A new art show in Bengaluru displays the beautiful labels that sold British cloth to Indians

The co-production of imagery was made possible by a parallel revolution in print culture. Lithographic presses such as Calcutta Art Studio, Chore Bagan Art Studio, Chitrashala Press and The Raja Ravi Varma Press circulated religious prints, deities and mythological scenes across Indian homes, “which merchants co-opted to lend a quality of auspiciousness to their product.” These images were everywhere—not just on cloth but on matchboxes, bidi wrappers, cigarette cards and soap packaging. First, they became a tool of persuasion, and later, of nostalgia. By the early 20th century, even the iconography of India’s independence movement—flags, maps, Bharat Mata—began appearing on mill cloth, embedding nationalist symbolism into a product of colonial machinery.

The ongoing art show in Bengaluru brings this history vividly to life, drawing from a collection of more than 7,000 labels and related ephemera. “At one time in our not-so-recent history, these labels were everywhere, in markets and in homes,” Maurya says. “They’ve faded from public memory.” Over two years, the team digitised the collection and grouped the labels by imagery, intended use and emotional appeal.