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The Alternate Nation of
Abanindranath Tagore
That the book was about the great artist, Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of a national school of the early 20th century Indian painting, popularly known today as the Bengal School, was only incidental. But I did not regret my impulsive decision even for a moment when I began reading it and enjoying the visual treat in the form of photographs of Tagore’s paintings the book contains. In recent times, many art historians have attempted to study the role artists played in the history of Bengal Renaissance and the understanding of nationalism. Debashish Banerji, art historian and the great-grandson of Abanindranath Tagore, treads on an off-beaten track to propose an alternative nationalist art theory, which he puts forth in these words: "My contention is that the central concern in the art of Abanindranath Tagore is not the normalisation of nationalist or Orientalist principles, but a critical engagement with post-Enlightenment modernity as the underlying paradigm behind colonialism and nationalism." In other words, the author has made an attempt to look at Abanindranath Tagore’s works from the contemporary discourses of subaltern historiography. Viewed from the post-colonial perspective, his study looks at his subject through the prism of Bengal regionalism and the evolving ideas of nationalism. Naturally enough, the emphasis is on how the artist turned to folk art and popular cultural forms like Bengal’s traditional ‘Vaishnava kirtan’ and Bengali women’s ritualistic art called ‘alpona’ for inspiration. Born into the ‘bhadralok’ family of the Jorasanko Tagores, Abanindranath Tagore’s academic training in art began with Italian artist Olinto Gilhardi and English teacher Charles Palmer. Banerji pinpoints his point of departure from the European influence to the Krishna Lila paintings in 1897-98, a time when the literary expression of the Bengal Renaissance was already well established. The Krishna Lila also marks the amalgamation of two opposite cultures—the Hindu religious practices as also those of Islam. And in the process of tracing those sub-cultural roots, the author takes us to the time of Dwarakanath Tagore, the grandfather of Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore and great-grandfather of Abanindranath Tagore. Dwarakanath is the first most prominent member of the Jorasanko Tagore clan. We learn that his family branched off from the Jessore Vaishnav Brahmin family of Kusharis, popularly known as Pirali Brahmins in the 15th century. The three most prominent schools, which influenced Abanindranath Tagore’s work, were British watercolour painting, Mughal miniatures and Japanese paintings. And this is where the author brings in E. B. Havell and Okakura Kakazo’s contribution to his artistic life. Havell came to India in 1884 as the superintendent of the Madras School of Art and became the Principal of the Calcutta Art School in 1896. This is where he discovered Abanindranath Tagore whom he appointed as Vice-Principal of the school. Okakura had something in common with the Bengali artist, like Abanindranath Tagore’s ‘Pirali Brahmin’ ancestry. Okakura, too, came from a samurai ancestry of questionable rank. United by this common thread, they both embarked the journey from the pre-modern to the modern. Though Havell categorised Abanindranath Tagore’s paintings as ‘national art’, the author differs on this point by arguing that his works of that period did not derive its identity from the forms of classical Indian art. Rather, it was Mughal miniatures and rasa aesthetics that imparted ‘Indianness’ to his works. Banerji argues his points well and brings in other expert opinion to give the reader a wider perspective. Many of Abanindranath Tagore’s paintings, the author has used for illustration, make it interesting both as a reference book and a collector’s item. So, when the subject is Abanindranath Tagore and the writer is Debashish Banerjee, one can safely choose the book, impulsively or otherwise.
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SOMETIMES it’s okay to
judge a book by its cover. Most people do so as leading publishers
aver and spend lots of money on designing attractive covers. That’s
exactly what I did when I picked up this book for no other reason than
its enticing look.