Eschewing his Brahmin surname that was indicative of his upper caste background, Chittaprosad was radicalized in the 1930s during his student days. Producing sharp satirical critiques of both feudal and colonial systems, the young autodidact was an active member of the Communist Party of India—though he later got disenchanted with it. Inspired by village sculptors, artisans and puppeteers, Chittaprosad rejected the classicism and spiritual preoccupations of the Bengal school as well as western academic style easel painting. Resorting to cheap and versatile mediums such as drawing in pen and ink, sketching, and linocuts, he produced stark, provocative renderings of the human condition, especially during the Bengal Famine of 1943–44. The drawings and reports were published in People’s War, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party and later culminated in a series called Hungry Bengal. An artist imbued with reformist concerns and aware of the needs of his time, Chittaprosad is heralded for his raw honesty and social consciousness as a creative mind.