Packed with satirical overtones and biting humour, political cartoons emerged as early as 18th century. Merging caricature with symbolism, these doodles struck a perfect balance between art and politics. Over the years, several caricaturists have experimented with hyperboles and visual metaphors to draw attention to common problems.
Taking on an air of sincerity, cartoons have always proved to be a medium of free expression and social commentary. Aside from affecting the viewer’s opinions, cartoons often took issues and presented them in a comical yet socially acceptable manner.
With the clear intention of raising public consciousness, Maya Kamath like most of her peers introduced the element of irony in all her work. Her contemporary cartoons poked fun at political scenarios and also shed some light on the life of an average middle-class Indian family.
Being India’s only woman cartoonist, she played a significant role in the evolution of cartoons here. Paying a tribute to her ten years of passing, on October 26, 2011, Indian Institute of Cartoon organised an exhibition titled Maya Jaal recently.Encompassing legends and literary allusions, Maya’s works were characterised by simple lines and an effective concept. Her sketches were quick and impressionistic. Like all cartoonists, she too exaggerated prominent physical features -- droopy eyes and bulbous chins. Coming from an extremely vibrant household, Maya often drew inspiration from her own life. She dealt with burning issues like dowry or sati, terrorism and political anarchy with great ease. And, the way she rendered each theme like poverty, economic policy, education, and even cow slaughter was remarkable.
Cartoons provided her the freedom to express herself without fear. Most of her cartoons displayed at the exhibition were reflective of the slow paced progress and irregular development that our country has witnessed over the past couple of years. A cartoon depicting Manmohan riding a turtle with a fellow minister on its back warning him, 'Perhaps we should slow down a bit Manmohan… We don’t want to be caught over-speeding' was craftingly clever.
Aside from tackling racial discrimination and murky Indian politics, another issue that Maya was extremely passionate about was women equality. Quoting Shakespeare, 'Frailty thy name is woman', one of her cartoons in fact portrayed a woman in a complete balancing act -- cooking with some construction material on her head and babies hanging on to her as she holds her drunken husband by the ear.
Her cartoons always testified her stance on gender equality. Her illustration of an Islamic extremist fighting for Freedom for all Kashmiri people, with a caveat 'Except Women' in the adjacent panel that showed a Burqa clad woman, was both witty and humorous. She often found the prejudice of chauvinistic Indian men unbearable.
Her cartoons always captured the sentiments and bolstered the morale of the masses. Etched in satire, the exhibition proved to be a fitting tribute to one of India’s most celebrated political humourist.