---
title: '''The Congress Cross or "Swastik"'' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896/
description: A young woman in a crown lettered 'Congress' receives from a bearded man, named in the caption as Mr.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[!['The Congress Cross or "Swastik"' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896.jpg)

# 'The Congress Cross or "Swastik"' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)

A young woman in a crown lettered 'Congress' receives from a bearded man, named in the caption as Mr. A. O. Hume, a staff bearing a swastika whose four arms read Persistent Activity, Union, Courage and Kindly Wisdom, ringed by 'In hoc signo vinces'. Tells: the sacred swastika and the Latin motto lend borrowed prestige to a party programme, and the four virtue words stand in for any testable claim.

- **Date:** February 1896
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Hindi Punch (Bombay illustrated satirical weekly), reproduced in 'Pickings from the Hindi Punch'
- **Region:** [South Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=south-asia)
- **Country:** [British India](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=british-india)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [British Raj](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=british-raj)
- **Leader:** [Victor Alexander Bruce](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=victor-alexander-bruce)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism), [Religion](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=religion)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hume_Punch_1896.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published in Bombay, 1896, before 1931; Commons tag PD-India) Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896 ('Pickings from the Hindi Punch'), via Wikimedia Commons

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
342 PICKINGS FROM THE HINDI PUNCH. [FEBRUARY, 1896.]

[lettering in the drawing: a crown lettered CONGRES[S]; around the sunburst IN HOC SIGNO VINCES; on the swastika arms UNION, COURAG[E], Persistent Activity, Kindly Wisdom]

THE CONGRESS CROSS OR "SWASTIK."
Mr. A. O. Hume—You take up your cross, my dear girl, and believe me when I say, in hoc signo vinces.
[Turning to their four-armed cross, the old fathers said, "In hoc signo vinces." You take up your cross, whose four arms are, Persistent Activity, Union, Courage, Kindly Wisdom; and believe me when I say in hoc signo vinces; on these lines you shall greatly prevail, and not only win unscathed through the dark days of the Tory winter now upon us, but in later and brighter times secure all that is essential to national progress, "all men can ask or heaven can grant."—Mr. A. O. Hume's message "To Friends in India."]

[Gujarati rendering of the same caption follows in smaller type; not transcribed.]
```

Some letters of the lettering inside the drawing are cut off or overlapped by the sunburst and the staff; those are bracketed. The Gujarati lines under the English caption were not transcribed.

[← Cuba's Heroes and Their Flag: Souvenir Lithograph of the Grand Cuban-American Fair](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cubas-heroes-and-their-flag-1896/) [Máquinas para fabricar yankées (Machines for Manufacturing Yankees) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/maquinas-para-fabricar-yankees-blanco-y-negro-1896/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)