Influence of British Colonialism and Freedom Struggle on Indian Art
Influence of colonialism and subsequent freedom struggle upon evolution of Indian art forms can be understood as follows:
Indian Paintings
The traditional Indian painting was versatile and was different in different parts of India. The art scene was so far dominated by images of Indian Gods, Goddesses, religious heroes etc. The British used the services of local artists to paint; but now subjects of those paintings changed to suit the European interest. British liked to take back home the paintings that portrayed their dominance in battles, and self portraits. Such images would now contain battle scenes with East India Flag, killing of Indian soldiers etc. The concept of self portrait was also made popular by British and was readily taken up by the Nawabs and Kings of those times. So far, Indians used natural dyes or water colours. The British introduced the oil colours and paint, which resulted in a sea change in colour texture and sea change. The work produced by Indians suitable to European trends and taste was called Company Style. Raja Ravi Verma mastered the art of Oil Paintings and established himself as a pioneer painter in Indian oil painting, though he focussed on Indian Mythology only.
By the end of 19th century, many institutions had opened under the Bengal School of Art. The photography and printers had also started exerting influence on art. The result of these developments was that art was now getting available to common people at cheaper cost. When the nationalist movement started, paintings with nationalist themes became popular. Painters such as Abanindranath Tagore led groups of nationalist painters. He portrayed Bhārat Mātā as a four-armed goddess wearing saffron-colored robes, holding the manuscripts, sheaves of rice, a mala, and a white cloth. This image soon become an icon to create nationalist feeling in Indians during the freedom struggle.
Language and Literature
At the time of conquest of East India Company, hardly people knew English. The language and literature developed due to spread of education, English language, people getting chance to visit abroad, learn new things and pen them down. By 1857, writings commenced in not only local languages but also English. Prose, poetry and drama was used as means to express and spread nationalistic feelings. The British influence could be seen in rise of political consciousness in India. This apart, the most important literary event that revolutionized literature was the emergence of literary prose in all the modern Indian languages and the advent of the printing press, under the patronage of an Englishman, William Carey at Serampore, Bengal.
Music and Dance
The influence of western music was not that much but both Hindustani Classical Music and Carnatic Music; and all Indian dances flourished during British India. In Bengal, Rabindra Sangeet became famous while various Music schools were set up in Gwalior, Pune, Lucknow, Indore, Jaipur, Banaras etc.
Architecture
British always wanted to convey their superiority during the British colonization of India. They not only used local archtects but also brought ideas from UK and many buildings in Gothic, Imperial, Christian and Victorian styles were erected across length and breadth of India.
Songs
For freedom fighters, Songs became an important medium to express their love for country and inspired them to fight the liberation struggle. This led many writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Mukunda das, Syed abu Mohammed, etc to write songs on freedom struggle, and way to express their agony over the prevailing colonialism. Tagore’s Amar sonar bangla on partition of Bengal, Bankim Chandra’s Vande mataram etc are few examples.
From the above discussion it could be very well concluded that both colonialism and its reaction that is freedom struggle helped in the growth of Indian art, and enhanced Indian realm of arts with new techniques and gave India a rich legacy in art forms.
