'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
- Made by
- Hindi Punch (Bombay illustrated satirical weekly), reproduced in 'Pickings from the Hindi Punch'
- Region
- South Asia
- Country
- British India
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- British Raj
- Leader
- Victor Alexander Bruce
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Elections and party politics, Empire and colonialism, Religion
- Techniques
- TransferGlittering generalities
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, 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
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.
