Portrait - 15 x 10 in.

Landscape - 10 x 15 in.

Circa 1940

The freedom struggle in India saw a lot of posters made by Indians to unite the masses to oppose the British Raj. These posters or prints were often considered to be seditious material and were confiscated by the British. However, these were still distributed and stuck in public places by freedom fighters. They were often written in English and Hindi to be relatable to as many people as possible. Posters were an easy way to get certain artists work to the public as it was low cost and the printing industry had perfected color lithography and allowed mass production possible. Kanpur ( then called Cawnpore) was a hub for printing presses during 1930 - 1946 and many of the freedom struggle and nationalist themed posters were made there. Shyam Sunder Lal Agrawal was a well-known publisher in Kanpur and was responsible for many nationalist posters during the 1940s. Most of his posters were confiscated and very few posters remain today.