BENGALURU: Political cartoonist Sandeep Adhwaryu said that no vaccine for the virus is satire at the prize distribution ceremony of the Maya Kamath Memorial International Cartoon Contest on Saturday.
The contest, themed “Gender Justice and Women’s Rights”, was held to commemorate the 75th birth anniversary of noted Indian cartoonist Maya Kamath.
Adhwaryu said satirical cartoons have the power to provoke the public into thinking about politics, unlike some other forms of content that seek to be offensive merely for the sake of virality.
A panel discussion that followed focused on the challenges faced by political cartoonists, particularly censorship.
“As far as Maya is concerned, she never held back any punches, although objections to her work even came from students. Whenever it came to minority issues, they said it should not be included in her book. But divisive art has always existed,” said CS Lakshmi, director of the Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW).
Speaking about self-censorship and the challenges Maya Kamath faced, her daughter and former journalist Deepa Kamath said, “The Emergency, which happened when she was young, influenced a whole generation of human beings and journalists. We were trained as a generation to stop before we said things aloud. Although she grew out of this, she was always aware that there was an editor who would publish her work.”
Despite these concerns, the panel remained optimistic about the role of cartoons in reflecting contemporary political realities and encouraging critical thought.
Subhani Shaikh received The Barton Award, which recognises lifetime achievement in cartooning. A political cartoonist who worked with Deccan Chronicle for more than 37 years, he has published over 35,000 cartoons.
The contest received a record 534 entries, with prizes awarded to winners from across the world, including Ukraine, Spain, Turkey and Iran. The first prize went to Valentin Georgiv of Bulgaria for his work depicting the courage of women who challenge religious prohibitions.