Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.77.5
Object Name
Poster
Title
Indian farmers produced enough food not only fortheur own people
Date
1972-1982
Description
The Poster Collective was a collective formed in 1971 at the Slade School of Art,  a group formed to initially produce posters in response to the miners strike and on the wars in both Vietnam and Ireland. It was formed on the basis of developing a coherent visual style, which addressed the political issues of the time. This included the armed struggles against colonialism in Africa, the struggle of women for equal rights and the continuing struggle against racism. The collective was active in the 70's and 80's, producing posters on a wide range of issues, including for educational purposes. The group was not-for-profit and used a variety of hand-printing techniques to create their posters. This poster is part of a set, "Whose World is the World?", comprising of twelve that were created for schools. The set depicts a different view of history and puts forward ways of understanding the basis for the development of Western economic power over the last 400 years. It was produced in 1979
and is the fifth poster in the set. This poster is red, blue, black and white. There is a large red image in the shape of the India (on a map). There are images of people working, British imperialists, palm trees, and a white drawing of the Taj Mahal. The top left of the poster has a photograph of an Indian woman holding bricks on her head; there is a speech bubble coming out of her mouth reading, "Today, people think of India as a poor country...but before the British conquered it, my country was a land of great wealth." There are also images of Indian soliders holding guns, next to a horse. The bottom two images show a map of India and Africa with text and arrows. The text on this says cloth manufactured goods, tea, jute, raw cotton, dyes. Many Indian workers were also sent to various parts of the Empire to eorkfor thr British."The bottom right image is a painting of workers on a tea plantation, with a white imperialist sat down telling them what to do. The text across the poster
reads, "Indian farmers produced enough food not only for their own people but also for export to other countries Indian workshops made fine cotton and silk cloth some of which was sent to Europe. The British were only able to conquer India after a series of long, hard battles. Britain stole over £50 million of treasure from India. In the early 1800's, the British broke up the Indian cloth industry so that cloth made in England could be sold in India. Thousands of workers lost their jobs...The British began to use Indian Land and workers to grow food and raw materials cheaply (such as tea and jute) to send to Britain. So Britain got cheap goods and workers, while India got hungr and unemployment." This poster was printed by Gaffyne & Brown Ltd. and says it was "designed by the poster film collective and distributed by the institute of race relations.
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