BENGALURU:This year, in the first six months itself, four journalists have been reportedly killed, one cartoonist has been arrested, and many such dissenting voices have been silenced in various other ways. Even as resistance to dissent seems to be reaching its threatening peak, the Madras High Court's ruling last month, which upholds the cartoonist's right to ridicule, has torched a ray of hope in cartoonists/ artists in the country.
The ruling came in favour of cartoonist Karna's case, who was arrested on a charge of criminal defamation. In 2013, his cartoon that was featured in Dinamalar, portrayed Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M Karunanidhi as a cap seller and fellow MLAs as monkeys. They took serious offence, and slapped a defamation charge against him.
Aarthi Parthasarathy, filmmaker and webcomic creator known for webcomic Royal Existentials, says that the ruling by the Madras HC resonated well with everyone in the artist community in the city. She says the ruling in itself is a positive development. “It gives cartoonists a lot of hope — that if someone were to take offence or have a problem with the work, they would be able to exercise their right and get some legal recourse. But having said that, I'm also aware of the fact that people are not going to stop having a problem suddenly because of a ruling. But I hope that people understand over time that their having a problem does not mean that they can silence dissent.”The artist has received criticism for some of her films. She says, “People have reported the videos we've made, or left some colourful comments or tweeted at me directly a few times.”
Ruling set, trolling continues
Slapping cases of criminal defamation and arresting cartoonists is not the sole way of silencing them. In this social media era, most cartoonists are trolled and threatened for doing what they do, online. One such example is the kind of response Falah Faisal's work 'Musalman' has received on social media. He claims that earlier this month, his 'Musalman' page got deleted on Instagram. Even when he tries to create a new page with the same name, it keeps blocking him from creating an account. After ruling out possibilities of it being a technical glitch, he sent an email to Instagram with the complaint last Monday, but hasn't got a response. He says, "It got deleted without an explanation — the whole page and even when I try clicking on tags of places that I had tagged earlier, it does not open anything."
This apart, the cartoonist has been victim to trolls, threats and even when he posted about the Instagram episode on Facebook asking what he could do to retrieve the account, he says.
Editorialising cartoons
Cartoonists also face similar challenges in terms of having to 'editorialise' their cartoons. Satish Acharya, who works as a freelance cartoonist, says he is more worried about the recent demands of some editors than threats on social media. He says, “Normally, we work on our own, but sometimes, they ask us to tone down our cartoons. Many clearly say they don't want cartoons on certain political organisations or leaders. Sometimes, they even say no to cartoons on cows. This is happening more in the last four-five years.”
Appupen, a graphic novelist and visual artist, says there is a dogma that has been created around approaching certain topics. Even before an artist puts his/her work out, there is a censorship among your friends and family itself. They advise and get worried about the work and say that it might be dangerous. This, he says, stops a lot of artists from looking at certain topics.
Another form of silencing discussion or debate, according to Appupen, is when there are loud comments put under an article that screams of a certain agenda. When one scrolls down to add their comments, these comments stop many from voicing out their opinion. "Even if you want to comment there, you don't want to pick a conflict with these guys. This is how the voice is quietened,” adds Appupen.
Trolling is paid:Appupen
"Trolling is a paid thing, nobody trolls on their own, there are people who are paid to do these things," says Appupen, graphic novelist and visual artist. The artist has been subjected to criticism for a lot of his Rashtraman comics. He further goes on to differentiate between the kind of people who engage in such trolling. He says that the ones who are paid to troll on social media are different from the ones who are paid to cause any physical harm. Even amidst the ones who are paid to troll on social media, there are the educated ones and the ones who rant using abusive lingo. "They'll just try to irritate you by saying things about your mother, or sister or birth and things like that. It's basically to just disturb your space. People who arrange for the trolls and pay for it, they know that we need a certain kind of peace of mind and security to work," adds Appupen.
Trumpland fires cartoonist
Halfway across the globe, in Trump's America, cartoonist, Rob Rogers has been fired from his post as editorial cartoonist for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, after his service to the publication for 25 years. Even though he was not given an official explanation, the fact that the paper started censoring his cartoons on American President Donald Trump, in the last two months could indicate why he was shown the exit door.