Go ahead Musharraf, be brave, save democracy” says George Bush in a cowboy gear to Musharraf, literally pushing him, while a newspaper headline on the sidelines says, “Pro-Osama mob in Pakistan.” This is one of the last political cartoons of late B V Ramamurthy, the cartoonist at Deccan Herald. This is among others that are on display at ‘The Indian Cartoon Gallery’ which was inaugurated in the City, on August 16.

One of Ramamurthy’s Mr Citizen cartoons on display, depicts two similar looking persons, whose gender cannot be distinguished, while Mr Citizen says to Mrs Citizen, “True, scientists can tell the sex of an unborn child! Could they, when they are grown up?”

The inaugural exhibition also has on display cartoons by V G Narendra and cartoons and caricatures by B G Gujarappa. The latter has a cartoon which depicts, who else but a cartoonist, drawing the caricature of a Minister, which has been embellished like a devil with two long teeth. The Minister’s assistant says, “Sir, I told you to include the cartoonist too in the list of State awardees. You ignored my suggestion, see now...”

A contemporary cartoon also shows a lady carrying a placard which says, “Save Street Dogs”, while she is being chased by an army of dogs biting at the pallu of her saree. On display are also Gujjarappa’s caricatures of Albert Einstein, Bill Clinton, K P Poornachandra Tejaswi and George Bush.

Governor T N Chaturvedi, who inaugurated the gallery said, “There is no malice in cartoons. They amuse and make the subject of the cartoon think what the cartoonist is trying to communicate. It provides some kind of catharsis to society.”

The Gallery
The Indian Cartoon Gallery is an initiative of Indian Institute of Cartoon (IIC) exclusively for the exhibition of cartoons. The 2000 sq feet gallery is open to the public, students and professionals. Along with the display space, the Gallery a fully-wired 75-seater conference hall, library and office. These facilities have been created for talks, interactions, workshops on cartoons, seminars, lecture-demonstrations and film shows. Experts from across the country will be invited to conduct these events.

The library will stock resources in the form of CDs, books on cartoons, cartooning, collections of cartoons and information about cartoonists from across the world. One of the aims of the library will be to collect and preserve original and award winning works of leading cartoonists worldwide. According to IIC Honourary Chairman Ashok Kheny, “The Bengaluru gallery is the first of a series of cartoon galleries the IIC plans to set up across the country. Plans have been drawn to set up similar cartoon galleries in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Delhi.”

The exhibition which was inaugurated on Thursday (August 16) will be on for a month. The library is located at No 1, Midford House, Midford Garden, off M G Road. Phone: 25595252/ 25559819.