New Work Times (May 16, 2012)
May 16, 2012, 5:33 AM
An Online Guide to India’s Political Cartoons
By MALAVIKA VYAWAHARE
R . Prasad/Mail Today
A recent cartoon published in the Mail Today newspaper, carried
caricatures resembling West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and
Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.
If India’s parliamentarians, who were recently incensed by a
63-year-old cartoon, decide it is time to eradicate any political
cartoons that might offend, where should they start? India Ink has put
together a short compilation of potential targets, compiled for cartoon
lovers and outraged politicians both.
While cartoons that appear in textbooks have loomed large in the news,
it is newspapers, of course, which have spawned thousands of distorted
caricatures and wickedly satirical cartoons.
Courtesy of Surendra/The Hindu
A cartoon by Surendra that appeared in The Hindu on April 14, 2012,
caricaturing Mamata Banerjee after her government arrested a professor.
The Times of India carries “Ninan’s World” by cartoonist Ajit Ninan,
who earlier produced the “Just Like That” cartoon series along with Jug
Suraiya, published bi-weekly in the Times of India.
Courtesy of Ajit Ninan/The Times of India
A cartoon by Ajit Ninan resembling politician Amar Singh that appeared
in The Times of India Mumbai on Sep. 7, 2011.
Mr. Ninan, incidentally, sides with the politicians on the
Ambedkar-Nehru cartoon issue. “The cartoon drawn by Shankar was
perfectly valid, for its time, but a cartoon has absolutely no business
in textbooks,” Mr. Ninan told India Ink. “I do not blame the
government or the protesters for what is happening, it is the babudom
that is responsible. Somebody in the NCERT made mischief by putting the
cartoon in a textbook.”
The Times of India also hosts a gallery of pioneering cartoonist R.K.
Laxman’s work on its Web site. Mr. Laxman is a Ramon Magsaysay Award
winner who created the hugely popular character “The Common Man.”
It also started a series called “Dubyaman,” which began as a spoof of
former United States president George W. Bush’s policies but acquired a
more national flavor later, poking fun at Indian politicians and
politics.
Courtesy of Shreyas Navare/The Hindustan Times
A cartoon caricature resembling Human Resource Development Minister
Kapil Sibal by Shreyas Navare, published in Hindustan Times Web site on
Dec. 6, 2011.
The Hindustan Times has its very own blog “Dabs and Jabs,” where
cartoonist Shreyas Navare jabs his pen into some political balloons.
Mr. Navare firmly steered India Ink away from a conversation on the
politics of cartoons when contacted by phone this week. “I make my
political comments through my cartoons,” he said.
“By trying to keep students away from cartoons they are being denied
the fullest scope of what democracy offers through a unique art form,”
said Mr. Navare, when asked about the recent controversy surrounding a
six-decade old cartoon of India’s constitutional authors, B.R. Ambedkar
and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Courtesy of Shreyas Navare/The Hindustan Times
A cartoon by Shreyas Navare in Hindustan Times, published on May 16,
2012.
Cartoonist Surendra adds color to the pages of the otherwise
politically conservative daily The Hindu. “The Nehru-Ambedkar
cartoon controversy is good and at the same time bad. This particular
cartoon may have been all right 60 years ago, but is definitely
offending to [a] large section of people. The people who chose to put
it in textbooks did it for wrong reasons.” Mr. Surendra said.
Courtesy of Surendra/The Hindu
A cartoon by Surendra in The Hindu, published on May 12, 2012, based on
an earlier cartoon by Shankar depicting Jawaharlal Nehru and B. R.
Ambedkar.
Outside the newspapers, there are dozens of private blogs, carrying the
published works of India’s famous cartoonists and of amateur artists.
There’s everything from Cartoon India, which claims to be the “first
daily updated cartoon Web site” to Cartoon Watch India the “only
monthly magazine” dedicated to cartoons.
Then there is the Indian Institute of Cartoonists, which the Web site
claims is the first of its kind in India, and the Kerala Cartoon
Academy based in Kochi.
Courtesy of Indian Institute of Cartoonists/Media Voice
The cartoon by Balraj K.N., that won second-prize in the Maya Kamath
Memorial Awards Competition-2011 organized by the Indian Institute of
Cartoonists.
The Kerala school has been proactively taunting politicians — it
launched an online exhibition of cartoons about West Bengal Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee, after she had Prof. Ambikesh Mahapatra
arrested for allegedly circulating a cartoon of Ms. Banerjee. Recently
it organized another online exhibition to honor Kesava Shankara Pillai,
better known as Shankar, who penned the Ambekar Nehru cartoon at the
center of the recent controversy.
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