ABSTRACT
Introduction: comic books in a globalised India When Anant Pai founded the first Indian comic book series in 1967, Amar Chitra Katha, he did so with a patriotic motive: he wanted to educate Indian children throughout the nation about their own culture and history. During the early months of that year, as India was gearing up to celebrate its twentieth year of independence from British colonial rule, Pai travelled from the western coastal city of Bombay (now Mumbai) to the northern capital city of New Delhi, where he encountered a new visual medium: television. He recalled the impact of that experience in these words:
In February of 1967, my wife and I were visiting Delhi, and we stopped at Maharaja Lal & Sons Bookstore. The TV was on in the bookstore – Bombay did not have TV yet, only Delhi, and only black and white – and the program was a quiz contest featuring five students from St. Stephen’s College. When they were asked, the students could not name the mother of Lord Ram [Rama]. I was disappointed, but I thought, well, that is from a long time ago. But then a question came about Greek gods on Mt. Olympus, and the children could answer that question! This is the trouble with our education system: children are getting alienated from their own culture.1
