An original study of the history of modern Indian art, this book tells the story of Indian art during the Raj, set against the interplay of colonialism and nationalism. The work addresses the tensions and contradictions that attended the advent of European naturalism in India, as part of the imperial design for the westernization of the elite, and traces the artistic evolution from unquestioning westernization to the construction of Hindu national identity. Through a wide range of literary and pictorial sources, Partha Mitter's work balances the study of colonial cultural institutions with the ideologies of the nationalist and intellectual movements that followed.