Freedom to lampoon

The Cartoonists’ Institute gives recognition to the art.

Enter at your own peril. You may be caricaturised.” That could very well be the warning on the door of the Indian Institute of Cartoonists (IIC). This reporter had first-hand experience of what he can be made to look like at the hands of a cartoonist — and he didn’t much care for it!

The IIC was founded in June 2001 by V G Narendra, a cartoonist with Kannada daily Kannada Prabha, who had also worked with Mumbai’s Free Press Journal. His objective — to recognise and motivate cartoonists, to showcase and preserve their art for future generations, guide young cartoonists and above all, popularise the art.

The institute occupies a 5,000 sq ft space on prime M G Road, which was given to it for free by Ashok Kheny. An industrialist, Kheny had been moved to splits by a cartoon by Narendra in Kannada Prabha in which he had portrayed Kheny’s company, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), as Nandi the bull with then Karnataka chief minister Dharam Singh and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda hanging on for dear life from its horns. The reference was to the Rs 4,000 crore Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project which politicians such as Deve Gowda had been trying many years to stop. So impressed was Kheny that he offered to fund the IIC and provide the infrastructure. Kheny had come across similar institutions abroad and wanted to build something similar in Bangalore.

The IIC is a first of its kind organisation in India and has had exhibitions of, among others, R K Laxman, Mario Miranda and Shankar. Miranda is chief patron of IIC, Kheny its honorary chairman, and Narendra, managing trustee. Among its members are E P Unny, chief political cartoonist of The Indian Express; Keshav of The Hindu, and Suresh Sridhar Sawant, a former India editor of Witty World, the international cartoon centre.

It’s not just professional cartoonists but amateurs too who find a platform in the IIC. U K Singh, for instance, an engineer with the Aditya Birla Group, who will soon have an exhibition at the gallery.

The institute’s 2,000 sq ft gallery, started three years ago, is its most popular forum. The only exhibition space dedicated to cartoons in the country, the IIC now plans to have a chain of such galleries in all the major Indian cities. Also on the cards is a website which will be a virtual encyclopedia for Indian cartoons and cartoonists. “We also plan to have a museum of original cartoons and clay models of cartoon characters,” says Narendra. The institute also wants to collect books and comics for the cartoon library which will be a reference point for young cartoonists and researchers.

Cartooning, strangely, is a profession that has attracted few women. Perhaps it is because it takes a long time to establish yourself before you begin to make money conjectures Narendra.