Notes on Image Titles and ReproductionsAcknowledgementsChapter 1. Introduction1.1 Cold War Art Worlds: South Asian Art and Artists in Prague, 1947–19891.2 The Formation of Art Worlds and Artistic Careers through Mobility1.3 Cold War Art Worlds1.4 Prague: Co-creating Alternative Art Worlds1.5 Looking Towards India1.6 Activating Art History through the Archives1.7 The Mobility of South Asian Artists and Cold War Art WorldsChapter 2. A Pakistani Artist in Prague2.1 Visualising Transformation at a Crossroads in History2.2 Shakir Ali: Ideological Affiliations of Artist and Traveller2.3 Decolonisation and Sites of Production2.4 Codes of AffiliationChapter 3. Exhibiting and Collecting South Asian Art in Prague and Lidice3.1 Indian Art Exhibitions in Czechoslovakia and an Indian Art Collection in Prague3.1.1 Mobility across Waters and Divides3.1.2 Exhibiting India as a Collaborative Effort3.1.3 Fostering “Indicki-Czech[oslovak] Bhai-Bhai”3.1.4 Appreciation from the Margins3.1.5 Mobility across a “Curtain of Lace”3.1.6 Establishing a Collection of Modern Indian Art in Prague3.1.7 Curatorial Efforts to Foster Friendship3.1.8 The 1979 Indian Art Exhibition: Modernist Art at Home in Prague3.2 A Solidarity Collection in Lidice3.3 Exhibiting and Collecting South Asian Art in Socialist Central EuropeChapter 4. Individual Journeys to Prague4.1 Ram Kumar (1924–2018): Voyaging into Communism4.1.1 “Displaced Things”: Stranded between Locations4.1.2 Two-Person Exhibitions4.2 Maqbool Fida Husain’s Prague Connection: Mobility and Art Worlds4.2.1 The Perception of the Margin4.2.2 A Strong Connection with Prague: Intersecting and Co-creating Place4.2.3 Capturing Prague as a Significant PlaceChapter 5. Chittaprosad’s Immobile Mobility5.1 A Single Room with a Central Function5.2 A Single Room as a Stage for a Puppet Theatre5.3 Exhibiting in Prague5.4 The Anatomy of a Film about the History and Life of an Artist5.5 A Symbolic Personal FriendshipChapter 6. Conclusion6.1 Indian Art Students in Prague6.2 Czechoslovak Engagement with India through the Camera Lens6.2.1 Filmic Documentation about Cultural Exchange6.2.2 Moderní indickí maliari (1967)6.3 Final RemarksNotesBibliographyIndexPrague as a vital Cold War hub for South Asian artistsDuring the Cold War, the Central-European capital of Prague, alongside other locations in the polarized post-war world, emerged as a key site where an art world of particular importance for artists from South Asia developed. By emphasizing cultural mobility as a catalyst for exchange and network building, this book challenges and complicates assumptions about Cold War binaries of East and West and the polarization between so-called totalitarian regimes and free cultures. Positioning Prague as a nexus where South-Asian modernisms intersected with multiple peoples, histories, and ideologies in the post-World War II era, it offers a narrative of decolonization that rejected rigid systemic alignment in favor of participation across blocs by prioritizing migratory aesthetics over nationalist parochialism. Well-researched and rich in archival materials, this book proposes new ways of writing art histories and makes a significant contribution to both Cold War studies and critical global modernism studies.