History

India’s Democratic Satirist: R.K. Laxman and His Socio-Political Commentary

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May 1, 2024

The visual medium, like the verbal medium, has been an important source of satire and socio-political commentary. In India, the comical strips of R.K. Laxman published daily in The Times Of India for more than 50 years. His cartoons, however, are not mere means of ridiculing the status quo and they go far beyond that as they simultaneously offer a sharp and a light, humorous socio-political commentary on the state of affairs in the nation at a particular moment in history. His cartoons have, in a way, laid the foundations for political caricatures in independent India and have set the benchmark for satire in the graphic form. This essay explores how Laxman’s cartoons offer a democratic commentary on popular issues in politics and seek to locate people’s interests in political developments. It further examines how in this attempt to locate people’s interests in political developments, Laxman finds loopholes in the democratic process itself and by depicting his character “Common Man” as a silent witness to the many undemocratic incidents occurring daily around him, he points to both the disinterestedness of the common man as well as his silencing by democratic institutions that rarely serve the common man.

R.K. Laxman’s career as a cartoonist began around the same time when India became independent and as the latter discovered the intricacies of democracy and aimed to develop it, so did the former. Though Laxman worked as a cartoonist for several magazines and newspapers such as Free Press Journal, Swarajya, Blitz, and Koravanji in the beginning of his career, his most famous series of cartoons “Common Man” was created for The Times Of India where he worked for more than 50 years. The idea behind the series “Common Man” occurred to him when his editor told Laxman that his cartoons are too political and polarized and when he emphasized on the need to create something that “the common man” can relate with. This led Laxman to create the character of the common man that is unique to his cartoons. The common man represents a complex yet simple character that has visual symbols associated with both rural India and modern technology.

As the scholar Harshita Hajela observes, his characterisation of the common man includes the traditional dhoti kurta coupled with the modern Nehru coat and the Gandhian spectacles. His face, however, is mostly characterized by worry, shock, disgust, or anxiety and is rarely pleasant as he witnesses rather disturbing incidents each day that Laxman depicts in a light manner. As Hajela further notes, the common man is never shown to be active or assertive as a participant in everyday politics but is rather a passive witness or observer whose facial expressions give away his opinions that he is either disinterested to voice out or whose voice has been suppressed by the so-called democratic institutions surrounding him. In either of the possibilities, Laxman does not fail to capture the people’s interests, usually by depicting lack thereof, in such developments and their reactions to the incidents using the character of the common man.

Though his cartoons are highly humorous and sarcastic, they are not independent in themselves and rely on the captions for the humorous elements and to provide context to the cartoons. However, his cartoons are marked by the usage of situational irony as a means to respond to daily instances and news related to politics.

A caricature commenting upon the notions of “improvement” and how bureaucracy manufactures improvement using statistics rather than development

Source: The Best of Laxman, Vol. 4, Penguin Books India

For instance, this cartoon depicts a bureaucratic official on a survey to a remote location in India where he is joyful as the “new plan” records a general improvement in the location. However, the cartoon says otherwise as it depicts several huts in the background with almost no access to significant resources and a family without a roof on their head in the foreground and in which the child seems to be working rather than studying. The improvement that the bureaucratic official talks about, does not emerge from development in their living conditions but is manufactured using statistics under the “new plan”. The character of the common man as well as the members of the family seem shocked at the official’s statement and the almost apathetic sense of delusion of the state with regard to the village’s “development”. The cartoon offers a larger commentary on the ever-widening gap between official state narratives and ground reality

A caricature depicting the extreme levels of internal conflicts in political parties, particularly the Congress which the cartoonist uses to depict the blurring lines between politicians and goons

Source: The Best of Laxman, Vol. 4, Penguin Books India

This cartoon is one of the most significant works by Laxman and it highlights the descension of Indian democracy into hooliganism and violence at the highest of positions. It depicts a police officer politely telling a wounded politician how he didn’t interfere as he was asked to fight “goondas, anti-social elements, and terrorists and not party members”. The caricature depicts the antithesis of the party members into violent hooligans who fight among themselves and have become the very elements of society they sought to remove. Further the caricature also features a portrait of a laughing Gandhi which further intensifies the irony and sarcasm of the caricature. The caricature remains relevant even today as the members of the ruling parties themselves form the biggest proportion of criminals in the society.

A caricature depicting a joyous minister and his successful international visit which is contrasted with his lack of awareness of ground realities and lack of appeal amongst the people

Source: The Best of Laxman, Vol. 4, Penguin Books India

In another caricature, Laxman depicts a joyous politician who seems to have been on a “successful foreign visit”. However, this caricature derives its sarcasm not from the visual but from the verbal context in the caption which then laments his failure in local visits. Hence, the caricature, like many of Laxman’s caricatures, brings down so-called high politics and global politics and makes them accessible to the readers and democratizes political issues. In this caricature, Laxman highlights the disjunct and contrast between the minister’s appeal on a global level, amongst other ministers and his appeal amongst the people of India. Further, it also suggests how the minister is disconnected with the ground realities of his own nation. This caricature also holds true for the current state of affairs with so many unaddressed internal conflicts within the nation.

In all of these caricatures, the common man never speaks. He is a mere observer of the events and incidents occurring around him with no agency over them. His lack of speech depicts how democratic institutions have ironically silenced people rather than addressing their concerns. These caricatures not only highlight the decline of democratic institutions but also the silencing of people’s interests by these institutions and how they are anti-people in their approach. Another perspective on the common man is based on his silence being an outcome of his own disinterestedness to participate in political affairs of the nation. However, this disinterestedness in politics also depicts the popular mindset about politics that stems from privilege as many individuals choose to silently observe crises and not respond to them.

Rather than offering a scathing critique of the state of affairs, Laxman chooses humor, irony, and sarcasm to offer significant socio-political commentary of significant incidents and democratizes political issues for his readers. His characterisation of the common man played a significant role in reinstating and popularizing the idea of the necessity of people’s voices and interests in a democracy. His shock, anguish and confusion to everyday incidents resembles that of the readers and makes seemingly complicated issues of politics easier to comprehend for the layman. Though several other styles of caricatures have evolved, his caricatures remain relevant even today as they have created a visual history of democratic India from the common man’s perspective.

Works Cited

Laxman, R.K. The Best of Laxman: Volume IV. Penguin Books, 1995.
Chatterjee, Sushmita. “Cartooning Democracy: The Images of R. K. Laxman.” PS: Political Science and Politics, vol. 40, no. 2, Apr. 2007, pp. 303-306,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20451949.