Locating the common man in the contemporary India: A special reference to R.K Laxman’s artistic world.

Abstract

R. K Laxman's generic cartoon figure  ‘Common Man’ is not only a figure a newspaper ‘s column,  or a statue, but every man that we meet face to face  in our daily lives. Common man as a unified entity can be defined as the flesh and soul of modern India and central issue of debate in the changing socio-political scenario of our country after independence. Correspondingly, R.K Laxman, an Indian cartoonist,illustrator,and humorist’s position significant as a responsible individual voicing  the Common man with the art of cartooning and reflecting total schema of reality through the lenses of this artistic creation who represents humanity at large. The present paper thus intends upon locating this common man, which Laxman draws on his canvass and how he is intersecting with the contemporary social-political Indian setting and still relevant for analyzing the present situation as a symbolic representation of “aam aadmi. Therefore the existence, identity, position and role of the common man as an individual and collective entity become the crucial matter of interest in the present discussion. My purpose here is to draw the parallel in between Laxman’s artistic world and contemporary Indian society and politics where the common man remains at baseline on which every structure whether it is social, political and moral stands.