality education. Addressing these issues requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders. Initiatives like skill development programs and educational reforms can equip the youth with the necessary tools to contribute effectively to the nation’s progress.

In conclusion, the youth are the torchbearers of change in modern India. Their energy, creativity, and resilience are invaluable assets in shaping a prosperous and inclusive future for the country.

500 Words Essay on Role of Youth in Modern India

The pivotal role of youth in modern india.

The youth of a nation are the torchbearers of its future, and this is particularly true for India, a country with more than 50% of its population under the age of 25. As India strides towards modernization, the role of its youth becomes increasingly significant.

Driving Economic Growth

India’s youth population is a potent economic force. The demographic dividend, a term coined to represent the economic potential of a young working-age population, is a key factor in India’s projected economic growth. The youth, with their innovative ideas, entrepreneurial spirit, and tech-savviness, are the driving force behind start-ups and technological advancements, propelling India towards becoming a digital and knowledge-based economy.

Promoting Social Change

The youth of India are not just economic contributors but social changemakers as well. They are at the forefront of social movements, advocating for equality, justice, and environmental sustainability. From participating in protests against social injustices to leading climate change initiatives, the youth are using their voices and digital platforms to effect meaningful social change.

Shaping the Political Landscape

The youth’s role in politics is also crucial. They are the new-age voters who can influence policies and the political landscape of the country. Their active participation in politics, either as voters or as leaders, can bring fresh perspectives and progressive ideologies, leading to more inclusive and future-oriented policies.

Nurturing Cultural Evolution

Cultural evolution is another arena where the youth play a key role. They are the custodians of India’s rich cultural heritage and are instrumental in its preservation. At the same time, they are also agents of cultural evolution, blending tradition with modernity and creating a unique cultural identity that reflects the diverse and dynamic spirit of modern India.

Challenges and Opportunities

Despite their potential, the youth of India face numerous challenges, including unemployment, inadequate educational opportunities, and mental health issues. Addressing these challenges is crucial for harnessing the full potential of India’s youth. This requires comprehensive policies and initiatives that focus on education, skill development, job creation, and mental health support.

In conclusion, the role of youth in modern India is multifaceted and crucial. They are the driving force behind economic growth, social change, political transformation, and cultural evolution. The challenges they face are significant, but with the right support and opportunities, they have the potential to shape a brighter and more progressive future for India. Their energy, creativity, and resilience make them not just the future leaders of the nation, but also its present-day architects.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Role of Youth in Development of India
• Essay on Reservation for Women in India
• Essay on Republic Day of India

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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