Karnataka’s popular cartoonists find the going tough as people are quick to take offence these days.
"What’s this little weapon which hurt us so much?” asks one masked terrorist to another while holding a brush. And that telling image that Kundapur-based cartoonist Satish Acharya drew in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in 2015 not only showed the power of a well-drawn cartoon to touch people, it also got him world attention. Not too bad for a self-taught artist who is an MBA in finance from Mangalore University. “It was a spontaneous response from a cartoonist, an outsider to the socio-political turmoil in Europe. But people liked it and the cartoon went viral,” says Acharya, who contributes today to a range of publications and portals across India. Acharya is one of the many cartoonists who belong to this thriving visual art culture in Karnataka, which has been alive since the early 40s when RK Laxman worked for Koravanji magazine and BV Ramamurthy pioneered pocket cartooning in south India for erstwhile Kannada newspaper Kidi. While society’s sense of humour might be dipping, the state’s cartoonists bravely continue to take pot shots with their brush while reminding readers to laugh once in a while.
Good humour
VG Narendra, veteran political cartoonist and managing trustee of Indian Institute of Cartoonists, learnt his ropes at the famed Shankar’s Weekly in Delhi and experienced the turmoil of the Emergency up close in 1975. When he returned to Bengaluru after the publication shut down, he found the job of political cartoonist to be practically non-existent. Exceptions included Ramamurthy and K Ramakrishna, a lawyer who drew under the pseudonym of Raghu. “When I joined Samyuktha Karnataka in 1975, I was probably one of the first to be made a staff cartoonist,” says Narendra. To him, political cartooning was an obvious choice and his favourite targets were chief ministers, prime ministers and international leaders. The changes today, however, are telling. “Leaders then were more appreciative of our work. Veerendra Patil, Ramakrishna Hegde and Devaraj Urs always had a nice word. Devaraj Urs particularly liked Ramamurthy’s cartoons – his Mr Citizen character was as popular as Laxman’s Common Man.”
BV Gujjarappa, who began his career in 1980, remembers a gentler, freer time when people and those in power believed in the idea of democracy. “Today, people are far more sensitive and quick to take offence. Look at what is happening in Maharashtra. Political party workers are ready to beat up cartoonists or comedians or anyone who writes, draws or says anything that goes against their beliefs. They have no respect for individual thought,” says Gujarappa, who these days devotes his time to painting.
Balancing act
It is a daily gamble creating ‘acceptable’ humour. Acharya says that getting it right is about drawing a self-imposed ‘lakshman rekha’. “Indian cartoonists work in a different social scenario and there are self-imposed rules. I draw my own lakshman rekha while dealing with certain subjects. I don’t want to see my cartoons leading to riots or someone’s death,” says Acharya. But there have been occasions when editors found his cartoons offensive. “I ask them to drop it instead of diluting it.” An active social media user, Acharya finds news portals less restrictive than newspapers. “You get lots of appreciation immediately but it also exposes you to abuse and threats. So, I prefer to follow my lakshman rekha even while posting on the social media,” says Acharya, who has brought out four books.
Online rescue
For many like him, the situation is the same. “It is a question that you ask daily –– whether people will take offence –– but that is one drawback of being a political cartoonist,” says Kantesh Badiger, cartoonist and runner-up of the 2014 Maya Kamath Memorial award for political cartooning. “Social media has made it easy for people to react to your work. But it’s easier to handle reactions from public when you are an established cartoonist who has an editorial team backing you,” says Badiger, who remembers how a cartoon that he’d made in 2005 almost got him into trouble with a political party. “After that incident, the newspaper I worked for insisted that my cartoons would have to get editorial approval before being published. The complete freedom I enjoyed before ended.” P Mohammed who works for a Kannada daily doesn’t mince words. “Political cartoonists do not enjoy much freedom because most newspapers are interested only in driving their circulation numbers. So most of the time, we don’t get space for cartoons that are anti-establishment.”
A popular cartoonist, Mohammed won the Karnataka Rajyotsava award in 2013. Whether they provoke thought or anger, the world needs cartoonists more than ever today, says Acharya. “In a world where citizens could be easily fooled by marketing and social media strategies of politicians, only cartoonists stay unbiased. It is a negative art hoping for a positive change.”
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