People’s history No longer can these display prints, that once used to occupy pride of place in middle-class Indian homes, be written off either as kitsch or banalities. They represent the common man’s response to the momentous events of late-19th and mid-20th century that climaxed with the Independence of India. Bharat Mata: India’s Freedom Movement in Popular Art by Erwin Neumayer and Christine Schelberger (
Oxford, Rs 2,750) presents a gallery of popular prints mass produced — many, ironically, in Europe — to rouse Indians from a deep slumber to take up arms and protect a nation visualized as the Mother for whom her worthy sons would sacrifice themselves. Bharat Mata herself served as a milkmaid decanting the nourishing beverage for Britannica and carried the body of Gandhi in her lap, Pietà fashion. The Calcutta print of Jinnah’s burial and of Chacha Nehru present the two strands of this grand narrative.