Bharat Mata (Madre India)

Abanindranath Tagore made this small watercolor in 1905, the year Britain split the province of Bengal in two and set off a wave of protest across India. He first called her Banga Mata, Mother Bengal, and modeled her on an ordinary Bengali woman, though a colleague soon renamed her Bharat Mata, Mother India. She stands as a calm, saffron-robed figure with four hands, each holding one plain promise for the country's future: a sheaf of rice, a length of white cloth, a manuscript, and a string of prayer beads, food and clothing and learning and faith. During the boycott of British goods that followed the partition, the image was printed cheaply and passed hand to hand, travelling far beyond the single room where it was first shown.