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PowerPoint Presentation INDIAN COMICS Divine Heroines, Mythical Heroes, and the Common Man AST3POP : Asian Pop Culture Lecturer: Ian Woolford E:
[email protected] T: @iawoolford Amar Chitra Katha “Immortal Picture Stories” “Promotion of National Integration” Shakuntala “The Forgotten Wife” According to Nandini Chandra: She is a mix of the assertive woman found in the Mahabharata and the coy romantic Shakuntala of Kalidasa’s play Shakuntala in Love: “I think you are the most wonderful man on earth.” Shakuntala “The Forgotten Wife” Shakuntala Proposes Marriage: “Let us exchange garlands and marry as forest people do.” Shakuntala “The Forgotten Wife” Shakuntala gets Angry: “Oh Dushyant! It is wicked for you to disown your own wife!” Shakuntala “The Forgotten Wife” Shakuntala’s Clueless Husband: “I wish I could remember where I have seen this woman.” Shakuntala “The Forgotten Wife” Shakuntala is Domesticated: “He is indeed your father, Little One.” Shakuntala “The Forgotten Wife” Mahatma Gandhi “Father of the Nation” Image gives way to text, as comic book format struggles to tell the story Mahatma Gandhi “Father of the Nation” Who shot Mahatma Gandhi? 1947 Independence and the Partition of India and Pakistan Cartoon by Manjul, 13 March 2020 Goli Maaro Saalon ko! “Shoot the bastards!” Threats To National Integration RK Laxman “The Common Man” RK Laxman Clueless Bureaucrats “I have prepared this simple chart to show population increase, food scarcity, price spiral, sugar scarcity, growth of corruption, unemployment—all in one.” “Of course we have progressed a great deal, first they were coming by bullock cart, then by jeep, and now this!” RK Laxman Questionable Development “My mission was an utter failure! I have to go abroad again!” “Why am I going abroad? To study the conditions in our country of course!” RK Laxman Airplanes as Modernity Cartoon by Manjul, 26 Feb 2020 “It was A HUGE RIOT” The Common Girl “Karnika Says” Kanika Mishra asks: Why just “common man”? Why not “common girl”? Maya Kamnath 1951-2001 One of India’s few female political cartoonists INDIAN COMICS Divine Heroines, Mythical Heroes, and the Common Man AST3POP : Asian Pop Culture Lecturer: Ian Woolford E:
[email protected] T: @iawoolford SAR_27_1~4-McLain.pmd McLain: Who Shot the Mahatma? 57 WHO SHOT THE MAHATMA? REPRESENTING GANDHIAN POLITICS IN INDIAN COMIC BOOKS Karline McLain BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY, LEWISBURG, USA ABSTRACT Amar Chitra Katha (‘Immortal Picture Stories’) is the leading Indian comic book series, with 440 mythological and his- torical titles and sales of over 86 million issues. In 1989, after twenty years of publishing success, the producers of this series de- cided to release two issues on the world-renowned Indian politician and activist, Mahatma Gandhi. But Gandhi, best known for his technique of non-violent civil resistance, presented a formidable challenge: How to depict the Mahatma, paragon of peace and non- violence, in a visual medium that is notorious for its action and violence? This article examines the relationship between text and image in these comics, and draws upon interviews with authors and artists, to better understand the contested memory of Gandhi in India today as well as the contested concept of non-violence. KEYWORDS: Amar Chitra Katha, comic books, Gandhi, Jallianwala Bagh, non-violence, popular culture, satyagraha Introduction Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) is the leading Indian comic book series. Known and loved by millions of fans in India and throughout the South Asian diaspora, this English- language series has dominated the flourishing Indian comic book market since its inception in 1967, selling over 440 titles and more than 86 million issues. Amar Chitra Katha means ‘Immortal Picture Stories’, and as the name suggests, these comic books feature India’s own immortal heroes as their protagonists. The earliest issues presented mythological characters such as Rama, hero of the classical epic Ramayana, as a manly comic book hero, posed on the cover of Rama (no. 15, 1970) with his chest muscles rippling and his bow and arrow at the ready. In 1971, Indian historical leaders also began to be featured, beginning with the publication of Shivaji (no. 23, 1971), the tale of a seventeenth-century king from western India who was depicted on the cover as a brave equestrian commander, wielding his sword aloft and leading his troops into battle. Anant Pai, the founder and longtime editor of Amar Chitra Katha, originally con- ceived of this comic book series as a means of teaching Indian themes and values to Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore SOUTH ASIA RESEARCH www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/026272800602700104 Vol. 27(1): 57–77 58 South Asia Research Vol. 27 (1) middle-class Indian children enrolled in English-medium schools. These children, he feared, were learning Western mythology and history at the expense of their own. In 1978, the Union Minister of Education, Dr Pratap Chandra Chunder, endorsed the use of this comic book series in the Indian school system, stating that ‘[t]here are biographies of great men from different parts of the country; there are tales from Sanskrit; classics and folktales of various regions—all of which could help in promoting national integration’ (The Role of Chitra Katha in School Education, 1978: 2). After this endorsement, sales soared as parents bought the comics for their children, and educators stocked Amar Chitra Katha titles—both mythological and historical—in their school libraries.1 In 1989, after twenty years of publishing success, the producers of this series decided to release two issues on the world-renowned Indian politician and social activist, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948), popularly known as the Mahatma. The first issue, Mahatma Gandhi I: The Early Days (no. 414, 1989) focuses on Gandhi’s childhood and education, his reform work in South Africa, and concludes with his return to India. The second issue, Mahatma Gandhi II: The Father of the Nation (no. 416, 1989: 28) highlights his work in India from 1919 until his violent death in 1948. But as I studied the production of these comics at the comic book studio in Mumbai (Bombay) in 2001–2, I learned that Gandhi, who is best known for his technique of non-violent civil resistance (satyagraha), actually presented a formidable challenge to the comic book creators. How to depict the Mahatma, the paragon of peace and non-violence, as a ‘hero’ in a visual medium that is notorious for its action and violence? Longtime comic book author Yagya Sharma explained the predicament to me in an interview in Mumbai on 16 March 2002: Gandhi was afraid of turning India into a violent society. You need maturity to be able to see the valour in non-violent struggle. So the common man appreciates [active] characters more … and storytellers too. This is because you cannot dramatize inaction. How do you put inaction with pictures, involve the child as a reader? But characters who are active, they make better stories. For this author, a good comic script is one in which the hero fights great battles and ultimately wins, or else dies bravely on the battlefield, as in Rana Pratap (no. 24, 1971) and Prithviraj Chauhan (no. 25, 1971), two issues about regional medieval kings who battled ‘invading Muslim armies’. As Sharma stated in the same interview: They are heroes because they stood up against a much larger power … they stood up against tremendous odds. Prithviraj Chauhan lost, but he fought bravely. This is what is important. And Rana Pratap, he did not meet his goal, but he did free Chittorgarh. So in a way he failed, because he didn’t free all of Rajasthan, but he also fought to his last. This is what makes them role models. Gandhi, with his philosophy of non-violence and his quest for Hindu-Muslim unity, cannot fit into the same heroic mould as Rana Pratap, Prithviraj Chauhan, Shivaji, McLain: Who Shot the Mahatma? 59 and other Indian heroes in this comic book series. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his death, for Gandhi did not die heroically, fighting an enemy on a battlefield. He was assassinated in the Birla House garden in New Delhi as he walked to his eve- ning ecumenical prayer meeting. Hence, while Rana Pratap and other heroes receive full-page panels lauding their ultimate sacrifices upon the battlefield, the scene of Gandhi’s death is depicted in just one small panel in Mahatma Gandhi II. The narrative text in Hindi at the top of this panel is brief: ‘But Gandhi’s efforts to unite the people did not please everyone. At 5:10 pm on January 30, 1948 ….’2 The accompanying image shows an alarmed crowd circling the assassin as he shoots Gandhi, while the latter exclaims ‘He Ram!’ (‘Oh God!’) as he falls to the ground. Figure 1 Mahatma Gandhi II: The Father of the Nation (no. 416, 1989: 28). Other historical Indian figures have also presented problems for the producers in their attempts to canonise them as national comic book heroes. Yagya Sharma noted that the ending of Subhas Chandra Bose (no. 77, 1975), which tells the story of the Bengali nationalist leader who founded the Indian National Army (INA), was par- ticularly troublesome to script in this respect: Many people today believe that he [Subhas Chandra Bose] may still be alive. When his plane crashed [in 1945], there was no physical evidence of his death. So after inde- pendence [in 1947], many thought that perhaps he was still alive, waiting for the right time to return to India. Of course, this raises a lot of problems, a lot of questions. But the minute you go and say that he’s dead there’ll be an uproar. I mean, of course he died in the plane crash. But so many believed that he was still alive. And it is also part of storytelling, this ending. If we showed his death in the plane crash—well, that is just so undramatic for a hero. It is not at all like Rana Pratap fighting to his death. If Subhas Chandra Bose had died fighting, that would’ve been different. Storytelling needs a climax. What kind of a climax and resolution would it be if we just said, ‘And then he died in a plane crash’? (Interview in Mumbai, 16 March 2002). 60 South Asia Research Vol. 27 (1) For these reasons, the producers decided to end the Subhas Chandra Bose issue on a mysterious note. In a small final panel (p. 31) that features ‘Netaji’ [Leader] Subhas Chandra Bose standing to attention in front of a plane, the last words read: ‘What became of Netaji on that fateful trip is a mystery. Is he dead? Does he live? There is no answer to these questions’. The Mahatma Gandhi II issue also evidences some mystery about the circumstances of its protagonist’s death. In the previously mentioned panel, the assassin is not the focus of the image. Only his head and shoulders can be seen in the midst of the crowd, and he has no identifying marks to distinguish him. Nor is