Soumitra Das
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Published 19.12.20, 01:01 AM
Chittaprosad is the poster boy of protest. The deprived and the downtrodden find their voice in his extensive artwork, from his heartrending visual reportage of the devastating 1943 famine that took a heavy toll of human lives to his cartoons of despots and money-grubbers and his later visions of a life of paradisiac bliss in unspoilt backwaters. So, is it surprising that the relevance of the online exhibition,
People’s Artist —
Chittaprosad: In Solidarity, In Solitude (October 10-November 15), has increased manifold today? A time when the Opposition — fragmented and crushed though it is — is up in arms against the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s use of brute force to splinter the country along sectarian lines and to push through various legislations aimed at destabilizing the country’s democratic spirit and set-up. When the hard-won rights and interests of Indian farmers and workers are being sold out to crony capitalists. When Delhi is besieged by angry Punjabi farmers protesting against the new farm bills that promote corporate interests at agriculture’s expense. When dissent is equated with treason. And when the exodus of biblical proportions of millions of migrant labourers is still a living reality.