New Delhi, July 30 -- The political context of the formation of IPTA was, to put it mildly, grim. Germany had overrun much of Europe during the Second World War. As discussed in the previous essay, in 1935, a global coalition of artists had created a platform to protest against the rising tide of fascism that threatened to submerge major parts of the world. Members of IPTA were greatly influenced by this coming together of artists and literary luminaries to resist the ideological onslaught of Nazism, which at that moment appeared alarmingly powerful.

The formation of IPTA is, in many circles, credited to the Communist Party of India. Like the PWA, many though not all members belonged to the organized Left. But they were all progressive a...