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| CURRENT AFFAIRS |
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COVER STORY |
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CARTOON CONTROVERSY
Cartoons are not the only thing this is about
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‘I think Ghalib and Faiz would have been exiled or sent to the gallows if they were a part of today’s literary setup. Ghalib questioned the existence of gods and heaven. He is worshipped today across the globe. So, if he had written the poem in today’s day and age, would we have banned him because he hurt the sentiments of Muslims? And to think that a party like the Congress owes its history to the likes of Nehru, who took sarcasm in poetry written by us as a compliment. Will we wipe out of the minds of our children the rebellion of writers who wrote during Emergency, who tore apart Indira Gandhi with their cartoons and poems? Have we become so intolerant as a society? Let’s stop celebrating Manto, let’s stop Krishen Chander and Premchand from being part of our academics. Why do you celebrate 100 years of Faiz and Manto when you think that they would have a negative influence on our children? And where is the sense of humour or has the love for power killed the sense of humour of our politicians? The cartoon in question should be treated as a part of history. Let there be dissent, let the child question the teacher, let the hero be flawed. Why are we making saints out of our heroes? Heroes need not be saints. I was born in Pakistan, I became a poet in free Independent India. Today, when I see this, I think we are becoming regressive as a nation. I pity the talent that will now shudder to write, express itself. It will think 10 times before emoting’
Gopi Chand Narang, Urdu Writer and Critic |
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‘The MPs should take their party manifestos and make it part of our textbooks. They don’t want sociologists and academics to design or approve content, so who will they get? Bigots from their party or those who proclaim allegiance to their ideology? What do I tell my student in class? That he will get a textbook that is currently being reviewed, because what his seniors read was actually flawed. His seniors have grown with wrong ideals, have got their basics wrong?’
Pranay Kishen, Writer and Professor, Allahabad University |
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‘It is a good way to explain to students the entire procedure of Constitution-making. When Shankar is pointing out that the process is slow, the teacher can always explain the various interests involved in making the Constitution, which led to this delay. There is immense possibility of using this for pedagogic purposes’
KN Panikkar, Historian |
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‘One cartoon can’t bring about a revolution. It just helps people to form opinions. The language used in (cartoons) is very soft. If politicians are taking offence to that too, then it is an indication that the rot in them has spread deeper and even the slightest provocation is good enough to offend them. This leads to encouragement of dictatorial behaviour... Cartoons should definitely be there in textbooks because in today’s world where children have become accustomed to social networking, they are not only watching everything but have become mature enough to understand these topics. Political cartoons can only aid in that understanding’
Ismail Lahari, Cartoonist, Dabang Duniya |
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‘The question is not about freedom of expression. With expression comes equal amount of responsibility. Children don’t know that the cartoon is humorous in nature or satirical, they will go by what they see. So, do you want them to think that Ambedkar is a figure who needs to be lampooned? You want them to learn. Let them learn. Let them form their own opinions. But not when their minds are impressionable’
Smriti Irani, BJP MP |
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‘This controversy is not really about reverence towards Ambedkar. It reflects the fear our MPs have about how they themselves may be seen and depicted. It is an expression of their yearning for a supreme status that will put them beyond laughter and therefore beyond criticism. This is Parliament’s demand to be seen as the ‘home of gods’. Except that in India, we have a tradition in which even gods were mocked. They are saying ‘don’t laugh at us, we are above laughter’. A cartoon is essentially a tongue-in-cheek comment. In fact, it’s a compliment. You don’t draw a cartoon of an unknown person... We have a good Constitution and it guarantees us certain rights. The elected representatives are dismantling it. I’m free to express my opinion wherever I like. You can’t turn everything into a law and order problem’
Girish Karnad, Writer And Playwright |
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‘It’s a tragic episode and shows a lack of interest in culture and critical thinking. It assumes that our teenagers are fools and infantilises them... With these revised textbooks, we’d finally caught up with current pedagogical methods. We go back to a system that is uninteresting, deadening and does not deal with the present. This controversy is a loss to our education’
Sanjay Srivastava, Professor, Institute Of Economic Growth, New Delhi |
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‘It is a very sad development and speaks very poorly of not just our public lives but our sense of ourselves as people. Why can’t we be more mature about these things? It is just a political cartoon. In the past few days, I have heard too many people say that it’s not funny. It’s not meant to be funny, it’s not a comic strip. It’s a political comment on a particular and complex issue from nearly 60 years ago... In the late 1970s, Abu Abraham released Games of Emergency, a book of cartoons that was a laceration of the Emergency and one of the most politically damning collection of cartoons ever. But there was not a whisper, despite Mrs G being in power... These are politically motivated moves and the state absents itself from the issue and does not engage, it just capitulates or withdraws. It does not augur well for our freedom of expression’
Ritu Menon, Founder Women Unlimited And Kali For Women |
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‘In the past few years, there has been a corruption of academic freedom, be it Rohinton Mistry’s novel being banned or Ramanujan’s essay. The vibrancy of academic institutions depends on diverse thought processes, and that is compromised when political interest is involved in academia. This is stifling some of the fundamental freedoms, freedom to teach, learn and ideate... There was a time when there was difference of opinion but not the intolerance and extreme hatred we see now. With identity politics, political culture as a whole is at an all-time low’
Venkatesh Kumar, Political Scientist, Tata Institute Of Social Sciences |
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‘We have shamed ourselves as a society today. This is a display of vulgarity. I think our political culture has started dominating our literary culture. And we deserve this, as a society we deserve this, this government. This is not about the Congress or the BJP, it’s the time we live in. It’s the apathy of our alleged civil society, our educated lot’
Shamsur Rehman Farooqui, Urdu Poet and Critic |
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‘When the cartoon first came out in 1949, nobody took it seriously because the betrayal of Dalits was not yet evident at that time. You can’t compare the attitude of the people from those days to what it is today when there are attacks on Dalits every day... I don’t support censorship, but I do support debate. I don’t think the cartoon is completely innocent’
Anand Patwardhan, Filmmaker |
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‘If you talk about exposure, the Internet and other literature, have more explicit material. I think a Class X student is mature enough to understand the complexity of the cartoon. If you think otherwise, then newspapers and magazines shouldn’t be allowed in these schools and colleges... If they start reviewing everything, no artist would be able to produce anything. Texts related to all social and political reformers would then be removed on the pretext of their being Brahamanical... Politicisation of education should not take place at any cost. If this action is allowed, then it would form the basis for more such wrongdoings in the future. Narendra Modi can write his version of history and Sajjan Kumar can do the same. Review of textbooks can be democratic, but recalling books is not acceptable. Let the professionals decide’
Arvind Gaur, Theatre Personality |
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‘It is drawn by an eminent cartoonist, when both Jawaharlal Nehru and Babasaheb were alive and nobody saw anything objectionable at that time. There was criticism even then that our constitutional machinery will function rather slowly, and will be an impediment for rapid progress. And it was in that context that Shankar drew that cartoon... The government seems to be contemplating about how the media can be restricted, how freedoms can be curtailed’
Sebastian Paul, Former MP and Supreme Court Lawyer |
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