Chittaprosad Bhattacharya: The Bengal Famine
The revolutionary artist who became the voice of India’s suffering
In 1943, artist Chittaprosad Bhattacharya (1915 - 1978) produced an extraordinary eyewitness account of the Bengal Famine in a portfolio of 22 stark black and white sketches. The book, called Hungry Bengal: A Tour Through Midnapur District, depicted images of acute impoverishment, that were unseen by the world.
Chittaprosad’s artistic career began in the 1930s, as an illustrator and reporter for the Communist Party of India (CPI). He made propaganda posters, using Socialist tropes, celebrating the oppressed masses and caricatured politicians and colonizers.
But it was in his weekly feature Life Behind the Front Lines in the CPI newspaper, People’s War that he produced his most poignant reportage. Traveling by bus, boat and on foot, Chittaprosad reported on and drew pictures of hunger, illness, forced prostitution, abandoned villages, and uncaring corrupt officials in the famine-struck districts of Midnapore and Bikrampur.
Bengal suffered one of the worst human-derived famines in the world, which killed almost three million people. Given that the Second World War was taking place, the Famine was not covered by international media and was largely denied by the British Colonial powers.
Chittaprosad’s sketches of the people he found are considered one of the few tangible records of this event. His drawings were bold and graphic, yet not without empathy. He drew people with fissures and furrows in their skeletal bodies and eyes filled with despair. He captured the humanity of his subjects, often adding in-depth notes in margins and on the reverse of his sketch paper, that revealed their location, identity and struggles.
In one example, he wrote:
‘’This is hungry, disease-ridden, and virtually naked Rabi Raut, a kisan boy of Kadamdanga village, Balagor, Hooghly district. He has three younger brothers and a sister, all bed-ridden through protozoal infection, scabies, and cough.’’
Chittaprosad was a man fired by a passion to record the pain his people. His drawings show a sensitivity, and also anger at the ruling class that let this happen. He was drawing with a clenched fist.
By 1944, the world began to notice, including Calcutta’s premier newspaper, The Statesman, which began publishing photos of homeless migrants on the streets of the city. These photographs made world headlines and spurred government action.
Deaths from starvation, malaria and other diseases were aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions and lack of health care. The Famine was blamed on war-time disruption of food distribution, increased number of cyclones and floods, but primarily government policies.
The world was now watching how famine victims were treated by the colonial powers at the edge of a collapsing empire. India gained its independence from British rule in 1947.
Chittaprosad continued take commissions from newspapers, creating satirical political cartoons, and making woodcut prints in the style of Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada. He eventually distanced himself from organized politics and turned to making more personal work, that celebrated lovers, happy families, and the countryside. He also made puppets and performed shows for children.
Chittaprosad never lost his love for India and its people. He was deeply connected to the cause of peace and humanity, using graphic art to send a message to the world.
More about Chittaprosad:
There is an excellent essay by Anuska Guin on Chittaprosad Bhattacharya and the Bengal Famine of 1943 at Indigenous Web, 8.10.22
A retrospective of Chittaprosad’s drawings, paintings, linocuts, letters and published writings was held at the Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) in New York City in 2011.
You know I wrote a poem on this exact famine, of 1943. This incident is a blot on the face of humanity.
https://open.substack.com/pub/shubhamupman/p/the-children-of-the-queen-poem?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=62v0t5
Oh wow. This is simultaneously awful and extraordinary. Thank you.