A Look At Some Of India's Most Impactful Cartoonists

They have the ability to present even the most banal things in life with utmost charm. Their depiction of an incident reaches out to millions of people and help shape their opinion. They are impactful, and yet most of us hardly see the name of the person who drew the picture.

Yes, we are talking about cartoonists. Wikipedia reads that ‘a cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is often created for entertainment, political commentary, or advertising.’ But we believe that their role is much more than what appears. They have been the key to some of the biggest revolutionary changes in modern world.

India has also had its fair share of cartoonists. Being the unconventional job that it is, being a cartoonist has always brought flak as well as grace to a person - flak because their direct approach has been viewed as controversial and grace because they have brought out relevant issues in front of the public and the government.

R. K. Laxman is probably one of the most distinguished cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist in India. He is best known for his creation The Common Man. The man continues to appear in a daily comic strip titled You Said It in The Times of India since 1951. And who can forget his classic Malgudi Days.

K. Shankar Pillai, better known by his pen name Shankar is credited as the father of political cartooning in the country. He started Shankar’s Weekly, India’s Punch in 1948 and never looked back. It was only during emergency that he had to close down the magazine after which he devoted his niche to making children laugh.

One of the cartoonists from India who made it big internationally is Paresh Nath. The chief cartoonist for India’s National Herald, he is the first Indian to receive multiple awards from the United Nations’ former secretary general Kofi Annan for the best political cartoons. Nath’s cartoons are syndicated by the New York Times and The Cagle Post, and published in more than a hundred countries.

Modern age saw some powerful cartoonists too. Aseem Trivedi, a controversial Indian political cartoonist and activist, is best known for his anti-corruption campaign Cartoons Against Corruption. He is a founder member of Save Your Voice, a movement against internet censorship in India.

Apart from them, many other cartoonists like Mario Miranda, Sudhir Dar, Abu Abraham, Puthukkody Kottuthody Sankaran Kutty Nair, Kaniska Mishra, among others have created a niche for themselves in the world of cartoons.

The most interesting aspect of being a cartoonist is the fact that they have the power to reach out to people of all age, thereby getting a question be heard and answered by huge and varied number of people, by being simple, yet unconventional — and probably that’s the reason why they are so influential and will continue to be so.