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With rising censorship and state intolerance of criticism, media editors and owners believe running political cartoons is a fraught enterprise. Even the famous Bashir Ahmad Bashir (BAB), known for his cartoons that mocked former Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah, and one of only three remaining newspaper cartoonists, draws non-political cartoons.
Srinagar: In 1998, when militancy was at its peak in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Suhail Naqshbandi was the only political cartoonist working with an English newspaper. Back then, Greater Kashmir was known for its ‘Inside Out’ pocket cartoon and a three-column cartoon, both published on the front page. In 2003, the larger cartoon was moved to the inside pages, signaling the start of censorship. In 2016, Inside Out similarly lost its prime position.
Today, Greater Kashmir does not publish any cartoons.
Anuradha Bhasin, the executive editor of Kashmir Times, one of the oldest English dailies in J&K, told Article 14 that there was no cartoonist working for the Srinagar edition of the newspaper, but cartoons were discontinued in the Jammu edition in March 2020.
“Newspaper editors do not want to publish cartoons due to censorship,” Bhasin said. “Cartoons reveal the naked truth but censorship becomes the barrier which is why readers do not see too many cartoons in the newspaper these days.”
Her newspaper has been made a target by government and militant groups since 1989. The 55-year-old publication was forced to shut down its Srinagar edition in March 2020, seven months after the union govt abrogated Article 370, a special constitutional provision, and reduced the former state to a union territory directly administered from New Delhi.
Heeba Din, who has a Ph.D in political cartooning, said there were only a few survivors. “Only three cartoonists regularly draw cartoons,” she said. The 30-year-old media researcher cited censorship, poor salaries and the lack of support when cartoonists got into trouble for this low number.
Read more- https://article-14.com/post/how-cartoons-vanished-from-newspapers-in-kashmir-6173d0a69ae9e