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Somnath Hore

The wounded nature of Somnath Hore’s works, particularly those depicting the Bengal famine of 1943, reveals his deeply humanist sensibilities. British colonial policies that redirected grain and fundamental supplies away from the people of Bengal to British war efforts created a man-made famine in Bengal, leading to the death of over 3 million people.

This woodcut print depicts a dejected mother crouched on the ground, with her hand on an empty bowl in front of her, perhaps waiting for someone to provide some necessary food for her child, who stands next to her. The effects of the famine are visible, both the figures are emaciated, eyes and cheeks hollow, and bodies reduced to skin and bones. The child extends one of his hands forward, in a plaintive gesture of appeal for some food or perhaps money. The abject nature of their condition has stripped them of all their dignity.

Hore’s visual language including the despondent nature of it stemmed from his life experiences – the loss of his father at a young age, the threat of Japanese bombings during World War II in the Eastern part of the country, and the profound horrors of the Bengal famine of 1943.