Married Fatima (who is was parted from during partitition to Pakistan). Raza wanted to stay in the multi-religious India rather than go to Pakistan which was formed on the grounds of one religion. He sat the Sir J.J School of Art entrance exam aged twenty which he passed in fourth place amongst students from all over India. 

Exhibited two unframed gouaches at the Cama Hall Art Society of India. His works were reviewed by the art critic Rudy von Leyden in the Times of India who praised his works as the most important in the show. 

Travelled extensively in India to such places as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and southern Inida.

Professor Walter Langhammer of the Vienna Academy took over as the Art Director of the Times of India in Bombay. He lent Raza his studio to work in. He also gave opinions on his paintings and helped him analyse them. Studied works by the impressionists as well as the Bengal renaissance school. Studied Coomarswamy and Herbet Reed. Also introduced to the collector Emmanuel Schlesinger owner of the pharmaceutical group Indo-Pharma who became a patron of his work.

Awarded the Silver Medal, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai.

Raza’s father dies in Mandla. 

Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated on the 30th January 1948 by a Brahim fanatic.

His four brothers and sister leave for Pakistan.

Finishes at the J.J School of Art. 

First Progessive Artist’s show in July at the Artist’s Salon at Rampart Row later called the Bombay Art Salon, opened by Dr. Mulkraj.

Raza, along with the film maker K.A Abbas and the actor Balraj Sahni, were invited by Sheikh Abdullah to tour Kashmir. Led to a series of watercolours exhibited in Delhi and inaugurated by Rudi von Leyden. 

Awarded the Gold Medal, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai. 

Commissioned to paint watercolours of South India to be reproduced in a calendar of the Volkart Brothers. This was a Swiss Company in India between the years of 1945 – 1949 founded in 1851 in 

Winterthur, Switzerland, by Salomon and J.G. Volkart. It was set up to establish direct commercial relations between India and Europe, initially focusing on the import of raw cotton to Switzerland enabling a high quality local textile business and export of manufactured goods to India. Rudolf von Leyden worked as a Publicity Manager for Volkart Brothers. Employees of the company were able to acquire the original watercolours of the calendar.

Visits an exhibition of ancient Indian sculptures and one of European prints in New Delhi, both of which affect him deeply.

Summer exhibition of paintings in Srinagar, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Here he encounters Henri Cartier-Bresson who advised him to give his paintings more structure by studying the works of Paul Cezanne.

Held an exhibition at the Institute of Foreign Languages, Outram Road, Bombay. 

Advised by Claude Journot, the councilor at the French Embassy in India, advised Raza to learn French in order to be eligible for a scholarship by the French government. He spent one year studying French attending classes.

Passed two language tests of the Alliance Française in 1950.

Awarded a two-year scholarhip by the French Government.

Left for France in the September accompanied by Akbar Padamsee and Premela Coelho reaching Marseille on 2nd October, then onto Paris by train on the 3rd October. Met at the Gare de Lyon station by Ram Kumar in Paris who was already resident in the city who found Raza a room at a hotel on the Rue Delamere in the Montparnasse quarter.

Went to see his first French exhibition of Matisse collages at the Maison de la Pensée Française. 

Enrolled at the recently opened studio of Edmund Heuzé at the École Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris. Studied there between 1951 – 1953.

Spent time with the industrialist Jean Riboud and his wife Krishna, Henri Cartier-Bresson, the filmmaker Jehangir Bhownagary and other friends. 

During his time in France he visits Autun, Vézelay, Chartres, Carcassonne, Privas, Avignon, Aix-en-Provenance and Menton.

Moves to new quarters at the Cité Universitaire.

Commissioned by Mr. Petit-Duteil, the manager of Club des Beaux Livres de France, a publishing house, to design book covers for writers like Emile Zola, Edgar Allan Poe and Prosper Mérimée. 

Rented a room on Rue Chaptal from Mrs. Grillet, the wife of a worker at Renault.

Awarded the coveted Prix de la Critique, Paris. The only foreign artist to achieve this feat in France.

Participated in an exhibition organised by the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris under the title ‘Les Arts en France et dans le Monde’. Also participated in the Venice Biennale.

Exhibited in Tokyo and at the Zwemmer Gallery in London.

Work was shown at the Biennales of Brussels and São Paulo. 

Exhibited at Galerie Lara Vincy in a show titled ‘Prix de la Critique 1956’. Also exhibited at the Graham Gallery, New York where Mrs. John D. Rockefeller bought Village Church, 1958. 

Rented a studio on the Rue des Fossés Saint-Jacques next to the Panthéon. 

Travelled through France.

Karl Kasten, a professor at the University of Berkely in California noticed Raza’s paintings exhibited at Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris and offered him the post of visiting lecturer for three months at the University of Berkeley. 

Leaves for New York with his wife. Introduced to the work of Hans Hofmann, Sam Francis and Mark Rothko which has a profound effect on his artistic sensibility. Visited San Francisco and Chicago where he saw the architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Returned to New York where he had been invited for a month by the Rockefeller Foundation. During this time he stayed at the Chelsea Hotel. 

Starts to move towards acrylics.

Returned to Paris to a studio apartment on Avenue Secrétan, near Buttes-Chaumont. 

Bal Chhabda gives Raza a studio apartment on Napean Sea Road where Raza stays with his wife and and paints for 3 months.

Finally got a studio for himself in the April and wrote delightedly to Krishna Khanna about it.

Started using acrylics on a regular basis.

Invited by Richard Bartholomew to take part in the New Delhi Triennale where he exhibited his painting Maa, 1981.

Awarded the Kalidas Sanman by the State Government of Madhya Pradesh and the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

Took part in the Festival of India exhibition at the Royal Academy of London. 

Elected a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Academi in New Delhi.

Michel Troche, the Paris Fine Arts Inspector, selected Raza as one of the nine artists to take part in the exhibition Artistes Indiens en France at the Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques in Rue Berryer. Raza exhibited twelve canvases including Maa, Rajasthan and Satpura.

The Chester Herwitz Collection selected two works by Raza, Rajasthan, 1981, and Terra Amata, 1984, to be included in the Geneva exhibition Coup de Coeur.

Has a one-man show at Galerie Pierre Parat entitled Quinze Ans de Peinture 1971 – 1985. He exhibits recent works alongside older ones like Village, 1956, Paysage, 1957 and La Forge, 1971. 

Had a one man show at Galerie Eterso, Cannes entitled RAZA: ‘Bindu’ ou la quête de l’essentiel. Exhibited such works as Bharat, 1990, Kaliyan, Jala Bindu, Germination I, Gestation, Fertilité, Bindu, Kundalini and Plénitude.

Has a major exhibition called Rétrospective 1952 – 1991 at the Palais Carnolè, Musée des Beaux Arts at Menton. The first time that most of his important works were reunited.

Exhibited at Gallery 54, New York at a show organized by Sharan Apparao exhibiting such works as Genesis, 1999.

Retrospective at Berkeley Gallery, London organized by Saffronart.

Publication of A Life in Art – Raza by Ashok Vajpeyi.

Publication of Raza by Alain Bonfand.

Receives the Padma Vibhushan.