Chittaprosad Bhattacharya (1915-1978) was born in West Bengal and became radicalized as a student of the Chittagong Government College in the mid-1930s. He joined the grassroots movement to resist both colonial oppression by the British, and also the feudal oppression of the landed Indian gentry. He satirized and sharply criticized the feudal and colonial systems in quickly drawn but masterful pen and ink sketches, and linocut prints with obvious propagandistic intent. Since these cheaply made prints were created for the masses, rather than the art gallery, they were seldom signed or numbered.

During World War II in 1943, Chittaprosad covered the Bengal Famine and used his art to expose it in various leftist nationalist media in the form of art, illustrating humans suffering from hunger that he had witnessed while traveling around that part of India.