Jamini Roy (1887-1972)

In his poems Rabindranath Tagore presents the Santhals as honest and courageous people and although Roy's motivation for painting Santhals may have been differently inspired, between 1925 and 1931 his work was focused almost exclusively on this theme.   Archer states 'during his (Roy's) years of exile in Calcutta it was the essential sordidness of city life, its stark indifference to such simple qualities as kindness, honesty and affection which seem to have stunned him, causing him to recall with ardent affection the santals of his youth.'  (Archer, 1959, p. 106.)