Caricaturing Culture in India

Ritu Gairola Khanduri is a cultural anthropologist and historian of India. She is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Texas, Arlington. In addition to her research on media, she is currently completing a book on Gandhi and material culture. Research for Caricaturing Culture in India has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, the Fulbright Foundation, the Institute for Historical Research-Mellon Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation's prestigious Carley Hunt Postdoctoral fellowship.

• Acknowledgments; Introduction: the empire of cartoons; Part I. Colonial Times: 1. Upstart Punches: why is impertinence always in the vernacular?; 2. Gandhi and the satyagraha of cartoons: cultivating a taste; 3. 'Dear Shankar … your ridicule should never bite'; Part II. National Times: 4. Becoming a cartoonist: Mr Kutty and Bireshwarji; 5. Virtual gurus and the Indian psyche: R. K. Laxman; 6. Uncommon women and common men: pocket cartoons and 'situated knowledges'; 7. Artoons and our toons: the prose of an Indian art; Part III. Global Times: 8. Crafty petitions and street humor; 9. 'All our gods and goddesses are cartoons'; Conclusions: timeless myths and timely knowledge; Notes to the text; Bibliography; Index.

'Ritu Gairola Khanduri breaks new ground in Indian studies with her captivating account of the political role cartoons and cartoonists have played in the country from the colonial period to now. Students of Indian political culture will find this book to be of enduring interest.' Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago