Ep 4: The Webcomic as Political Form - Part 1

<p>This episode is the first of a two-part series on political &nbsp;webcomics in India. In the context of protests, arrests and judicial &nbsp;intimidation of citizens including artists, we take a look at how the &nbsp;graphic strip format is being deployed to respond to political events in &nbsp;India. I speak to <strong>Meher Manda</strong> and <strong>Mayukh Goswami</strong>, co-creators of <em><strong>Jamun Ka Ped</strong></em>, &nbsp;an Instagram-based webcomic that since the NRC-CAA protests of 2019, &nbsp;has been chronicling and commenting on the political and social crises &nbsp;raging in India under the Modi administration, including the Indian &nbsp;Supreme Court's verdict regarding the ownership of the mob-demolished &nbsp;Babri Mosque site, the abrogation of the Indian Constitution's Article &nbsp;370 which ended Kashmir' autonomy, the February 2020 Delhi pogroms and &nbsp;most recently the farmers’ protests against the three agriculture laws &nbsp;[which we discussed in Artalaap’s third episode]. Today, we discuss the &nbsp;webcomic as a self-consciously political form, how the internet has &nbsp;affected traditional graphic or strip design and the hostility that &nbsp;Indian artists are facing from the state.<br> <br> Click here to access the&nbsp;<strong>Image Guide+</strong>&nbsp;&amp; view the images and material being discussed in the podcast:&nbsp;<a href="https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-4" target="_blank">https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-4</a></p> <p><strong>Credits:</strong><br> <br> Producer: Tunak Teas<br> <br> Design &amp; artwork: Mohini Mukherjee<br> <br> Musical arrangement: Jayant Parashar</p> <p>Images: Instagram&nbsp;@jamun_ka_ped</p> <p>Additional support: Kanishka Sharma, Amy Goldstone-Sharma, Raghav Sagar, Shalmoli Halder, Arunima Nair</p> <p>Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CC BY-NC 4.0]</p>