How should political cartoonists and illustrators respond to a brutally repressive regime that silences all dissent and free expression? How can artists make complex socio-political issues more accessible through their work? Can satire and humour be used to defeat a dictatorship? Are political cartoons still relevant in the digital age? What’s the role of cartoonists and illustrators in society at large?
Shahidul Alam (ed.)
Satire and Ridicule: Cartoons That Demolished a Dictator
Drik Picture Library, Earki, and the Bangladesh Cartoonist Association, 2024
Cover illustration: Mehedi Haque
Based on the exhibition ‘Cartoon e Bidroho (Cartoons of Rebellion)’, the book Satire and Ridicule: Cartoons that Demolished a Dictator (July Uprising), edited by noted Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam, weaves a framework in which answers to these questions could be found. It is published jointly by Bangladesh Cartoonists Association, Drik Picture Library and Earki.
Throughout history, art has always served the purpose of an archive. From Goya’s harrowing Disasters of War and Chittoprasad’s stark illustrations of 1943’s Bengal famine to Käthe Kollwitz’s visual documentations of the Great Peasants Revolt (to name a few), art has consistently documented realities, responded to them, and quite often shaped them too.
Satire and Ridicule fulfils this very purpose. It is a collection of illustrations, cartoons and graffiti made during the July mass uprising in Bangladesh last year that ultimately led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina from power. Divided into eight chapters, the book chronologically and thematically curates the cartoons and illustrations to tell the story of the uprising – what sparked the movement and what followed. With an unapologetic tone, vivid colours and bold fonts, the book captures the zeitgeist of a nation suffocating under a dictatorial regime and chronicles how a student-led protest grew into a nationwide uprising through a blend of images and narratives.
The slogan ‘they robbed me of my mother tongue’, when Urdu language was imposed on Bengalis by the Pakistan government in 1952, gained new meaning in 2024 because of Hasina’s brutal crackdown. Illustration: Tuba Tanjum
In the book’s preface, Alam, Simu Naser and Mehedi Haque write:
“She (Sheikh Hasina) had destroyed all public institutions, converted the police into a private army and weaponised the judiciary. Leading artists and intellectuals had become complicit in the repression. They used the struggle for freedom in 1971 to plaster over the murderous repression by the Hasina regime.
There were important exceptions. A group of young cartoonists at Earki and Bangladesh Cartoonist Association (BANCARAS), along with a few of their mentors, continued to protest throughout the repressive period despite the risks. Drik continued to exhibit their work despite the danger. Some visitors continued to come and see the work despite the possible dire outcome. Some newspapers covered these events despite the risk of being shut down. With the fall of the dictator, there was a new burst of creativity which led to a new exhibition. It is the courage, the tenacity and the undying belief in democracy which brought these organisations BANCARAS, Earki and Drik Picture Library and these talented cartoonists together. We celebrate them through this book.”
This book is a tribute to the indomitable courage of the people of Bangladesh, especially young cartoonists/artists whose works, shared across the social media platforms and streets of Bangladesh, helped build solidarities across the country even during a brutal crackdown on dissent.
Illustration: Shamiron Bormon
Encountering complex and multifaceted realities, each image, imbued with satire, irony, resilience, ridicule and anger, becomes a window into the socio-political landscape of the time. We see the dictator’s hubris lampooned, her manipulation of the 1971 liberation narrative exposed, the brutal reality of police and state-sponsored “helmet goons” and the people’s simmering discontent given a visual voice. The cartoons range from subtle jabs to outright mockery, demonstrating the diverse ways artists across Bangladesh took on Hasina’s regime and registered their dissent.
In this era often called post-truth, where entrenched beliefs, fake news and misinformation take up most of the space in public discourse, it seems easier than ever for any authoritarian or dictatorial regime to dilute and obliterate the memories of violence from the collective mind with sheer lies and propaganda. However, this book appears to be an effort to use art as a witness, remembering and documenting quite vividly what has been perpetrated and how the people of Bangladesh collectively responded with a revolution. The illustrations show how the efforts of the Hasina regime to label student protestors as ‘razakars’ (Bengali collaborators of the Pakistan Army) completely backfired, how the gruesome acts of killing students and young protestors led to even bigger resistance nationwide, how a series of misinformation campaigns by the Hasina regime were instantly debunked and turned into mockery and memes, and despite it all how the people of Bangladesh stood firm in the pursuit of democracy and justice.
While sharply pointing towards ‘Ek Dopha, Ek Dabi (One Point, One Demand)’ – used as a slogan to call for an end to the Hasina regime – the illustrations also evoke some long-buried questions regarding indigenous rights, army repression, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Indigenous activist Kalpana Chakma and her two brothers were abducted on 12 June 1996 from their home at Lallyaghona village allegedly by soldiers. She is still missing. No one has been tried for her disappearance. The Chittagong Hill Tracts, home to the largest concentration of indigenous people in Bangladesh, have been under military occupation since 1976. Photo by Shahidul Alam, of graffiti in the Dhaka University campus
It also illustrates how to deal with a media that is propagandist and complicit to state-sponsored violence, and how not to fall prey to the ‘crocodile tears’ and ‘nice gestures’ of leaders of an oppressive regime.
Cartoon tells Hasina to do less theatrics, ‘Pio (Dear)’. Illustration: Asifur Rahman
Satire and Ridicule provides insight into the contemporary political cartooning scene in Bangladesh, a nation with a rich history of political cartoons, dating back to its independence movement in 1971 and the years that followed. Over time, however, many leading cartoonists were silenced due to political turmoil, repressive laws, threats of arrest, censorship and intimidation. With the emergence of the July mass uprising, a new generation of illustrators and cartoonists came to the forefront, developing new visual languages of political cartoons that marked the medium’s resurgence after a long period of suppression.
More than a historical record, the book offers a visceral and compelling journey through intense social and political upheaval in Bangladesh. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in the history of political satire and art, the dynamics of social movements, and the ongoing struggles for democracy and freedom of expression. It serves as a potent reminder of the crucial role that artists play in holding power accountable and instilling hope in even the darkest of times.