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Colonization is perhaps best understood as a process that unfolded over time than as a single historical event. In India and South Asia it began with the East India Company acquiring rights over land in different parts of the country, with the occasional political victories won on the battlefields. Since the Battle of Plassey (1757), their power over legislative and judicial matters grew steadily, backed by a strong military presence. Following the First War of Independence in 1857, the British Crown brought most parts of the Indian subcontinent under its direct rule, continuing to hold power until 1947.

The wash technique has come to be associated in India with the art of the Bengal School, but the story of its origins in India takes us back to an era of rich cultural exchanges. In the early twentieth century artists like Abanindranath Tagore were trying to imagine a pan-Asian cultural identity, and they turned for inspiration to traditions from across Persia to Japan. Rabindranath Tagore's friendship with Okakura Kakuzō occasioned the arrival of several Japanese artists in Kolkata, such as Yokoyama Taikan, Hishida Shunsō and Katsuta Shōkin. While the latter found inspiration in the Hindu epics, artists in Bengal adapted techniques that were used by the Japanese, such as the wash technique or the subtle use of ink and brush. Since then, the wash technique has been interpreted widely by individual artists, offering an ethereal quality of light to their works, or, in some cases, like for Gaganendranath Tagore and Prosanto Roy, new possibilities of painting in various shades of darkness.

A hop-in hop-off trail through the Calcutta underground metro rail, exploring the story of the murals that adorn the metro stations and enliven the everyday commute of millions of people.

Tracing the evolution of set design in Bengal, responding to the theatre archive at Natya Sodh Sansthan with scholar Trina Nileema Banerjee. 

A participatory reading and activity session with researcher Shreya Mukherjee to explore analogue photography of the 19th and early 20th century and the revival or adaptation of the medium in contemporary art.

A workshop on making botanical pigments with the Patachitrakars at Naya Village, who will share their songs and painted scrolls.

An interactive session with artist Maksud Ali Mondal on how his work with pigments from rocks, fungi and silt addresses transforming environments.

An interactive presentation by artist Sarmistha Bose on her contemporary engagement with pulp and natural fiber as a creative medium.

A talk by art historian Anshuman Dasgupta, investigating Somnath Hore’s exploration of pulp as an extension of his printmaking practice, focusing on his iconic ‘Wound’ series.

A guided walk of the first free circulating public library of India—Uttarpara Public Library—with researcher Sarbajit Mitra, traversing the history of regional literary cultures, and sifting through their vast archive to delve into the vibrant world of illustrated periodicals in colonial Bengal, followed by a poetry reading by Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee.