The colourful patachitra that narrates this folklore, frame by frame, is to be found in the Gurusaday Museum near Joka, on the outskirts of Calcutta. The museum, with its red terracotta gate overlooking the bustle of Diamond Harbour Road, is an oasis of bucolic life. "For Gurusaday Dutt, the folk encoded a superior way of life," writes Rituparna Basu in the essay, "Gurusaday Dutt: A Pioneering Folk Ideologue and Collector". Basu draws attention to how Dutt used his government office to encourage and collect folk art. Dutt idealised Bengal's regional "folk art" traditions as the true embodiment of an indigenous artistic identity.

Source: The Telegraph February 03, 2018 19:07 UTC