ABSTRACT

Cartoons’ essential nature of being subjective rather than objective makes them more interesting for an historian; for it makes it easier to grasp the various perspectives that existed in a society by reading cartoons of a particular period of time in history. The Second World War forced a weakened British government to negotiate with the major political parties in India in an effort to garner their support in the war. Enver Ahmed, who began his career as a cartoonist at the Pioneer, subsequently moved on to Dawn and, from there, eventually, to the Hindustan Times. Leslie Gilbert Illingworth had worked as an illustrator for 13 years before he joined the Daily Mail. Illingworth’s cartoons convey significant meaning and a powerful political subtext. Sukeshi Kamra has noted the power of print culture as a social mediator in the subcontinent, and how this is reflected in the attention that political leaders pay to newspaper coverage.