Japanese propaganda leaflet, 1944 circa (litho)

Japanese propaganda leaflet, 1944 circa. It depicts Winston Churchill chopping off the fingers of an Indian cotton industry worker. The text reads: ‘To save Manchester, the British rulers shed the blood of Indians and in return gave them hunger and poverty’. India once had a thriving cotton industry but under British rule this was dismantled by imposing high export duties and importing cheap milled cloth from northern cities like Manchester. As part of the attack on the Indian cotton industry there were also cases of the deliberate destruction of hand looms and even of Bengali weavers having their fingers or thumbs chopped off. India instead became a supplier of raw cotton. This was shipped to Britain and milled into cloth which was then sent back to India where the people were forced to purchase it rather than the local traditional hand woven goods. In 1921 Gandhi established his ‘Swadeshi’ (self-sufficiency) movement and called on Indians to spin their own cloth or purchase only hand-spun Indian cloth as a rebellion against British rule.