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concept:movement progressive artists india

Bharat Mata

Painting by M. F. Husain (2005). Depicts a large female nude figure — Mother India — with the geographic shape of the Indian subcontinent superimposed. One of the principal works cited in the Hindu nationalist campaign that resulted in over 900 criminal cases and Husain's exile.

Scholarly Significance

Critical reception / political context anchor: Husain's Bharat Mata is the focal work of the Hindu nationalist controversy.

Notes

  • ·A direct iconographic response to Abanindranath Tagore's Bharat Mata (1905).
  • ·The Hindu nationalist campaign targeted this and earlier nude-goddess works.
  • ·Husain maintained that nude representation in Hindu art has ancient canonical precedent.
  • ·Over 900 criminal cases across India's states followed.