the news. the views. the juice.
In the land of the Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institute of Management, and the Indian Institute of Information Technology, the nascent Indian Institute of Cartoonists throws open a gallery of cartoons, “to promote the art of cartooning in India.”
View the video here: India’s first cartoon gallery
Indian print editors have done book reviews (Sham Lal, Times of India), film reviews (Vinod Mehta, Debonair), food reviews (Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times), music reviews (Chandan Mitra, TOI, Pioneer, The Sunday Observer; Sanjoy Narayan, Hindustan Times), elephant polo reviews (Suman Dubey, India Today) etc, but few have done cartoons.
When The Telegraph, Calcutta, was launched Pritish Nandy (who later became the editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India) would do a daily, front-page pocket cartoon, with Mukul Sharma (who later became the editor of Science Today) writing the caption, and vice-versa.
Even today, former Statesman and Indian Express editor S. Nihal Singh is a happy doodler.
In the latest issue of Open magazine, its editor Manu Joseph (who has set crossword puzzles at his previous port of calling, Outlook) puts his signature on a cartoon. Let the record show that “Pope” Joseph‘s handwriting bears a close similarity with Dr Hemant Morporia, the radiologist who draws cartoons.
Also read: If The Economist looks at Tamil News, it’s news
When a stringer beats up a reporter, it’s news
When the gang of four meets at IIC, it’s news
When a politician weds a journalist, it’s news
When a magazine editor marries a starlet, it’s news
As part of its dodransbicentennial celebrations, The Times of India has published “a cavalcade of cartoons over 175 years”. Titled “Jest in Time“, it is put together by Ajit Ninan, Neelabh Banerjee and Jug Suraiya.
At its launch in New Delhi on Monday, seven well-known cartoonists—Sudhir Tailang from Deccan Chronicle, Manjul from Daily News and Analysis, Keshav from The Hindu, Jayanto from Hindustan Times and R. Prasad from Mail Today—joined hands to produce a cartoon (in picture, above) on the spot.
Saira Kurup reports on the jugal bandi:
“Keshav set the tone by drawing the new common man forced to tighten his belt in difficult times. Tailang followed with an illustration showing P.V. Narasimha Rao giving his ‘student’ PM Manmohan Singh a poor report card. Manjul’s version of the common man was one who doesn’t speak but tweets instead!
“Jayanta then drew the laughs by drawing a neta with a loudspeaker as his head “because netas are not doing what they are supposed to; they just keep shouting!” To audience applause, Ninan put the artwork in context by sketching Parliament, and Banerjee gave the final touch by showing the common man holding up the House on his shoulders.”
Image: courtesy The Times of India
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: Depending on what you expect of your newspaper, either The Times of India played just the right role in the N. Srinivasan matter: proactively taking up an issue that concerns a “nation of a billion-plus”, right up to the very end, even if it did not secure the end it would have liked.
Or, it plainly overdid it, to the exclusion of all else, eventually falling flat on its face.
Over a 13-day period beginning May 22, ToI ran 87 pieces (outside of general BCCI/IPL pieces) with the BCCI president exclusively in focus and almost all of them either demanding, provoking or predicting the end for Srinivasan following his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan‘s arrest in the alleged IPL betting scandal involving Vindoo Dara Singh.
Among these 87 pieces were seven editorials, mini-editorials and opinion pieces, five interviews, and four cartoons.
It even launched a public service advertising campaign (below) midway through the campaign.
***
ToI‘s hunt for Srinivasan’s head—which even as of today is far removed from the original IPL spotfixing scam involving S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan—began on May 22, the day it launched its “I Lead India” campaign with the poser: “Do you feel you can be a changemaker?”
But it was only on May 28, the day after Srinivasan told a BCCI meeting in Calcutta that he would not resign following his son-in-law’s arrest for his purported involvement in betting, that the ToI coverage took on a more aggressive, advocacy air—eerily reminiscent of the paper’s Commonwealth Games campaign—urging board members, politicians and other sportspersons to speak up or quit to bring pressure on Srinivasan to do the same.
In making the murky BCCI saga its bread, butter, jam and marmalade day after day for 13 days, The Times of India relegated more important but less reader-friendly stories, like the massacre of Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh at the hands of Maoists to the inside pages.
# On May 26, the day after the Chhattisgarh massacre in which 28 people perished, the story was second-lead (as indeed in the Hindustan Times).
# Srinivasan’s fate was the lead ToI story on each of the 13 days; in contrast, the Chhattisgarh ambush found a front-page mention only on four days.
# Altogether, ToI ran 29 stories on Chhattisgarh as opposed to 87 on Srinivasan alone.
# Four times, ToI invoked the name of India Cements, Srinivasan’s company (“India Cements stocks hit 52-week low”, “India Cements brand to take a hit”, “India Cements disowns Meiyappan”, “India Cements underperform peers”) to drive home its point on Srinivasan.
# On May 29, ToI rounded up 30 talking heads seeking Srinivasan’s ouster.
The role of Times Now in drumming up the anti-Srinivasan mood is outside of this quantitative analysis, but with Srinivasan only “stepping aside” for a month at the end of all the sound and fury signifying nothing, the newsworthiness of the Times campaign is open to question.
Below are the Times of India‘s 87 headlines, graphics straplines, intros, editorials, mini-editorials, cartoons, interviews involving Srinivasan over the 13-day period.
***
May 22
Lead story: IPL fixing scandal could reach the top
Team-owner’s relative [Gurunath Meiyappan] under lens
Phone records link him with betting syndicate
***
May 23
Lead story: Police prepare to question BCCI chief’s son-in-law for betting links Day after TOI‘s report, CSK boss Gurunath Meiyappan elusive
BCCI chief mum on Meiyappan role
Editorial: Clean the Stables
A school dropout, Guru tried to build career in Srinivasan shadow
***
May 24
Cops land at BCCI chief’s family’s doorstep Srinivasan’s son-in-law gets summons, seeks time
[CSK] Team boss lost a crore on bets: Vindoo
BCCI brass faces fixing heat
Rules did not stop him from wearing two hats Industry captain and BCCI power player
From Board chief, the silent treatment
Srinivasan also under CBI lens in Jagan Mohan Reddy assets case
BCCI chief may use his clout
Interview: ‘Those at the top in BCCi should resign’: Lalit Modi
***
May 25
Guru arrested, Srinivasan may lose crown
After hours of grilling, cops say BCCI chief’s son-in-law ‘involved in offence’
Srinivasan rejects growing calls for resignation, threatens to ‘fix’ media
Interview: It’s either Srinivasan or Sahara, says Subroto Roy
India Cements shares at 52-week low
India Cements disowns Gurunath
Is Srini trying to insulate CSK?
Law catches up with the son-in-law
Srinivasan should quit right away, say voices in the BCCI
Interview: A.C. Muthiah has a go at his arch-enemy
***
May 26
Real final: Srinivasan vs Rest of India
Ouster plan: first nudge, then shove
‘I won’t be bulldozed into quitting, media unfair’: Srinivasan
Graphic: 3/4 majority to remove President
Strapline: Someone’s stepping down
Cricket fans should bat for a change
BCCI prez may manage to stay on
Law will take its course: Board chief on son-in-law Srini meets Meiyappan’s lawyers
‘Brand India Cements to take a hit’
IPL needs to cleanse itself from within
Former stars want BCCI prez to go
Srini men start lobbying, Shukla meets Jagmohan Dalmiya in Kolkata
Interview: ‘It was a huge mistake to bring Srinivasan into administration’: A.C. Muthiah
***
May 27
Weak-kneed BCCI falls in line as Srinivasan flatly refuses to walk
Strapline: Chief says he is above board
Editorial: The darkest hour—Srinivasan must quit, followed by the overthrow of cricket’s absentee landlord and revamp of BCCI
***
May 28
Lead story: Why are they silent?
Cartoon: He is taking bets on who’s going to be the first to resign
***
May 29
Lead story: Jyotiraditya Scindia becomes first neta in BCCI to say Srinivasan should resign
Strapline: Across fields, Board boss under fire ‘Time for him to go’
Talking heads with 30 voices
Interview: Srinivasan holds power and wields it: Kishore Rungta
***
May 30
Lead story: Finally, Rajiv Shukla and Arun Jaitley say they too want Srinivasan out
Cracks widen in BCCI, even treasurer Ajay Shirke says he would have quit
Strapline: Chorus against Board boss swells
Six talking heads
Srini still has the numbers to hang on
Cheating case filed against Srinivasan
Strapline: Wheels within wheels
Minieditorial: calling for resignation
Jaitley, Shukla asked defiant Srini to quit; BCCI chief said ‘Not in my nature’
Third edit: The Sons-in-law factor, by Bachi Karkaria
Edit page piece: Rip the veil of silence, by Ayaz Memom
May the foes be with you: all the president’s men are fair-weather friends
The endgame has begun
Dalmiya denies he asked Srinivasan not to resign
No one in BCCI asked for his resignation: Shirke
***
May 31
Lead story: Majority now against Srinivasan, can call BCCI meet to remove him
Strapline: Board boss on a turning pitch
How Srini gave himself a life term
Srini’s conflict of interest hearing from July 16
Cartoon: I’m going to hang on to this post as long as I want
India Cements underperform peers
Anti-Srini camp won’t wait for probe
19 talking heads on which way board meet will go
***
June 1
Lead story: Game all but over for Srinivasan
Six days after BCCI boss declared he had board’s unanimous support, he’s running out of partners His no.2 and no. 3 quit, several more top officials to follow suit
Cartoon: Punchline: The best spot-fixer I’ve seen—he’s so fixed to the spot that no one can get him away from it
***
June 2
Lead story: Srini sets terms for exit, BCCI members unwilling to play ball
Strapline: His four demands
Mini editorial
Srinivasan wanted Shukla to go too
Advertisement: “To run sports in India you don’t need to be good in games, only in gamesmanship”
Srinivasan vs ICC
***
June 3
Lead story: Match result: all out for no loss
Srinivasan to ‘step aside’: some say it’s a face-saver for him, others call it an anti-climax and a sham
Strap line: Will he really sit it out?
Editorial: nation dismayed: BCCI’s credibility lies in tatters as India’s cricket fans are sold a lemon
For Srini, a strategic time out
‘Nobody dared ask Srini to quit, only he spoke for first 40 minutes’
Cartoon: I’ve stepped aside
Srini shot down Shashank Manohar‘s name
***
Infographic and advertisement: courtesy The Times of India
***
Also read: The Times of India and Commonwealth Games
GEETA SESHU writes from Bombay: The year 2012 ended with a Kannada TV reporter, Naveen Soorinje, in jail for more than 50 days after the Karnataka High Court denied him bail.
Mangalore-based Soorinje, was incarcerated on November 7, 2012 after police charged him under the UAPA and under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for reporting on the raid on a homestay party by a Hindu fundamentalist group in July.
Soorinje’s bail application was rejected on December 26.
The same month, a television journalist, Nanao Singh, was shot dead in a police firing in Manipur.
In 2012, India was a grim place for free speech. It recorded the death of five journalists. Another 38 were assaulted, harassed or threatened.
There were 43 instances of curbs on the Internet, 14 instances of censorship in the film and music industry, and eight instances of censorship of content in the print medium.
***
The year began with the brutal killing of journalist Chandrika Rai (42), his wife Durga (40) and their two teenage children — son Jalaj (19) and daughter Nisha (17) — at their residence in Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria distict in February.
Other journalists to die this year were Rajesh Mishra in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, Chaitali Santra in Kolkata and Raihan Naiyum, in Assam.
We list and detail below all the incidents which occurred in the course of the year.
That the death toll of journalists would have been higher, is clear by the brutality of the assaults and threats to journalists: Thongam Rina, associate editor of Arunachal Times, was shot at and critically injured in July; Kamal Shukla in Chhattisgarh was assaulted by a local politician because he wrote a story on illegal tree-felling in Koelibeda, the constituency of the state’s forest minister Vikram Usendi; in Gujarat’s Palampur district, television journalist Devendra Khandelwal was attacked with iron pipes by relatives of MLA Mafatlal Purohit for reporting their involvement in illegal construction.
***
Sec 66 (a) and internet freedom: The 41 instances of free speech violations related to internet use in the Free Speech Hub’s ‘Free Speech Tracker’ testify to the growing use and abuse of this medium.
Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan, two young Facebook users, in Palghar, Maharashtra, in October, were arrested under the draconian Sec 66 (a) of the Information Technology Act, one for posting a critical status comment on the shutdown of the city in the wake of the death of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray and the other for ‘liking’ the post!
The nation-wide protest that followed forced a review of the charges against them and a closure report by police. However, they will still have to wait till January 2013 for the formal dropping of charges against them.
Already, the fears over the misuse of the controversial Section (66 A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, were confirmed by other instances: the arrest of two Jadavpur University professors in April 2012 for their e-mails on the cartoons poking fun at that projected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee; the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi for sedition, for insulting national honour and for sending offensive messages under Sec 66 (a) of the IT Act in August 2012: two employees of Air-India, Mayank Sharma and K.V.J. Rao, who were sacked (and reinstated after the protests) after their arrest over a Facebook post, three youth arrested in Kashmir for allegedly anti-Islamic posts and the arrest of industrialist A.S. Ravi for tweeting about Karti Chidambaram, son of Union minister for P. Chidambaram.
Earlier, in June 2012, the union government ordered the blocking of more than 250 sites and web pages following the widespread panic and exodus of people from the North East out of Pune, Delhi and Bangalore.
Some accounts that disproved the morphed pictures and the propaganda were also blocked.
The Google Transparency Report put India top on the list of countries making demands to take down content.
***
Censorship in other media: Censorship continued in all arenas, from the literary and cinematic worlds, to art and theatre.
Protests of vigilante groups against all manner of expression continued with political parties and social groups taking offence against film songs, dialogues and titles of movies, art exhibitions and theatre performances and even the use of mobile phones by women.
In May, the Human Resources Development Ministry’s attempt to expunge cartoons from NCERT and CBSE textbooks for their alleged anti-Dalit connotations sparked an inconclusive debate on casteism in educational content while the cancellation of Salman Rushdie’s proposed visit to the Jaipur Literary Festival in January only showed the pusillanimity of the state administration.
Covert state surveillance was on the rise, with an increase in government interception and monitoring of emails and telephone conversations, privacy violations and hate speech cases are also under the scanner.
(Veteran journalist Geeta Seshu hosts the free speech hub at the media blog, The Hoot)
Also read: 3 deaths, 14 attacks on journos in 2011
Is it a good thing that the Supreme Court of India has not announced guidelines for media coverage of court cases? Or has it opened the floodgates by introducing a “neturalising device” that underlines the right of the accused to seek postponement of coverage on a case-by-case basis?
And, by introducing a “constitutional principle” has the judiciary appropriated to itself the power of the legislature to make law?
***
The Tribune, Chandigarh: Thoughtless curbs
The Supreme Court judgment that courts can defer media coverage of a case for a short period if there is a danger to an individual’s right to fair trial will curb freedom of the Press, limit the people’s right to know and unnecessarily encourage litigation. Growing complaints of “trial by media” had prompted Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia to initiate a discussion on framing guidelines for court reporting….
There is a growing tendency in the judiciary as well as the executive to curb free speech. The Allahabad High Court banned all media reporting of troop movements after a news report hinted at a coup attempt. The government recently gagged social media sites on the pretext of restoring order. The arrest of a West Bengal professor for circulating a cartoon, the removal of cartoons from school textbooks and the slapping of a sedition case against a cartoonist for disrespecting the national emblem are other instances of executive intolerance of dissent. Vague judgments like the one in the Sahara case will only fuel this tendency.
**
Deccan Herald, Bangalore: Gag on media
A fresh threat to the right to free speech and expression, which has been sanctified by the Constitution, has come from an unlikely place, the Supreme Court of India, which has in the past protected and promoted it as a basic entitlement of citizens. Its judgement empowering courts to ban reporting of hearings in cases where there is a perceived chance of interference in free and fair trial amounts to muzzling media freedom. It needs to be opposed like all other assaults on the functioning on the media, which are becoming frequent now.
The court has propounded a ‘constitutional principle’ which would allow aggrieved parties to seek postponement of the publication of hearings if they are seen to be prejudicial to the administration of justice. But this is disguising an unfair restriction as a constitutional doctrine, creating a devious device to undermine a basic right.
**
The Indian Express: Lines of control
This “doctrine of postponement” of reporting is meant to be a preventive measure, rather than a punitive one, and is intended to balance the right of free speech with the right to a fair trial. The courts, the SC said, will evaluate each appeal carefully, guided by considerations of necessity and proportionality. However, the very outlining of the principle, in effect, leaves journalism at the mercy of the high court, rather than being internally regulated with better editorial gatekeeping.
**
The Hindu: Don’t compromise open justice
The Supreme Court’s judgment justifying a temporary ban on the publication of court proceedings in certain cases is likely to have a chilling effect on the freedom of the press and the very idea of an open trial…. Indeed, by emphasising the right of an aggrieved person to seek postponement of media coverage of an ongoing case by approaching the appropriate writ court, there is a danger that gag orders may become commonplace. At a minimum, the door has been opened to hundreds and thousands of additional writs — a burden our legal system is unprepared to handle — filed by accused persons with means.
**
Mint: Judgment and some worries
While the court prescribed tests of reasonableness, among others, on deciding issues of postponement, time is of the essence for media and citizens dependent on it for information. It is not far-fetched to presume that during this period of stasis, reporters and editors, can be arm-twisted into submission. The judgement whittles down an already embattled freedom available to the Press. It will add psychological pressure and uncertainty in an already difficult environment.
**
Business Standard: Tilting the balance
Tuesday’s judgment has done is to tilt the balance in favour of litigants seeking court interventions — which might well result in the imposition of such gag orders on the media. To that extent, the apex court’s order is prone to misuse…. The legal process (of deferement) is certain to cast an adverse impact on the freedom of the media and undermine the people’s right to know about such cases before the court.
Instead of paving the way for such curbs, it would perhaps make more sense if the courts took upon themselves the responsibility of allowing independent and comprehensive electronic coverage of court cases that both the people and the media can freely access for information or reportage. That would be a more effective way of ensuring that the coverage of court proceedings does not create the risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice or to the fairness of trials.
**
The Times of India: Chilling effect
The bench headed by outgoing Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia came up with an alternative approach to maintaining the balance between free speech and fair trial. Drawing upon the contempt law, the apex court devised a judicial power to order the postponement of publication as a last resort. Even this, however, may negatively impact the salutary principle that trials be held in public, as powerful defendants could routinely invoke such postponement orders…. The media is anyway a heterogeneous entity and the right of journalists to cover court proceedings is an essential attribute of a fair trial.
Cartoon: courtesy R. Prasad/ Mail Today
It isn’t often that Indian cartoonists talk about their craft—or their colleagues and compatriots.
There is, for instance, a famous incident of the doyen of Indian cartooning, R.K. Laxman, being asked in the course of an interview with The Illustrated Weekly of India, about a younger cartoonist then working for the Indian Express.
“Ravi Shankar? Fantastic sitarist,” was Laxman’s put-down, sotto voce.
***
Ajit Ninan, the former cartoonist of India Today and Outlook now a consultant with The Times of India, speaks about Laxman, in an interview in Star of Mysore:
Q: How would you differentiate yourself from R.K. Laxman?
A: I am a man of details and I think India is a country of details. Look at our architecture, the temples, fashion—everything has a lot of details. There is no school of cartooning and it is my seniors who helped me. I learnt by observing their works and have slept over their styles. Mario Miranda‘s details, Abu Abraham‘s simplicity of thought and Laxman’s works—something of everybody is there in my work.
However, Laxman’s cartoons had lengthy captions. I try to finish it within 10 words or even less. Almost 70% of my time goes into drafting captions.
When your drawing is so detailed, why burden it with words?
Q: Who would rank as the best Indian cartoonist?
A: R.K. Laxman—because he was a typical South Indian genius. He was a big crowd-puller and by nature he was funny, sharp and witty. Next is Mario because he brought out Indian architecture and humour, food, language, fashion through his drawings. He was a complete cartoonist and very versatile. The third would be Sudhir Tailang.
Image: courtesy Shafali
Media freedom in India id est Bharat has never been a more scarce commodity than in the year of the lord 2012.
The fourth estate is under concerted attack from all three pillars of our democracy—the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Organisations mandated to protect media freedom (like the press council of India) are happily chomping its heels. Every day the sound of some distant door closing echoes through the internet chamber.
On top of it all, or because of it all, the sparks of public cynicism about the media and its practitioners (thanks to paid news, private treaties, medianet, and this, that and the other) has become a wildfire, its faceless flames licking the very hand that feeds. Regulation and self-regulation is the mantra on every lip.
The illiberalism, the intolerance, the control-freakery that have become a part of the accepted discourse in 21st century India was most evident last week when parliament—the so-called temple of democracy—committed the ultimate sacrilege: a Harvard-trained poet agreeing to remove newspaper and magazine cartoons from school textbooks because they could hurt the fragile egos of faceless mobs back where they go out with their bowls every five years.
The ostensible provocation was a 1949 cartoon of B.R. Ambedkar, the Constitution framer and Dalit icon, drawn by P. Shankar Pillai, the legendary cartoonist, in his now-defunct magazine Shankar’s Weekly that had been included in an NCERT textbook in 2006.
But it was clearly a smokescreen to sneak in the scissors to cut out all cartoons about all politicians in all textbooks.
Shankar’s Weekly shut down on 31 August 1975, the very year Indira Gandhi declared Emergency, on whose back rode a beast called Censorship.
In circa 2012, as her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi thumped the desk when Kapil Sibal eloquently ushered in Censorship without the formal proclamation of Emergency, it’s useful to go through Shankar Pillai’s farewell editorial, which shows that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
***
FAREWELL
“We started with an editorial 27 years ago. We will end with another.
“The world was different in 1948. The Cold War had not taken the sinister overtones that it later did. The atom bomb was in our midst and there was scare of war. But there was no apprehension that life would be wiped out from the earth in a nuclear holocaust.
“The United States was riding high with sole possession of the atom bomb. Communism was to be rolled back by its strength and Time magazine’s brave words. But monolithic communism was already breaking up. In 1946 Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform.
“Less than a year after Shankar’s Weekly was born, Mao Tse-tung took over mainland China, for ever changing the dimensions of international affairs. While Europe was still struggling to get over the aftermath of a ruinous war, Asia stood up for the first time as independent entity.
“Soon after Africa emerged from colonial darkness. The old imperialisms watched uneasily at Bandung and Afro-Asian solidarity. Perhaps there was something in Nehru’s non-alignment after all.
“The world of today is very different. The Cold War is still there but played according to already laid ground rules usually. West Europe has been integrated in a sense, although the sense of nationalism is still strong. Africa by and large has not steadied itself except in one or two countries.
“White supremacy is still unchallenged in South Africa and Rhodesia. Asian politics has become uncertain largely due to Sino-Soviet rivalry. Latin America seethes with unrest, but the CIA and multi-nationals are trying to contain discontent. Economically, the world is somewhat better off than 27 years ago despite runaway inflation and drought and so on. But the quality of human life cannot be said to have shown any qualitative change.
“This is what brings us to the nub of the matter. In our first editorial we made the point that the our function was to make our readers laugh – at the world, at pompous leaders, at humbug, at foibles, at ourselves. But, what are the people who have a developed sense of humour? It is a people with a certain civilised norms of behaviour, where there is tolerance and a dash of compassion.
“Dictatorships cannot afford laughter because people may laugh at the dictator and that wouldn’t do. In all the years of Hitler, there never was a good comedy, not a good cartoon, not a parody, or a spoof. From this point, the world and sadly enough India have become grimmer.
“Humour, whenever it is there, is encapsuled. Language itself has become functional, each profession developing its own jargon. Outside of the society of brother-cartoonists, an economist is a stranger, floundering in uncharted territory, uncertain of himself, fearful of non-economic language.
“It is the same for lawyers, doctors, teachers, journalists, and such-like.
“What is worse, human imagination seems to be turning to the macabre and the perverse. Books and films are either on violence or sexual deviations. Nothing seems to awaken people except unpleasant shocks. Whether it is the interaction of the written word and the cinema on society or not, society reflects these attitudes. Hijackings, mugging in the dark, kidnappings, and plain murder are becoming everyday occurrences and sometimes lend respectability by giving it some kind of political colouration.
“But Shankar’s Weekly is an incurable optimist. We are certain that despite the present situation, the world will become a happier and more relaxed place. The spirit of man will in the end overcome all death dealing forces and life will blossom to a degree where humanity will find its highest purpose discharged.
“Some call this God. We prefer to call it human destiny. And on that thought we bid you good-bye and the best of luck.”
Published on Sunday, 31 August 1975
Hat tip: D.D. Gupta
Image: A facsimile of the front cover of Shankar’s Weekly
An online exhibition of cartoons by E.P. Unny, the chief political cartoonist of The Indian Express has gone live. Curated by Sundara Ramanathaiyer of the Centre for Comic Arts (CCA), the cartoons examine the Anna Hazare campaign through the eyes of India’s foremost political linesman.
Visit the exhibition: E.P. Unny
MARIO, BY KESHAV
The passing away of the legendary Illustrated Weekly of India, Economic Times and Femina cartoonist and illustrator Mario Miranda in Goa on Sunday, has prompted plenty of warm reminiscences from friends, colleagues and co-linesmen, along with a vicious doosra.
Bachi Karkaria recalls her colleague from the third floor of The Times of India building in Bombay:
What can I say about Mario? That he was one of India’s most distinctive cartoonists? That he was arguably an even better serious artist in the detail and spirit with which he captured the places he lived in and visited? That he, along with Frank Simoes, gave Goa to the world?
That he was to the magazines of The Times of India what R.K. Laxman was to the daily paper? And, dare I say it, that Laxman was the Lata Mangeshkar who subtly ensured that the pedestal was not for sharing?
***
Pritish Nandy in the Economic Times:
Mario had a room on the same floor where I sat. And when I moved into the editor’s corner room at The Illustrated Weekly of India, a few months later, his room was next to mine. But that didn’t mean anything because Mario rarely came to office.
He worked on his cartoon strips mostly at home in Colaba and was awful with deadlines. This was largely because every afternoon, or almost, he would go for lunch or a long walk and would end up in a movie hall, all by himself. There was no movie he didn’t see. It was the idea of slipping into a dark theatre and watching the moving picture that excited him.
***
MARIO, BY UNNY
E.P. Unny, the chief political cartoonist of The Indian Express, has a page one anchor:
To call Mario a cartoonist would be like seeing no more than the elegant living room he entertained you from, through a long warm Goan evening. “Take a break and be my guest,” he said. “Come and sketch the whole of this house. Should take a week or so if I keep a close eye on you to make sure you don’t run off to do the day’s cartoon.”
***
Ditto the cartoonist Manjul in DNA:
“Mario was the one and only ‘celebrity’ Indian cartoonist. He endorsed a reputed clothing brand in TV & print commercials in the 1980s. In 1979, Basu Chatterjee, director of the Hindi film Baaton Baaton Mein, based the looks of the hero, a reel-life cartoonist played by Amol Palekar, on Mario.
One can see his house in Shyam Benegal’s film Trikaal. Benegal shot the film in and around Mario’s house in Goa, a heritage building known for its Portuguese past and architecture. And no one can forget the iconic visual of a Sardarji sitting inside a bulb with books, which has graced Khushwant Singh’s column in almost every Indian newspaper for many years.
***
Ajit Ninan in The Times of India:
“We grew up in a time when all things worthy of awe or admiration came in pairs – Tata-Birla, Ambassador-Fiat, Coke-Pepsi, and so on. In the world of cartooning, Laxman-Mario was such a pair. All my lines I have learnt from studying the two titans of those times.
“Just as Bollywood brought India to the world, Mario brought Bombay to India. His mastery of architecture and of fashion trends was one of the keys to this. Mario’s ornate illustrations of the colonial structures of Mumbai wouldn’t have been possible for anyone with a weaker grasp of architecture.”
***
The cartoonist Jayanto Banerjee pays an illustrated tribute in the Hindustan Times:
As does the cartoonist Jayachandran Nanu in Mint:
***
Deccan Herald has an editorial:
With Mario Miranda’s death, the country has lost an eye that looked at it with understanding, compassion and irony for many decades and saw what was most often unseen and lost to most of us…. Everything was grist to his mocking eye and subtle lines—politics, society, business, attitudes, fashions and all that was part of life. His world was peopled with things and characters everyone recognised and lived with. The world he created out of them became the obverse one familiar to us and helped us to look at our own world with greater comprehension.
***
Austin Coutinho in Mid-Day:
Back in the ’60s, for me, Mario Miranda was ‘God’! I would lie in bed, incapacitated by asthma – wondering where my next breath would come from – and live in the make believe world of Mario’s cartoons. There was this little book titled ‘Goa with Love’ in which he had drawn cartoons of village life in Goa. The book would be by my bedside and it was as if I knew each of those characters on a first name basis…. My greatest regret in life will be not having ever met the ‘God’ of my schooldays. May his noble soul rest in peace!
Cartoons: courtesyThe Indian Express, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Mint
Also read: Has R.K. Laxman drawn his last cartoon?
Making all of us smile can make one of us cry
Look who inspired R.K. Laxman‘s common man!
'SANS SERIF' IN 'THE NEW YORKER' MAGAZINE
CHURUMURI ON 'NEW YORK TIMES' READING LIST
'SANS SERIF' IN HINDU CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY PAPER
'SANS SERIF' QUOTED IN 'BLOOMBERG VIEW'
GOOGLE: INDIA TRANSPARENCY REPORT
THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES FROM THE 18TH CENTURY
15 RECENT COMMENTS