How did an Italian Prisoner of War end up Painting These Beautiful Frescoes in a Dehradun Church?

An Italian friar who lived between 1181 and 1226 and became one of Christianity’s most revered figures, St Francis’s legacy has been a part of Indian history since the 16th century, when the order of mendicants he founded arrived in Kochi from Portugal. In Dehradun, his story was rendered for public viewing by another Italian, an artist who found himself in the city against his will and for whom the saint became a literal means of deliverance.

On a plaque affixed to the wall next to one of St Francis Church’s entrances is a timeline of events significant to the institution. Established in 1856, the church was rebuilt in 1910 after an earthquake destroyed the original building. The murals came much later. “1946: Events of the life of St. Francis of Assisi painted by the Italian artist Nino La Civita. Arranged by Ft. Luke OC.” Who was this painter? Why did he make frescoes in a church a continent and an ocean away?

In a 2013 article for Marg magazine, Being Italian in British India: Father Luca and the artist Nino La Civita, art historian Luca Zordan gave a detailed account – probably the only in the English language – of who La Civita was and how he ended up painting St Francis in the Himalayas. Born in 1910 in the central Italian town of Sulmona, La Civita trained at the local art school before studying at the Sacred Art School in Rome. During this period, he painted religious works and copied paintings in Italy’s National Gallery of Modern Art, mastering “the techniques of graphics, wall painting and fresco”. In 1937, La Civita came to India with a teacher of his – “Professor Ballerini” – and in the following years, contributed art and decor to the mansions of prominent Indian families, including that of the Tagores. But this freelance idyll was about to come to an end. On June 1, 1939, World War II broke out in Europe. Two days later, the government of India issued the Enemy Foreigners Order. Citizens of Mussolini’s Italy were deemed enemies of Britain and its colonies, and made prisoners of war. On June 2, 1940, Nino La Civita was arrested in Calcutta, divested of his paints, brushes and paintings, and sent to an internment camp.

In British India, prisoners of war were held at various places. One secondary source lists camps in at least 15 locations: Bangalore, Bhopal, Ramgarh, Yol, Bikaner, Nainital, Kodaikanal, Katapahar, Poona, Purandhar, Yercaud, Calcutta, Ahmednagar, Deolali, and Dehradun. In Dehradun, there were two camps – at Clement Town and Prem Nagar. Initially imprisoned in the camp in Ahmednagar, La Civita was transferred the next year to the one in Deolali and finally in 1942 to the Central Internment camp at Prem Nagar, Dehradun, where he stayed till his release. Prem Nagar is perhaps among the most well-known PoW camps of World War II because of the prison break story of Austrian mountaineer and erstwhile Nazi Party member Heinrich Harrer, whose memoir Seven Years in Tibet was made into a film.

Though very little is known about the Italian prisoners of war in Dehradun, some historical context to La Civita’s incarceration at Prem Nagar is provided in an article by historian Joseph Cronin titled The operation, experiences and legacy of the Prem Nagar Central Internment Camp at Dehra Dun in British India, 1939-present. Large, relatively well-equipped for a prison, intended for long-term internment, and supposedly compliant with the 1929 Geneva Convention, the all-male Prem Nagar camp held Germans (including Nazis), Italians and – controversially – Jewish refugees. While focussing on the predominantly German prison population of the Prem Nagar camp (most Italians were interned at Clement Town), Cronin’s article does establish that the camp was divided into seven wings, of which one was Campus Italicus.

So, how did La Civita go from being an inmate painting life in Campus Italicus to a church frescoer in downtown Dehradun? At Prem Nagar, Zordan tells us, La Civita met a fellow Italian, Father Luca Vannucci. A Capuchin missionary from Tuscany, Vannucci first arrived in India in 1910, serving Sardhana and Saharanpur, before returning to Italy. His second India stint was far more impactful. Based in Delhi between 1919 and 1940, he was chaplain to the British army stationed there and garnered the patronage of the British elite, including then vicerine Lady Willingdon (1931-1936) to build the Sacred Heart Cathedral in the city. Quoting Vannucci’s own writings, Zordan states that by 1942, when La Civita arrived there, the Prem Nagar camp held around 300 Italian missionaries, “I, Luca Vannucci among them.” The priest continues: “It was in this circumstance that I met the dear Nino, a fellow in adversity.” But deliverance was nigh. Vannucci’s high-profile British connections came to his rescue – the priest was released after six months, along with five other older missionaries, due to the intervention of the governor of the United Provinces. On being released, Vannucci became the parish priest of the St Francis Church of Assisi, Dehradun. Four years later, he commissioned “dear Nino” to paint pictures of the saint in the church dedicated to him. By 1946, the war was over, but La Civita wished to stay on in India. His friend Father Luca gave the government of India Rs 5,000 as a guarantee to secure official permission for La Civita “to stay with him and paint (‘pitturargli’) the church” for another five months.

La Civita may have arrived in the North Indian mountains against his will, but after the war, the artist stayed on in the region for a few years. Zordan tells us that his al fresco paintings (watercolours and oils) and chalk-on-paper sketches of landscapes, people and temples in Mussoorie and the surrounding areas constituted a “Himalayan Types” that was exhibited in 1950 at the Annual Exhibition of the Art Academy in Calcutta. He even responded to events and personas that inaugurated the life of independent India. One of his works, titled Indian Republic 26 January 1950, commemorated the day India officially became a republic, with MK Gandhi as part of the mise en scène. Another was a portrait of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.