Western art critics have always considered Sen’s painting structure to be very western in approach, but irreverent in colour usage. By end 1990s, Sen started to make frequent visits from France to India. He realized then that Indian people used colours quite irreverently in their social and personal life, without following any dogma. So he depicts profound colour irreverence in his paintings.
When India was partitioned 1947 to create Pakistan, a new country for Muslims, about 20 million people of Bengal and Punjab were displaced and brutally victimized. Sen’s wealthy, literate family had huge landed property in erstwhile East Bengal, the present Bangladesh, which was carved out to be East Pakistan for Muslims. So for being Hindus Sen’s family was overnight evicted from their home. Without taking any possessions, they fled for their lives amidst people warring over religion, and so became squatted refugees in West Bengal.
