Unfunny business

The torrent of parliamentary condemnation poured over cartoons in some NCERT textbooks, and the grim view taken of political caricatures in general, has foregrounded a few things. Apart from the obvious failings of judgment, the anger around the cartoons shows a missing sense of history. While seeming to defend the reputations of their predecessors and, covertly, trying to keep up their own prestige as legislators, MPs don’t see what’s visible to the rest — the abyss between their actions and those of earlier leaders. Ambedkar, Nehru and the others satirised by Shankar were not consumed by a sense of their own image — and their authority was not so feeble that a cartoon poking fun at them would be fatal to it.

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