In 2007, the Republic of India celebrated the 60th anniversary of Independence, proclaimed on August 15, 1947. During the anniversary celebrations, India remembered the heroes of the national liberation movement, in which literally the entire society participated, and, of course, the creative intelligentsia. Many artists entered a new era, reflecting, each in his own way, both the vision of events and the images of their contemporaries. With their creativity - open, truthful, sincere-they tried to be in tune with the mass anti-colonial impulse that swept the country. This could only be achieved by relying on the traditions of one's own national culture. Already in the 1920s, the restoration of many art forms that were on the verge of extinction during the years of colonial dependence began. In India, there were pockets of revival of traditional arts and crafts everywhere, despite the direct rejection of the colonial administration, which considered this art barbaric. The same attitude was applied to traditional Indian forms of theater, music, and dance. In Bihar, Brahmin women painted the walls of houses and inner rooms with images of the most revered gods and heroes, and the plot of the heroic epic "Ramayana" was interpreted in a modern way: the demon king turned into a collective image of an aggressive European colonizer. Meera Mukherjee, a sculptor, learned metal sculpture techniques from the Bas-Tara tribe. The arsenal of centuries-old tribal culture was part of the circulation of modern art. In the south of India, a temple dance was performed on the stage, which soon conquered the world audience. The famous Kathakali pantomime theater was being restored from oblivion. Each master was an individual, but there was something that united all of them, becoming the main component of their work - what was called "Indianness". The hero of our essay, the original Indian artist Jamini Roy (1887-1972), also belongs to the galaxy of artists who began to create at the turn ... Read more