Conversations With Indian Cartoonists

Picking up the pen is, sometimes, like playing with fire, especially in the business of political cartooning. In a profession of stroke-and-tell, where less is more, the brooding cartoonist turns everyday events into spaces for engagement. They draw the line between concern and apathy to bring issues into public view, invariably, shaking us out of our inattentional blindness. After all, they are a tribe––an endangered one––with the silly belief that the funny bone must be tickled. Cartooning in India––a Raj legacy––has come a long way from its colonial beginnings and Punch-imitations. Since Independence, newspapers have hosted the bold and often audacious irreverence of the likes of Shankar and R. K. Laxman. Their laconic lines gave the “Common Man” the voice of an honest opinion. This volume presents conversations with India’s leading political cartoonists which take us into that recondite art of political commentating.

Picking up the pen is, sometimes, like playing with fire, especially in the business of political cartooning. In a profession of stroke-and-tell, where less is more, the brooding cartoonist turns everyday events into spaces for engagement. They draw the line between concern and apathy to bring issues into public view, invariably, shaking us out of our inattentional blindness. After all, they are a tribe--an endangered one--with the silly belief that the funny bone must be tickled. Cartooning in India--a Raj legacy--has come a long way from its colonial beginnings and Punch-imitations. Since Independence, newspapers have hosted the bold and often audacious irreverence of the likes of Shankar and R. K. Laxman. Their laconic lines gave the "Common Man" the voice of an honest opinion. This volume presents conversations with India's leading political cartoonists which take us into that recondite art of political commentating.

A highly original study of newspaper cartoons throughout India's history and culture, and their significance for the world today.

This book develops a model to examine the language of humour, which is multimodal and accounts for the possibility of transmutation of humour as it is performed through editorial cartoons. By transmutation is meant the transition in the language of humour when it crosses its own boundaries to provoke unprecedented reactions resulting in offensiveness, disappointment or hurt sentiment. The transmutability about the language of humour points to its inherently diabolical nature which manifests in the performance of controversial cartoons. The model is built by borrowing theoretical cues from Roman Jakobson, Roland Barthes, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. The integrated model, then, is developed to examine the cartoons which were recommended for deletion by the Thorat Committee, following a cartoon controversy in India. Through the cartoon analysis, the model discerns the significance of context and temporality in determining the impact of humour. It also examines how the ethics of humour; the blurred lines of political correctness and incorrectness are dictated by the political atmosphere and the power dynamics.

Caricaturing Culture in India is a highly original history of political cartoons in India. Drawing on the analysis of newspaper cartoons since the 1870s, archival research and interviews with prominent Indian cartoonists, this ambitious study combines historical narrative with ethnographic testimony to give a pioneering account of the role that cartoons have played over time in political communication, public discourse and the refraction of ideals central to the creation of the Indian postcolonial state. Maintaining that cartoons are more than illustrative representations of news, Ritu Gairola Khanduri uncovers the true potential of cartoons as a visual medium where memories jostle, history is imagined and lines of empathy are demarcated. Placing the argument within a wider context, this thought-provoking book highlights the history and power of print media in debates on free speech and democratic processes around the world, revealing why cartoons still matter today.

In Asian Political Cartoons, scholar John A. Lent explores the history and contemporary status of political cartooning in Asia, including East Asia (China, Hong Kong, Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan), Southeast Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), and South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Incorporating hundreds of interviews, as well as textual analysis of cartoons; observation of workplaces, companies, and cartoonists at work; and historical research, Lent offers not only the first such survey in English, but the most complete and detailed in any language. Richly illustrated, this volume brings much-needed attention to the political cartoons of a region that has accelerated faster and more expansively economically, culturally, and in other ways than perhaps any other part of the world. Emphasizing the “freedom to cartoon," the author examines political cartoons that attempt to expose, bring attention to, blame or condemn, satirically mock, and caricaturize problems and their perpetrators. Lent presents readers a pioneering survey of such political cartooning in twenty-two countries and territories, studying aspects of professionalism, cartoonists’ work environments, philosophies and influences, the state of newspaper and magazine industries, the state’s roles in political cartooning, modern technology, and other issues facing political cartoonists. Asian Political Cartoons encompasses topics such as political and social satire in Asia during ancient times, humor/cartoon magazines established by Western colonists, and propaganda cartoons employed in independence campaigns. The volume also explores stumbling blocks contemporary cartoonists must hurdle, including new or beefed-up restrictions and regulations, a dwindling number of publishing venues, protected vested interests of conglomerate-owned media, and political correctness gone awry. In these pages, cartoonists recount intriguing ways they cope with restrictions—through layered hidden messages, by using other platforms, and finding unique means to use cartooning to make a living.

From 1947, throughout the entire history of independent India, R.K. Laxman's cartoons have appeared regularly in The Times of India, commenting on every possible aspect of India's social and political life. Some years ago, Time magazine called R.K. Laxman 'the country's sharpest cartoonist and political satirist'. For many Indians, however, Laxman is much more. His daily cartoons, with their whimsical, idiosyncratic and downright hilarious depictions of Indianness, have become something of a national habit - a way for millions of readers to tackle the perplexing and often frustrating headlines in the morning newspaper. Laxman's Common Man cartoons are sharp and pointed observations on the rampant corruption, social injustice, financial fiascos and political byplays that have plagued the nation since its inception. His political cartoons, on the other hand, are marvellous caricatures of the personalities and policies of our larger-than-life leaders. Laxman's cartoons represent a uniquely Indian take on life, informed, humorous, philosophical and above all, mischievous. These, perhaps, are the qualities that have made him India's best-loved cartoonist. selection of the very best of Laxman's cartoons, drawn over a career spanning six decades. From India's first general elections to Nehru's Five-Year Plans, from the wars with China and Pakistan to the reign of Indira Gandhi and the Emergency, from Rajiv Gandhi's government, the rise of regional politics and the fall of the Babri Masjid to economic liberalization, the rule of the BJP and the Congress's return to power, these cartoons trace a history of modern India, a history that is perceptive, provocative and humorous.