“To speak the truth is our vow. 
 Our work will be to establish the truth. 
 We shall follow the path trodden by great men and women. 
 We shall serve the poor and downtrodden. 
 That will be our religion…. We shall shun violence, speaking ill of others, 
 And spreading rumors. 
To speak the truth is our vow, 
 And to follow the path trodden by great men and women. 
” –Patuas Creed, Nanigopal Chitrakar from Naya Village in West Bengal (Korom, 2006, 9)

A mix of artist, magician, singer, actor, news reporter, and public speaker, the Patuas of Bengal might most accurately be introduced as contemporary artists first. It just so happens that the artist caste has been performing with narrative scrolls for millenniums. (Fig 1.1-1.2) Only recently, however, have their colorful scrolls reached the walls of international museums such as the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The excerpt of the Patuas Creed quoted at the top of this paper, written by Nanigopal Chitrakar, communicates their mission as storytellers as well as an inherent political tension. They’ve occupied a crucial position as indigenous storytellers but have also been scrutinized over the centuries by those in power.

Bengal has a complicated history of constant foreign political dominance. Various groups—the Hindus, Muslims, and British—changed the country’s cultural, political, and social landscape. Though the Patuas consider themselves to be of Muslim or Hindu descent, historically they were neither. They predate them and evolved separately from them (Hindu society in particular) because of Bengal’s geographic location in the Northeast of India proper. [1]

The Patuas paint in a traditional style or “folk” but are often called contemporary because of the themes that they incorporate into their work. Today, they are even moving away from religious and indigenous subject matter. Defining a “Patua style” remains complicated. They’ve been painting for millenniums, so their work has naturally undergone stylistic changes. But guidelines and canons have been sustained throughout their history such as responding to current events though it is only currently that their scrolls are beginning to appear in exhibitions and collaborations with artists abroad.

Their big break came with their inclusion in the Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India, an exhibition organized by the Asia Society and Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2005. It assembled an outpour of creative expression from India across mediums that came out of the previous decade, one marked by enormous changes in every sector: social, political, cultural, economic. The exhibition propelled them to greater fame because their art didn’t seem to fit into traditional or contemporary modes of representation.

In 2006-2007, they received their first solo exhibition at the International Folk Art Museum of Santa Fe. I went to meet these scrolls in person. And it should come as no surprise as to why the International Folk Museum invited the Patuas to showcase their work in Santa Fe.

A territory once in the country of Mexico then usurped by the United States, the state of New Mexico suffered, much like Texas did, under the political turmoil of shifting governments and hosts a piquant if not controversial blend of cultures because of it. They have a vested interest as a booming artistic center with the most galleries in the United States outside of New York in artists who grapple with cultural and individual identity.  

Curated by Frank Korom and Felicia Katz Harris, the exhibition seeks to “examine how the Patuas are keeping their art alive in today’s changing world of West Bengal” (Korom 2006, 14). As has always been the case with this caste. The curatorial direction, with the pairing of videos of their performances with scrolls and photographs, seeks to introduce the Patuas to visitors with a multi-media presentation. Before a scroll is seen, a song is heard by Swarna Chitrakar. They are performers first, in other words, so the exhibition appropriately leads with their primary if not “traditional” role.

A museum label accompanies each scroll along with a photograph of the artist, personalizing the meeting between artist and audience rather than simply presenting a generic scroll from Bengal.[2]

A scroll is rarely published in its entirety in reproductions in books and publications, and a scroll must be seen in its entirety to fully appreciate its aesthetic quality, its complexity, as well as the pictorial story. These scrolls were originally designed to be digested along with a performance, song, or speech since these words are one and the same for the Patuas of Bengal. The contemporary landscape continues to influence their subject matter since one of their main characteristics is adapting to the times.

The exhibition alone highlights the tension around labeling the Patuas “folk” or “contemporary” being that the show is inside an international folk art museum, and yet, the Patuas are finding their work also hung at the most prestigious contemporary art galleries in New York and abroad now. 

According to Frank Korom, the exhibition curator, “they allow innovation to creep into their tradition by traditionalizing it…by taking new elements and casting them in a familiar indigenous mold” (Korom 84). They tackle “unusual” subject matter such as AIDS awareness and prevention, the French Revolution (as newscasters, even) and pop culture references through a Bengali or, more broadly speaking, Indian lens. That wide range of subject matter has only been made possible by the technological developments in mass media in recent centuries. New scholarship has labeled them something more like innovative traditional artists. However, this paper seeks to bring “traditional” and “modern” into question as terms.

Scholarship has focused on “what” they’re doing but not “why,” a question that extends to the Western consumer—why are the Patuas interesting to us?  To explore that, I’ll focus on two scrolls: Oil Trade Center (2001-2002) by Manu Chitrakar and Titanic (2003) by his sister Swarna Chitrakar.

As subjects, 9/11 and Titanic, the major motion picture, aren’t religiously or secularly related to their culture. Swarna and Manu Chitrakar are telling contemporary and even foreign stories that are present in India, all the same. 

Frank Korom commends their ability to adapt to the demands of a rapidly changing world, and it has always been that way, so wouldn’t that make them contemporary artists? Firstly, their presence in India is prehistoric. They weren’t Hindu or Indian originally. Even very early Patua paintings dealt with contemporary if not foreign subject matter which they appropriated to survive the changing political, social, and religious landscape.

Scholarship on the Patuas was done in the nineteenth century under British occupation[3], but this paper seeks to refocus the Patuas as international artists who continue to redefine themselves in a contemporary context. They are performers, so their scrolls were more akin to theatrical props, but in today’s world, scrolls are marketable and performances are not, so their work is shifting once again to meet the moment as it really is. They still consider themselves to be speakers, however, as is stated in the Patuas Creed. They’re “speaking the truth” rather than painting the truth.

After World War II, the United States rose as a superpower. It is no secret that the direction of our foreign policy has been questioned even if we consider how that moment in history and later the Fall of the Berlin Wall marked the expansion of American influence and business development abroad. Interest in India continues to grow exponentially as the country emerges into the economic sphere as a competitive player. American culture is very present and influential in India today which is one of the reasons why it’s making an appearance in the Patuas canon.

With yet another cultural and political influence infiltrating the fabric of their daily lives, once again, they are responding as they have “traditionally done,” so they straddle if not complexify the ideas that one might even associate with the terms “folk” or “modern.” The Patuas “traditionalize what is contemporary,” which is why they are “folk,” but is “traditional” necessarily “folk?” And does “tradition” as a word command more respect than “folk” does simply because longevity and legacy are wrapped up in that word? It stands the test of time, in other words. It’s important culturally speaking. It even generates the feeling of belonging. Real ties. History. 

Let’s find out.

-End of introduction (more coming soon).

[1] The Patuas have an ancient history in the region of Bengal that spans millennia. They are considered to be of Austro-Asiatic descent. They predate the arrival of the Indo-Europeans who migrated to the region and brought with them the Vedic religion. The Indo-Europeans did not travel to Bengal until much later, although the exact date is dubious, but it has been speculated somewhere around the 8-10th centuries B.C.E For more information see: Anthropology for North-East India: A Reader: Indian Anthropological Congress Commemorative Volume/edited by Arabinda Basu, Biman K. Das Gupta and Jayanta Sarkar. Calcutta, Indian National Confederation and Academy of Anthropologists, 2004,

[2] This is significant because it’s new—the Patuas are considered to be a part of a caste. They are seen as being a group and community of painters. This emphasis on individual expression is a Western notion—no Patua artist signs their work although there are clear stylistic differences between the artists.

[3] David McCuthion was the first to compile any information on the Patuas in the mid-twentieth century, see: McCutchion, David and Bhowmik, Suhrid. Patuas and the Art of Bengal. Firma KLM Private LTD. Calcutta, Bengal. 1999

Ghosh, Pika. Unrolling a Narrative Scroll: Artistic Practice and Identity in Late Nineteenth Century Bengal. The Journal of Asian Studies 62, no. 3 (August 2003):835–871. 2003 by the Association for Asian Studies