Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Specials / Obituaries/  Iconic cartoonist R.K. Laxman dies at 94
BackBack

Iconic cartoonist R.K. Laxman dies at 94

Laxman infused in the Common Man a humour that never bordered on the vitriolic

A file photo of R.K. Laxman. Photo: Hindustan TimesPremium
A file photo of R.K. Laxman. Photo: Hindustan Times

New Delhi: For more than half a century, countless Indians woke up to face the pressures that every new day brought on a light-hearted note. The reason for the smile on their face was the daily comic strip, You Said It, that R.K. Laxman drew for The Times of India.

The pocket cartoon featured the Common Man, with his trademark dhoti and checked coat, wire-rimmed spectacles, and a near bald pate with tufts of hair shaped like wings poking out over his ears, making him one of the most recognizable faces in India, at least to newspaper readers.

Of course Laxman drew incisive and biting political cartoons, too, satirizing the most powerful political figures of the time, but it was the gentle Common Man that he was best known for; he represented the ordinary Indian, his hopes, dreams, everyday troubles, his follies and foibles.

Late novelist, historian and journalist Khushwant Singh once commented: “Laxman is the pillar that sustains The Times of India. The day his cartoons stop appearing on its front pages, Indians who start their day with a smile will have nothing left to smile about."

On Monday, Laxman died at the age of 94. An older generation of readers may well feel that they have lost a family member.

“R.K. Laxman is the most uncommon man. He was one of the most influential cartoonists of the country. Probably one of the few cartoonists who worked on his own terms. It’s a big feat to be on the front page of a national newspaper for more than 50 years. He’s the only cartoonist who did so for more than 50 years," said cartoonist Sudhir Tailang.

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Laxman was born on 24 October 1921 in Mysore. The youngest of six brothers (one of his sibling was the novelist R.K. Narayan), Laxman’s fascination with drawing started at an early age.

According to his autobiography The Tunnel of Time, published in 1998, he would draw doodles on the walls of his home even before he could read. But there was always reading material at hand—Punch, The Strand Magazine and other publications—and Laxman would pore over the illustrations they contained.

“I drew objects that caught my eye outside the window of my room—the dry twigs, leaves and lizard-like creatures crawling about, the servant chopping firewood and, of course, a number of crows in various postures on the rooftops of the buildings opposite," Laxman wrote in his autobiography.

The keenness of eye, power of observation and memory for detail stood him in good stead years later when he would skewer politicians and other important people on a daily basis.

Like many great artists, Laxman never underwent any formal training. There is a now-famous story of how his application to the JJ School of Art in Bombay was rejected; he was told that the drawings that he had submitted “lacked the talent to qualify for enrolment".

Years later, he would be invited to the institution to be the chief guest at a function. Not one to bear any grudges, Laxman accepted the invitation.

Laxman’s earliest work was published in The Hindu, when he was still studying at the Maharaja College of Mysore. His brother Narayan asked him to illustrate some of his stories that were appearing in the newspaper. Laxman took on freelance assignments, but a desire to widen his horizons prompted him to move to Mumbai (then Bombay), where he worked part-time at the weekly Blitz.

He later joined the Free Press Journal as a full-time employee where Bal Thackeray, who went on to found the Shiv Sena party, was a colleague. But Laxman didn’t last there for long—a tiff with the owner of the newspaper, who had forbidden him from lampooning communists, led him to move in 1951 to The Times of India. And that’s where he would spend the rest of his career.

Satirical though Laxman may have been, he infused in the Common Man a humour that never bordered on the vitriolic. Perhaps, that’s why no politician really had a bone to pick with Laxman. And Laxman said on many occasions that he was grateful to Indian politicians—“They have not taken care of the country, but me," he said in one interview.

Over the course of his long career, Laxman won many awards. The Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, came in 1973; he won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for excellence in journalism in 1984 and received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, in 2005.

Laxman’s output was not limited to the Common Man. He created Gattu, the Asian Paints mascot in 1954. Apart from his many books of cartoons, Laxman also found time to write short stories, essays and novels such as The Hotel Riviera (1988) and The Messenger.

Penguin Books India published his autobiography The Tunnel of Time, around 15 volumes of his Common Man cartoons, a collection of Laxman’s political cartoons as well as Common Man cartoons with a political text in the book Brushing Up the Years: A Cartoonist’s History of Modern India, among others.

His cumulative sales ran to over a million copies, including customized versions of his cartoon collections that the publisher produced for corporate clients, said Udayan Mitra, associate publisher and head of rights, Penguin Books India.

“His work of course impacted me much before I came to know him. We all grew up with his cartoons in the morning newspaper—a witty, acerbic comment on some aspect of the news. In many ways I would say he was the conscience of the nation for our generation—a witty, uncompromising commentator with an inimitable perspective," Mitra said.

Laxman suffered debilitating strokes in 2003 and again in 2010, which affected his speech. But it did not stop him drawing; he continued almost till the very end. He leaves behind his wife Kamala, son Srinivas, daughter-in-law Usha, and granddaughter Rimanika.

Explaining the strengths of the Common Man in an interview, Laxman pinpointed his character’s silence. “He simply listens," he said. Now there’s no chance of him speaking. Ever.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 26 Jan 2015, 07:33 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App