Cartoon ban in India sparks outrage

( May 16, 2012) The Indian government’s plan to withdraw nearly 200 political cartoons from school textbooks has stirred a debate over freedom of expression in the country. Addressing Parliament on Tuesday, Federal Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that all books with cartoons would not be prescribed as textbooks and those that are already in circulation would be withdrawn. “Removing the cartoons from textbooks is not a solution and such decisions are a blow to our freedom of expression,” said cartoonist V G Narendra. The decision was taken over a cartoon featuring the first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, standing with a whip in his hand behind B R Ambedkar, the architect of the country’s constitution. The cartoon prompted outrage during a recent parliamentary debate. Federal Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal had to tender an apology over the cartoon, which is part of a political science textbook for 11th graders. The cartoon was drawn in 1949 by celebrated Indian cartoonist Shankar Pillai when the three-year work on the country’s constitution was nearing completion. Fr.Kuriala Chittattukalam, secretary of the education office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said politicians should first exercise control over their behaviour in public and then worry about cartoons. He said cartoons are simply messages that proclaim a whole idea expressively in one shot.