Riten Mazumdar : Designing New Aesthetics

Ushmita Sahu

In the decades following Independence, India witnessed the rise of a collective consciousness of modernist agenda in design inspired by nationalist cultural and economic policies adopted by the new government. An innovative breed of post-colonial designers were engaged in changing the idiom of contemporary design based on swadeshi ideology and the radical shift in India’s nationalist programme. Nehru’s vision of Independent India and nation building sought to reconcile western science, technology and modernisation of agriculture on one hand, even as he emphasised the rebuilding and revival of small, rural and cottage industries and indigenous handicrafts represented by the artisancraftsman. The latter was considered an important part of national heritage, therefore intrinsic to the agenda of agrarian reform.