The world of Gandhi through cartoons
Eminent cartoonist E.P
Unny, in his presentation on cartoons portraying Gandhi, says that when
something goes terribly wrong, Gandhi keeps coming back
Cartoon is a protest art. However, there are times when the target of a cartoon morphs into a comic character and joins the cartoonist in articulating the content.
The life of Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi, or our ‘Father of the Nation’, has that distinction and he
was a prominent figure all through his public life, said eminent cartoonist Mr.
E.P Unny, Chief Political Cartoonist with ‘The Indian Express’,
inaugurating ‘Know
Your Masters’, the new
series of interactive sessions by the Vellammal Group.
Why he was part of
cartooning the world over? Apart from his ideals and political stature, Gandhi
was a simple figure in graphic terms and even a child could draw him. How
simple one can draw Gandhi is evident from the way eminent cartoonist Ranga
portrayed Gandhi in a couple of simple strokes. The drawings are even simpler
than the simplest of forms that we find around us, like the block prints of
Lord Ganesha. This might have appealed to the cartoonists and other visual artists,
he pointed out. The presentation gave a broad picture as to how the cartoonists
looked at Gandhi and how he became part of the cartoons and became a global
character.
Gandhi started his public life in South Africa, and as an organic leader his face caught the cartoonist’s eyes there only. Showing one of the earlier cartoons, dating back to early 1900s, which was done in the backdrop of his organizing the Asians in the struggle for human rights and civil liberties against the White regime, Mr. Unny showed how Gandhi in cartoon evolved over the years.
In this cartoon, with the caption ‘The Steam-Roller and the Elephant’, Gandhi
was portrayed as a mahout and the Indian Community that he organised as an
elephant. This elephant blocks a steamroller, which represents the white man’s
regime in South Africa. Yes, the heartless, mindless machine is blocked by the
elephant, which is a bit too big to control but an organic creature.
This cartoon is one of the early depictions of Gandhi’s non-violent
protests, something unknown to the western world. Here the cartoonist has taken
a slightly kind view of Gandhi, who is not seen as an adversary to the
government. The whole nature of Gandhi’s struggle has broadly appealed to the
cartoonists.
In yet another one, in 1907, ‘The Desperado and the Passive Resister’,
Gandhi is shown in typical Indian attire. Here we see the government wielding a
pistol, not being able to do anything - a fully armed man looking helpless
before a completely unarmed man. The unarmed Gandhi is very confident and
poised. By then he has already won over the cartoonist’s heart.
The transformation
In some of the old cartoons and drawings, Mr. Unny showed how the
appearance of Gandhi transformed over the years. From the barrister and passive
resister in South Africa, when he wore formal wears, Gandhi had switched to
Khadi by 1921. At Madurai in Tamil Nadu on September 21, 1921, he shaved his
head, shed the cap and switched to Khadi. In the 1931 drawing by eminent
cartoonist Emery Kellen done in London, he
portrays this change in the attire of Gandhi. Kellen used to draw for the
League of Nations, and this is the first known figure of the depiction of
Gandhi closer to the form we know very well today.
How two different newspapers from the same group portrayed Gandhi in two different ways was shown through the cartoons appeared in ‘Daily Express’ and ‘Evening Standard’ owned by Lord Beaverbrook, a British newspaper baron. He was a Tory, a conservative. His morning paper supported the Tories and the evening paper supported the liberals. The cartoon by two eminent cartoonists, Sidney Strube and David Low portray two diametrically opposite images. In ‘Daily Express’, Strube, using the image of the visual metaphor of ‘Three wise monkeys’, portrayed him as a leader who incited violence in India, through his campaigns like Salt Sathyagraha. On the other hand, David Low, in the cartoon, ‘Passing Shadow’, places Gandhi outside the residence of British Prime Minister, No 10 Downing Street. Gandhi is walking quiet like an apparition. This cartoon was done at a time when the British Prime Minister was not ready to meet the Indian leaders at the official residence. Later also, in many cartoons by different cartoonists, he appeared as an apparition, as in ‘The ghost walks in India’, ‘The ghost goes home’ by Daniel Robert Fitzpatrick.
Gandhi appeared in cartoons when he was not a political leader, or part of any government. He was a gentleman who preached and practised non-violence. He got the image of a saintly apparition, an ethereal being. Interestingly, back home, poet and freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu nicknamed Mahatma Gandhi as ‘Mickey Mouse’. Gandhi loved it. He loved to laugh at himself.
The editor who understood cartoons
By the time he returned to India, Gandhi was well aware of cartoons as an editor, said Mr. Unny. He even edited a bilingual newspaper, ‘The Indian Opinion’. He knew that the cartoon is not part of an establishment. It is an art of protest and a cartoonist is a dissenter. So, he used the cartoons of the British cartoonists that appeared in the British press. He used the British system of free press and the art of free cartooning to make his points against the British. Gandhi knew the subversive value of cartooning, as a legitimate way and an art of protest.
From taming the elephant in the cartoon published in South Africa, later, Gandhi became an elephant in a cartoon by Shankar, in an absolute reversal of roles. Shankar even used the elongated form of Gandhi, equaling the colonial masters. “From a cartoonist’s target to a comic character, he has the last laugh in the cartoons,” according to Mr. Unny. In one cartoon in the backdrop of India-Pakistan partition, we see a lonely Gandhi wielding a red flag, a danger signal to stop a train, which is perilously moving towards the two rails that are diverging. “This is a very ominous cartoon on Partition. In the first cartoon, he managed to block the mindless machine, but here he could not, and here we see a helpless face of Gandhi.”
After Gandhi’s assassination, Fitzpatrick compared him to Abraham Lincoln in one cartoon. Many years later, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, American editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin (William Henry Mauldin) drew a cartoon of the two together, in the other world, where we see Gandhi saying, ‘The odd thing about assassin, Dr. King, is that they think they’ve killed you.’
Coming to the later period, masters including Abu Abraham, R.K Raxman and O.V Vijayan also portrayed Gandhi on many occasions. In one of Abu’s cartoons, Gandhi appears as the proverbial elephant, which the blind men (politicians) could not figure out. After the demolition of Babri Masjid, Abu did a cartoon depicting Gandhi, saying Hey Ram, and walking away from the Ram Janmabhoomi. When Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi was released in 1982, Laxman did a cartoon, which showed the legend forgotten by his own men. On the other hand, cartoonist Kutty did a cartoon in the backdrop of the power struggle within his parent party, in which he used Gandhi’s iconic linocut done by eminent artist Nandalal Bose in Santiniketan.
Cartoonist and writer O.V. Vijayan used the image of Gandhi in an absolutely innovative way. In one cartoon, instead of portraying Gandhi, Vijayan recast the contemporary politician Jayaprakash Narayan as Gandhi to show Gandhian approach as a current political option.
Of course, there were some harsh views as well. Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, who was a cartoonist, saw Gandhi as a weak leader, wearing begging bowls instead of spectacles.
Even the younger generation cartoonists including Ravi Shankar, R Prasad, Gokul among others are also impressed by Gandhi’s vision. Most of the cartoons show how contemporary politics distance from the ideal of Gandhi. In Gokul’s words, “He was a vision, not a spectacle!”
“Even after he died, Gandhi keeps recurring in cartoons more than many contemporary politicians. When something goes terribly wrong, Gandhi keeps coming back,” said Unny. “Gandhi recurring means there is something terribly wrong happening.”
However, Gandhi in his day was not always in agreement with every cartoon. He did take exception to the content of some cartoons. Once he opposed the way Shankar portrayed Muhammad Ali Jinnah in bad light, and even wrote a letter, which read:
Dear Shankar,
Your cartoon on Mr. Jinnah was in bad taste and
contrary to fact. You fulfill merely the first test of a cartoonist. Your
cartoons are good as works of art. But if they do not speak accurately, and do
not joke without offending, you will not rise high in your profession. You must
study the events; I know you have an accurate knowledge of them. Your ridicule
should never bite. You won't reset this note.
Yours Bapu
Yes, he knew the art of cartoon more than many editors.
To watch the presentation by Mr. Unny, click here
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