Birth anniversary special: RK Laxman, creator of 'Common Man', who showed the mirror through lines to power

New Delhi, October 23 (IANS). In the world of political satire in India, if any name shaped the voice of the public in lines, then it was the famous cartoonist RK Laxman. The ‘Common Man’ born from his sketch became the quietest but most vocal face of Indian democracy, never saying or doing anything, yet telling everyone’s story. He was born on 24 October 1921 in Mysore in a Tamil Iyer family. His full name was Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Lakshman. He was the youngest among eight siblings. Laxman’s father was the principal, while noted novelist RK Narayan was his elder brother. Even at a young age, Laxman was more interested in paper and pencil than books. On the school bench, where other children listened intently to the teacher, Laxman’s pen danced on the paper and drew pictures. This is what happened in class one day. The teacher was busy teaching something and Laxman was lost in his own world, engrossed in sketch. Suddenly the teacher looked at me. In anger he caught Lakshman’s ear and said, “You are mocking me.” Laxman described that moment in his autobiography ‘The Tunnel of Time’. A journey started from here, which gave India the immortal character of ‘Common Man’. Laxman’s talent was first recognized by his brother Narayan. While Narayan created the world with words, younger brother Lakshman brought it to life with lines. Laxman made sketches for Narayan’s stories and novels, which were greatly appreciated by the readers. After this he began sketching for newspapers and then embarked on a journey that gave a satirical edge to the seriousness of politics. During this period he worked with Bal Thackeray. However, Laxman’s eyes always remained fixed on the common man. However, the Emergency of 1975 was also a difficult time for Indian journalism and Laxman was no exception to that. His cartoons became lighter under the shadow of censorship. He felt that he must leave it all now. It was during this period that he met the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He expressed his grief. To this a reply was received from Indira Gandhi to continue the work. Mention of this is found in parts of RK Laxman’s autobiography. In the same biography, RK Laxman recounted that the then Information and Broadcasting Minister Vidyacharan Shukla objected to cartoons critical of the government and banned such cartoons from being made. Despite this, RK Laxman’s courage and intentions did not weaken. Under the pretext of the problems of the common people, he caricatured the governments from Nehru to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. RK Laxman won several awards for his cartoons, including Asia’s highest journalism award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1984. Marathwada University and Delhi University awarded him honorary doctorate degrees in literature. He was earlier awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1973. Another story related to receiving Padma Bhushan is that he did not want to accept this honor. There was a time when he used to draw cartoons about various schemes of Indira Gandhi government, meanwhile he was selected for Padma Bhushan. RK Laxman told in his autobiography that he had no intention of accepting that honor, but he agreed to it at the insistence of his mother. He was also awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2005, but the greatest honor for Laxman was his ‘Common Man’, whose statues still stand on the streets of Mumbai and Pune. On January 26, 2015, the day the country celebrated Republic Day, the world of satire lost its most accurate voice. RK Laxman breathed his last in a hospital in Pune. At the age of 93, his pen came to an end, posing questions to those in power for decades, expressing the suffering of the people in words and making the ‘common man’ the soul of every Indian. –IANS DCH/GKT