The painting's central figure holds multiple items associated with Indian culture and the economy of India in the early twentieth century, such as a book, sheaves of paddy, a piece of white cloth and a garland.

In response, Indian nationalists participating in the swadeshi movement resisted the British by boycotting British goods and institutions, holding meetings and processions, forming committees, and applying diplomatic pressure. The movement began as a response to the Partition of Bengal (1905), when Lord Curzon split the largely Muslim eastern areas of Bengal from the largely Hindu western areas.

The work was painted during the Swadeshi movement. Havell had to bend much of the school rules to do this, and tolerated many of Tagore's habits including the smoking of hookah in the classrooms and refusing to stick to time schedules. He attempted to induct Tagore as the Vice Principal of the art school, which was faced with heavy opposition in the school. The meeting resulted in a series of exchanges between Havell and Tagore, with Havell gaining a native art collaborator with ideas in the same direction of his own, and Tagore gaining a teacher who would teach him about the 'science' of Indian art history. In about 1886 or 1887, Tagore's relative Gyanadanandini Devi had set up a meeting between Tagore and E.B Havell, who was the curator of the Government school of Art in Calcutta. In his early years, Tagore had painted in the European naturalistic style, evident from his early paintings such as The Armoury. Tagore had been exposed to learning art when he first studied at the Sanskrit College in Kolkata in the 1880s. The painting was the first illustrated depiction of the concept and was painted with Swadesh ideals during the larger Indian Independence movement.Ī nephew of the Indian poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath was exposed at an early age to the artistic inclinations of the Tagore family. The work depicts a saffron-clad woman, dressed like a sadhvi, holding a book, sheaves of paddy, a piece of white cloth, and a rudraksha garland (mala) in her four hands. However, the painting was first created by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the 1870s. Bharat Mata is a work painted by the Indian painter Abanindranath Tagore in 1905.

BHaratha matha pictures