The grand old man of Indian cartooning RK Laxman has a delightful anecdote that embodies the charm of political cartooning. Soon after the 1962 Sino-Indian war, Laxman lampooned Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his much-maligned defence minister Krishna Menon. That evening, Laxman got a call from the prime minister’s office. Picking up the phone, he was petrified of being at the receiving end of Nehru’s ire. He need not have...
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Critical struggle-Ananya Vajpeyi
Recently, the Indian Council of Social Science Research, the highest body that funds and guides the social sciences in India, has initiated an in-house debate about the current state and the future prospects of such research. What is the quality of work that has come out of our universities and research institutes over the past 10-20 years? Which new areas of inquiry deserve more time, money and attention in the...
More »Ambedkar cartoon issue generates heat in Lok Sabha
-DNA The issue of controversial cartoons in textbooks generated heat in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday with members demanding immediate action in the matter saying the sketch has hurt sentiments of a section of the society. Raising the issue during Question Hour, Harsimrat Kaur (SAD) and Shailendra Kumar (SP) demanded that the CBSE textbooks carrying the cartoons should be removed immediately. They were joined by Congress members, including Sanjay Nirupam and Lal...
More »Government to act against political cartoons in school textbooks
-CNN-IBN Cartoons are not a laughing matter for politicians after a 63-year-old cartoon of DR BR Ambedkar led to uproarious scenes in Parliament, forcing the Union Government to apologise. Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee assured Parliament on Monday that no political cartoons would be allowed in school textbooks and all objectionable material would be withdrawn after there was a ruckus over a cartoon of BR Ambedkar in NCERT class XI social science...
More »'Our Duty To Dissent'-Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar
'We think that the short, heated and not very well informed debate in the Parliament did not do justice to the responsibility that a democratic society has towards its future generations' May 11, 2012 Prof. Parvin Sinclair Director NCERT Subject: Resignation as Chief Advisers ( Pol Sc) Dear Professor Sinclair, We have followed the discussion in both Houses of the Parliament today regarding the cartoons published in the NCERT's Political Science Textbooks. We also heard the...
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