This episode is the first of a two-part series on political  webcomics in India. In the context of protests, arrests and judicial  intimidation of citizens including artists, we take a look at how the  graphic strip format is being deployed to respond to political events in  India. I speak to Meher Manda and Mayukh Goswami, co-creators of Jamun Ka Ped,  an Instagram-based webcomic that since the NRC-CAA protests of 2019,  has been chronicling and commenting on the political and social crises  raging in India under the Modi administration, including the Indian  Supreme Court's verdict regarding the ownership of the mob-demolished  Babri Mosque site, the abrogation of the Indian Constitution's Article  370 which ended Kashmir' autonomy, the February 2020 Delhi pogroms and  most recently the farmers’ protests against the three agriculture laws  [which we discussed in Artalaap’s third episode]. Today, we discuss the  webcomic as a self-consciously political form, how the internet has  affected traditional graphic or strip design and the hostility that  Indian artists are facing from the state.

Credits:

Images: Instagram @jamun_ka_ped

Additional support: Kanishka Sharma, Amy Goldstone-Sharma, Raghav Sagar, Shalmoli Halder, Arunima Nair

Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CC BY-NC 4.0]