Scholars quit textbook body as government bans 1949 cartoon

Nehru wasn't lashing Dr.Ambedkar!!! He was whipping the same snail that Dr.Ambdekar was whipping!! The angle of Nehru's eyes should make that amply clear!
The cartoonist didn't think Dr.Ambedkar was responsible for the delay! Else he would not have portrayed Dr.Ambedkar whipping the snail. (The cartoonist should have named the snail 'Constituent Assembly' rather than 'Constitution', though.)

It is unfortunate that a whole lot of people are getting worked up by a petty ruckus raised by a petty political party without even taking a proper look at the cartoon and ignoring the fact that neither Dr.Ambedkar nor Nehru (or any of the members of the Constituent Assembly) was offended by the cartoon.

Incidentally, did Kapil Sibal order the withdrawal of the book containing this cartoon because he seriously believes the cartoon is objectionable or because he - and his party - prefer a politically expeditious stand rather than a principled stand?

Though the cartoon had been drawn in 1948, or at any other point of
time, on what ground such an atrocious cartoon can be supported ? Dr.
Ambedkar didn't speak anything on the cartoon -ok , does it mean he
appreciated it ? In 1948 how many people were knowing English & out of
them how many were reading that news paper /magazine in which this was
printed is a matter of research & does the people on the board have
answer to this ? During the making of constitution Dr Babasaheb was
very busy & might have thought not to pay any attention to these
people as he was a very focused personality , otherwise education of
such a height, leading social & political activities ,documenting his
struggle ,writing so many books on contemporary issues ,delivering
speeches on various occasions simultaneously couldn’t be possible.
Moreover he was busy in the unique national duty-for which no Indian
of that time was ready to perform . Total 394 articles we have in our
constitution & 8 schedules –when every article was debated on every
single words ,answering in the parliament for every articles &
subheads how much time these makers should have been given ? Also
these board members supposed to know comparatively the time taken by
constitutions of other countries- I feel proud to say that no
constitution of any country equal to ours in size & clarity too. had
Dr Babasaheb not worked overnight can anybody guess the time this
instrument could have taken ?we had this bulky instrument –
considering so many cultures ,languages ,ethnic groups, religions -
completed merely in 2 years 11 months & 18 days !!!! & for this &
many other reasons all Indians must be grateful to him.(for detail
read the making of constitution –soft copy is also available ) prior
to bestowing this work to Dr. Babasaheb , Mr. Nehru had invited some
Irish person & good for all of us that he expressed his inability
, otherwise this would have been a blot for ever for all of us ,if
any foreigner had framed constitution & probably not also as we
are very much used to have a flair for foreign goods, congress also
founded by a foreigner-sir Allen Octave Hume . , in case indigenous
person like Dr. Ambedkar was no ready to take this duty just
imagine what time this country had taken for Independence ??????
Have these people on the board read the proceedings of “making of
constitution “ without this do these people get any moral or any
other right to write on this topic at all ? If any body read all
these impartially will definitely not dare to write anything on
this topic sarcastically , or make a room for for this on such a
pious document of our nation. Mr. member yogendra yadav in his
interview said that he was taught about constitution by Mr suhas
palshikar ,means this is obvious that he didn’t read neither the
constitution nor the making of It ,forget about other things. Are
these members focused on as to what knowledge they want to imbibe in
the mind of our youngsters .Grow up now ,when there are so many
things to include in this chapter whyyyyyyyyy tttthis ticklish
type of things ??????
The cartoonist Mr Shankar pillai looks completely biased ,ill-
informed, least knowledgeable & myopic in nature which reveals his
present cartoon & these members too are of the same nature –who
could not think on a broad line, in an unbiased way & might be
casteist too while thinking & writing about Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar .
Dr Ambedkar had resigned for— not passing Hindu code bill , -for not
making commission for OBC’s , for Mr Yadav & many others too -for
not making good foreign policies & not having proper plan for India’s
development & now where the resignation of Mr. yadav stands !!!!
I remember one incident –when I answered one question on yahoo
jokingly about the then president of America Mr. Bill Clinton & I
answered- “ Bill Clinton will clear the tons of bills” & just for
these words my ID was blocked for 3 months-just for these harmless
words!!!!!! See he respect they give to their national personality
& think where do we stand???

Why so much hue & cry when now? It was published in 1949 none objected at that time. Today we print it to a book and that becomes gory incident? Where is respect for our best artists? Everyone knew it took too long for our constituion to be built. And when you give this fact to the future generation and that is wrong?Politicians grow up a bit and don't waste hard earned public money. Else when public starts its protest then you all will perish.

The writing of constitution was done on a slow pace. The same is
represented by the then old cartoon. a picture speaks lakh words.
the cartoon is explaining hardship of dr.ambedkar in framing the constitution. its a proud Issue for all dalits. why they are mistaking the meaning of cartoon?

Sir
The protest stems from our faulty educational system which makes the
student accept whatever is given in the books.There is nothng wrong in
having the cartoon in the book if the teacher gives a project based on
the cartoon asking them to research the circumstances in which it
appeared,who were all involved in drafting the constitution(Should all
credit go to one particular person?) whether it was a fact that a
model constitution was drafted by a committee long before independence
and the actual constitution draws heavily on that.As has been pointed
out by many educators we should try to cultivate an enquiring and
critical mind in the younger generation.Alas it was the ethos in Hindu
tradition where the Sihya asks questions to the Guru.It has been
destroyed by Macaulay

Why this fuss at all? Nehru is whipping the snail and not Ambedkar. Look
at the cartoon given in this paper closely.

@ hilary Pais - who thinks that she does not know what Nehru or Ambedkar might be thinking, but sees that this cartoon does not need to be shown to "impressionable" 15 yr olds.
Therein lies the contradiction Madam.You do not know what the cartoonist or Mr Nehru or for that matter Dr Ambedkar was thinking, but you seemingly know what the 15 yr olds of the country want and deserve to be told. People like yourself need to understand that truth can be told in a 100 different ways but your statement sounds extremely Orwellian to me.
Had this cartoon been painted by R.K Laxman with the common man sitting at the background, would it have been more palatable?
Alas, but people will narrow minded views do not realize that art is nothing but a reflections of the times they were created in. I am shocked at my countrymen and legislators haranging for the head of men who decided to inform impressionable youngsters that our country was not forged overnight and was not a one man show.

Maybe Ambedkar should have included a section in the constitution on
political humour as well.

At one time I trained to be a teacher in Los Angeles, where the school district had over 80 languages recognized. A great many potentially offensive topics had to be kept in mind, but the official training was not to avoid them, but to discuss them in a reasoned manner. Of course decisions about how old a student should be before tackling such heavy matters is to be taken into account. But to pretend they do not exist in school is Alice in Wonderland unreality. This is simply because young people will enounter these topics in real life outside of school, and after graduation. The tools learned to interpret and discuss a cartoon like this should be explored in the classroom in peace, not in the street in anger. The cartoon can help teach kids logic, civility in expression, empathy for other opinions, and demonstrates how history evolves. Indian culture is wiser and older than the US and could accomplish this goal; we borrowed many of these ideas from you after all.

At one time I trained to be a teacher in Los Angeles, where the school district had over 80 languages recognized. A great many potentially offensive topics had to be kept in mind, but the official training was not to avoid them, but to discuss them in a reasoned manner. Of course decisions about how old a student should be before tackling such heavy matters is to be taken into account. But to pretend they do not exist in school is Alice in Wonderland unreality. This is simply because young people will enounter these topics in real life outside of school, and after graduation. The tools learned to interpret and discuss a cartoon like this should be explored in the classroom in peace, not in the street in anger. The cartoon can help teach kids logic, civility in expression, empathy for other opinions, and demonstrates how history evolves. Indian culture is wiser and older than the US and could accomplish this goal; we borrowed many of these ideas from you after all.

The cartoon simply shows how the then PM, the author of the Constituion Dr.Ambadker and the entire nation was worried and concerned of the delay in framing the constitution. There is nothing more in it. I wish the present day PM. the Ministers,like sibal.Pranab and all other MPs and leaders show the same concern in bringing the Lok Pal Bill,fortwith. A cartoo similar to the one now must be published for expediting Lok Pal Bill. Perhaps those who are opposing the same will understand why the cartoon was drawn showing the concern of the nation in delaying drafting of the constitution.Perhaps the Lok Pal Bill will be expedited.

That day is not far when protesting in India will be made illegal. Any critique of the government will be treason.

Given the pathetic way this government is being run, I won't be surprised if India falters back into the 'Hindu' rate of growth within ten years time. After all, if all the politicians of this nation have to discuss is the validity of 50 year old cartoons, then the poor farmers of this nation might as well go on killing themselves as they have been doing for the past 15 years.

Cartoon was drawn with best of the intentions and depicted the time period. If a similar carton about Lokpal Bill has to be drawn, Manmohan Singh will be sitting on the snail as being incharge of GoI he can be charged with slow pace. After 60 years, if Sikhs start saying that it is against Sikhs, it will show poor on Sikhs. The whole episode has only shown Dalits in poor light that they neither understand history nor Ambedkar. Politicians like Mayawati will ensure that Dalits never move ahead and are fooled by such antics as Laloo made fool of Biharis for almost two decades by his antics.

if our textbook dont respect our national heroes like baba saheb, mahatma gandhi, nehru then our next generation will not respect them.
they all are our historical heroes, so we should not spoil our history by such things. history should use to give strength our present and our future.Such things spoils the image of our heroes, who should be our idol.so we have to learn to give respect to them. jay hind.

So the Government has taken 63 years to ban the Cartoon. Therefore, I
think in the cartoon should be modified by replacing Baba Ambedkar by
the Government.

These Taliban style thugs and goons are taking over politics, and intimidating everyone else. The spineless ones are caving in to their outrageous and ignorant demands

The cartoons were made in 1949 and neither Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru nor Dr. B.R. Ambedkar made any issue out of it. It is really amazing that after 60 Years suddenly our politicians realized that the cartoons were insulting and derogatory!!!!
I think what our current politicians like Mayawati and Ram Bilas Paswan are doing is more insulting to Dr. Ambedkar than the cartoon itself. If they had even a slightest sense of self respect and respect for our constitution they would have not made this fuss of nothing!!What these so called lower caste politicians have done for the lower castes is known to all..Instead of solving social and national issues they are trying to get points on this silly issue..Really Shameful!!

I don't think there is anything offensive in the cartoon to make hullabaloo about. I myself has studied the book many times- it is good and informative. Instead of wasting time in studying school textbooks, our political leaders should concentrate on other bigger issues of national importance.

Isn't it the same B.R. Ambedkar who drafted the Constitution, and isn't
it the same Constitution that guarantees freedom of expression to the
Indian people? Conclusion: Non-conformist thinkers and artistes in India
should start applying for asylum before they are persecuted or killed.
The Indian State is incapable of protecting its own Constitution.

why this kolavari D?

If the Cartoonist thinks Dr. Ambedkar delayed formation of Constitution,
nothing Wrong.

But Nehru lashing Dr. Ambedkar clearly is Unacceptable, it looks like
Dr. Ambedkar was a servant of Nehru!

The people who are saying that there is nothing in this cartoon to be
made as issue should understand one thing first that, such a cartoon has
been published in school textbook not a magazine or weekly. So try to
understand the core of issue.

With all respect to Shankar , he could have been could have depicted the deligence and hard work of our constitution makers in a slightly different manner. The Cartoon here does unfortunatlely suggests that Nehru whipped Ambedkar for his slow place, which we all know was not the case. Writing one of the largest constution in the world required ample time and effort, which is absolutely justified for a country as vast and diverse like ours. However, timing of the furore is definitely questionable.

Sir, today everything cannot be discussed without wasting precious time of Parliament. It would be better if time of Parliament to be spent on other important, creative and urgent issues, which are piling up in the House. But every day, new unnecessary topics pop up and the matters, to be discussed, are set aside. No doubt that every single entity should be taken care, but we should not forget, when Rastra (Nation) is involved all matters are taken back in front of national interest. Here, drawing a cartoon or expressing your views in a cartoon is a fundamental right, and our Constitutions protect this right. Criticism is a part of Democratic Right, and if this right comes through cartoons, not be taken as a crime. No one can be superior from the Law, even its creator. Had Baba Saheb been alive, he would have been taken the very issue, as taken by our Parliamentarian, by wasting the Time of Temple of Democracy.

What was the necessity to include a 1949 cartoon in a text book? I doubt whether these doctorate scientist have gone through the draft of the book before publication.

As a part of democratic country, i like to say this cartoon picture
depicts nothing more than slight criticism . In a democratic country
like India people could not d this much which does not hamper the
reputation of anyone. Even if Dr. Ambedkar( who made the India the
greatest democracy country) were see this picture he would not have any
such opinion as our leader try to convey from the pic. After independence India was about to divide into more than 10 parts on the
basis of cast, religion and language. May be people at that time chased
Jawahar lal nehru to divide the country which looks lit bit fuzzy and
those angry people were persuaded by Dr. Ambedkar . This simple thing
is depictiong by this pic. But our leader from each party try to imply
it on the caste basis and wanted to pounce the situation, its not any
derogatory cartoon on which leader are making so much chaos.

It is deeply poignant to see the so called progressive left forces dancing to the tunes of morally and politically bankrupt politicians like Athavale who joined hands with the Right wing Hindutva forces in Maharashtra for electoral gains betraying the legacy of Ambedkar..Kudos to Surendra for his brilliant cartoon!

I feel sad that Pranab Mukerjee whose name is mentioned in the list of presidential candidates and Kabil Sibal a leading advocate have joined the crowd of MPs to condemn the cartoon. Can any one say in what way they think that the cartoon can be interpreted to comment adversely on Dr.Ambedkar? It was not objectionable to Nehru or Ambedkar then but is objectionable to our MPs now. This means that our MPs view point is wrong.

The Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. The least that idea must include
is the capacity to discuss the competence of our leaders. I doubt whether Ambedkar
or Nehru didn't mean for the same sort of scrutiny to apply to their own work.

I just don't understand why there has been a furore over this cartoon all of a sudden after so many years.
When we look at the time, when this cartoon was made, then at that time, it simply depicted the pace at which the constitution was made.
The Hindu should also give some detail about the situation at that time; the context in which the cartoon was made.

I do not know what Nehru would have thought or what Ambedkar would have thought about this cartoon. There is no way of knowing as both are dead. I am not a conservative. I think the cartoon is in bad taste. It is not meant for young impressionable minds of 15-year-olds. All those who have commented in your columns are not in that age group.

Rather than thinking and taking every action politically the politicians should understand the context properly before condemning any sort of content and cartoons in the text books. Everyone knew the time taken to construct constitution and there is nothing wrong in recalling that. Pillai being a eminent cartoonist was awarded thrice for his social service and now the politicians are commenting on his credibility? Shame on them. Let's not think everything narrow minded, be apolitical and then speak with heart. Nehru himself agreed to it, why these folks are not agreeing it now. Utter shame on politicians. I really appreciate Hindu for bringing out such beautiful articles out. The more I read, more I learn about the external happenings.

Democracy has progressed to such a level in India that its decision making bodies appear to have become perpetual hostage to regional political organisations even if such decisions do not resonate with the average understanding of an Indian citizen. Political organisations would do well by seeking a referendum from citizens before plunging into any kind of disruptive activity, thinking that such actions would fetch them fortunes at the next electoral outing.

In my personal opinion, a person who is well versed with Indian history will always turn a nelson eye to such cartoons and incidents. Because no matter what the legacy and respect for greats like Dr. Ambedkar is unquestionable. It is for the frail and fragile minds, who are inclined towards being indecisive, is this cartoon disparaging and belittening Dr.Ambedkar. And most of our population is composed of the latter half. SO the best possible solution is to get these cartoons out of the books and forget about them. Prosecuting people related to the cartoon and regarding it as a criminal offense is unjust and unfit for the democracy.

Have we as Indians lost our sense of humor ?? How can a cartoon degrade a revolutionary like Dr. Ambedhkar ?? I think our todays politicians totally lack even an iota of what Bharat Ratna Dr. Ambedhkar stood for and what he did for the country. Why do they still want to get votes in his name?? I think we should ignore such issues and concentrate on other issues our Country is facing today. The relavence of inserting the cartoon into the book however must be studied and if there is relevance it must continue .

What happened to freedom of expression?? Even various Hindu gods are made fun in many movies ,nobody cries for a ban, sad state of affairs.

I don't understand what is fuss about. Clearly we took more time in putting together the constitution but we should also realize that it was a mammoth of a task.
Also it shows that we have become more cynical and have lost a appetite for humor.

Nothing wrong in the cartoon. Bharath Ratna Dr.Ambedkar took his time
to frame the masterpiece, I am very proud of him. Yes he had to
concentrate on details, he had to be very careful, that's what he did.
the then PM Pandit Nehru also did his job, he had to make it happen
fast, that was his responsibility, both did their duty, what`s so
wrong in it. Today say they take census, the incharge`s first priority
is to take care that no one is missed, while the gov want`s things to
pace up, and reach their deadline, what`s wrong. We are proud of this
cartoon, It shows the efficiency of our leaders, they all worked for
their nation

See how quick the ministers and MPs decided to remove all the textbooks.
They are even saying to take criminal action against the cartoonist.
What will happen if a 11th std student is exposed to the reality? Are
the politicians trying to bring a new law against cartoons depicting the
reality? Instead of uniting for these kind of unnecessary decision
making, why cant they unite and think about developing the nation? Why
cant they support and pass a strong lokpal bill? We the citizens are to
be blamed for sending these jokers to the parliament.

Thanks to those legislators now we get to see the Cartoon.

Wah. The government will tell us when to laugh and on what all topics.Good.when the MPs have nothing else to do except making dins this is what happens.Jawaharlal Nehru was a close friend and a big fan of cartoonist Shankar and an avid admirer of cartoons.I reckon Ambedkar too was no different.So were a lot of politicians across the globe who enjoyed a good laugh in the morning.When Saudi Arabia banned a cartoon (B.C) by Johny Hart a few years back for allegedly ridiculing God, not much was heard in India mainly because only a few could get a glimpse of the subject cartoon. In fact there was nothing offensive in it. Bal Thackeray, a good cartoonist himself, might be having a hearty laugh because when it did appear in print some 63 years back he might have been a kid and therefore might have missed this one from Shankar at that time.

The cartoon is reported to be more than 50 years old. It has been in the text books
since 2006. The cartoon is seen as derogatory of Dr BR Ambedkar by Lawmakers
across the political spectrum, who have criticized its inclusion in the text books.
The HRD Minister has apologized for this and the BSP Chief has threatened to hold
up functioning of Parliament. If the Parliamentarians are so upset with the cartoon,
why is it they have tolerated its existence in text books since 2006 ? Surely, they
must have helped some of their children or grandchildren in the studies with those
text books depicting the "offensive" cartoon. Is merely shouting, apologizing and
holding the Parliament to ransom sufficient ? Shouldn't these Lawmakers "resign/
retire" from public service for tolerating the "derogatory" cartoon for so long ?

This furor has been cooked up to get a respite to Chidambaram from the
onslaught of BJP on Aircel-Maxis affair. Otherwise why a cartoon which
appeared in Indias number one cartoon weekly,something equivalent to
"Punch" of England some sixty years back? And the cartoonist Shankaran
Pillai was a great friend of Nehru who would have enjoyed the cartoon
like anyone else. Nehru and all other politicians generally does not
object to a cartoon depicting themselves. Except ONE. The ONE and only
ONE who need not be named as everyone knows.

The referred cartoon may portray the views one man or one section or even one group of the society to which the other may not completely agree. However, there should not be any problem these cartoons being published on open forums like newspapers, online media etc. and keeping them open to discussion.

But in textbooks, which are purely informative media, all information should be presented without any bias or mockery. It is surprising to know that such type of biased information is present in 11th standard textbooks as a part of the education of the youth of the nation.

Nobody has a thing to do in the parliament so they are trying to show that they are doing something(fucking up with a book)

I am not pleased the way your lead is starting. There is not a full stop
in the first paragraph, making it very hard to understand.
The whole theme is about us being a fascist society.

Mr.Shankar Pillai was considered as father of political cartoon in India. He was awarded Padmavibushan which is the 2nd highest civilian honour by the Government in 1976, Padmabushan in 1966 and Padmashri in 1956. So every 10 years he got an award of highest honour from Govt.

If this cartoon which was published by him during 1949 is wrong, Govt should have not given all these awards to him.

Now its high time for us to rise above all the petty issues raised by
the so called crusaders of democracy.
We are a mature society now. The very decision taken by the government
in haste should have been avoided. Only after a proper,thorough study of
the matter any action should have been taken by our honorable HRD
minister.

I dont see a reason why this cartoon should be banned. It just
shows that slow pace at which constitution has been made and could
also show the slowly moving bureaucracy which is being attacked by
aggrieved people. As a society we are becoming more and more
intolerant since independence which, I feel, is due to increasing
insecurities about ourselves which is used by politicians
appropriately. Its high time we face flaws in our own 'caste'
politicians openly and understand and try to solve them instead of
acting like childish immature kids.

Preamble of Constitution of India-

"WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly
resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN
SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and
to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and
worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual
and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twentysixth
day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT,
ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS
CONSTITUTION."

What is happening to liberty? When there are serious
issues to tackle, why the time of Parliament is wasted over a cartoon
which is always drawn in the lighter mood with offense to none. The
cartoons that come nowadays on ministers will consume whole time of
Parliament to ban them? Somebody should draw a cartoon on this too
with Mr. Sibal in between!

So much fuss over a cartoon? It is nothing really offensive either! Even The Hindu has no problem putting it up here. The real fuss should be over how NCERT history text books have systematically left out South Indian history in many editions, not even mentioning the Cholas, Pallavas, Pandiyas and Cheras. There is far more concerted bias going on in this sort of thing than in this cartoon.

If Baba Saheb was alive today he would been proud of the humor in the political cartoon. Mr. Sibal and others please grow up and work on solutions to real problems. There are thousands of farmers living on the brink and could any day take the unthinkable step. Live up to the spirit of Baba Saheb and Chacha Nehru.

If Baba Saheb was alive today he would been proud of the humor in the political cartoon. Mr. Sibal and others please grow up and work on solutions to real problems. There are thousands of farmers living on the brink and could any day take the unthinkable step. Live up to the spirit of Baba Saheb and Chacha Nehru.

As the saying goes "History is MADE" seems to be taking place. The one in power is trying to create their own history. The politics and education system should be kept away from each other. The present situation clearly brings out the attitude of the parliament, our distinguished debaters just want some issue to debate upon. If a cartoon had come in that era, it is obvious that it was relevant at that point of time. The historians and educationist are no fools to keep unnecessary material in school books. they are intelligent enough to understand what is right and what is wrong. An adolescent needs to learn to appreciate what criticism is, and what was the mood of the nation at different times. This can be achieved only if they are taught how to appreciate positive criticism. Our veteran politicians(and their sons and daughters in a few cases) should refrain themselves from interfering in education system. These controversies do nothing more than provoking public and bringing unrest.

What is offensive to the sentiments of the people of India at large
are not issues raised about this cartoon which only shows in a
comical way BOTH Nehru character and Dr Ambedkar character trying to
whip speed into the SNAIL character representing the 'constitution
framing process' because that is what people of that day were eagerly
waiting for! Not by any extent imagination does it anyway appear to
me that this is representative of Nehru character (looking
down)whipping the Dr Ambedkar character. Such twisting interpretation
of a 60 year old cartoon only shows a clear twisted mind out to wrest
a political diversion from the woes facing the parliamentarians and
taxpayer today.

What is offensive is they think they can divert attention of the
people from the criminalisation of politics by the apparent audacity
with which their leaders introduce more criminal characters into
public life, the mind boggling moneys they lavish upon their homes at
taxpayers' cost and the loot of resources.

I dont understand, why this furore over such a petty issue,either our politicians dont have mind to understand the motive of the cartoon or they dont want to understand (in order to lure backward class votes).In the recent past acceptibility of criticism in political class has come down heavily (read Mamta incident) and their reaction towards criticism is quite violent (thanks to their blind political followers).
In this cartoon episode, the book is taught in 11th standard of NCERT,means reader must be around of 16-17 yr old student.by this age student develops his own conscience to grasp the motive behind the literature he is reading,in this perticular case he can very well understand the contempary issue raised in cartoon.
Either our political class should have the courage to listen to criticism (in cartoons) or govt should ban the cartoons so that precious time of parliament can be saved.

It looks like only the Gods of Hinuism can be insulted in this country
Dr Ambedkhar, himself a highly educated and cultured man, had no
objection to the cartoon and did not interrupt the proceedings of the
parleamant The present crop politicians think that they are more
cathli than the Pope himself!

The position taken by the politicians over this issue has shown that how
narrow minded today's politicians are. Moreover, there are many issues
which are critical for our society but politicians of today don't pay
heed to them and are more interested in raising frivolous issues.
In our country there is just a garb of democracy.

The good for nothing MPs could not find time to fight for real issues Indians are facing. The development issues country faces, person are struggling to live a honest life,unemployment, issues to run a family descently, to feed and educate children, general insecurity on life and property, lawlessness, difficulty to walk along any road with out inhaling poisonous gases, dirt and filth. People dont have a toilet in many places. Honourable MPs are fine with it. Please dont waste Indians money on trial matters. Do something contructive if can, other wise just shut up and sleep in the back benches.

"A law to ban all the cartoons" are you kidding. This is absolutely
bad. In the past as well as in the present times, cartoonists always
tried to present the then political conditions and issues. In the same
way Mr. Shankar tried to inform people through his cartoon that the
work on the constitution was going at snail's pace. This is the then
situation and is not derogatory in any manner either to Dr. Ambedkar
or to Pandit Nehru. I think the honorary parliamentarians should
discuss issues which are more important than this. If they find it
objectionable just remove it from the books.. A criminal case on the
cartoonists and ban on all cartoons is a little bit too much.

Wow...let students not study but your egos should get satisfied...these
are our MPs...wonder what country we have made for ourselves...

Will Mr Sibal explain why the cartoon was not considered "objectionable" in 1949, not even by the two persons caricatured in it? And how is that it has become objectionable and disparaging now? Has the cartoon become more potent with the passage of time? Have Indian politicians become greater panderers to the worst elements in Indian polity? The learned minister's explanation would do great service to Indian Political History.

Utterly childish on the part of the Loksabha indeed. Where are we heading?

Malnutrioned kids, Billion dollar scams, rotten grains & rice in govt godowns, total corruption in all govt offices, lack of power supply, lack of roads, lack of infrastructure, lack of medical facilities, thousands of beggars, thousands of orphans, cross border terrorism, home bred terrorism, sex scandals by MPs, sex assaults, rapes, murders, rowdism, dadagiri, human traffiking, banned drugs, misuse of antibiotics. Nothing stalls the parliment but a stupid 49 year old cartoon stalls the parliment. Neither Nehru nor Ambedkar would have been worried about it.

This goes against Ambedkar's spirit and the spirit of the
Constitution. How are the people of India going to be educated if some
politicians who are not scholars or experts call the shots and dictate
terms as to what becomes the subject matter of a text book. Too much
of censorship is killing education and what has been done by Prof.
Palshekar and Dr. Yogendra Yadav is right. Besides the book has been
taught from 2006 and no one had a problem with it. Almost reminds one
of M.F. Hussein's paintings which were in the public domain till a
political party created a problem about it. When will we as Indians
learn to grow up? Our problem is that we do not have tabloids which
are educative in a major way.
I hope that eminent people like Prof. Kancha Iliaya and Mayawati see
that the book is not withdrawn as the spirit of the greatest soul of
India, Babasaheb Ambedkar, is being killed.

By making a mockery of the fine system that Ambedkar fashioned it is our
"honourable" MPs who are denigrating the father of our Constitution on a
daily basis. It is ridiculous that they are whipping up an imagined
insult by making an issue of a 60-year-old cartoon. It only underscores
the fact that they are incapable of handling serious issues that affect
the common man. There can be no greater insult to Ambedkar than our
current crop of MPs. The public will not be fooled by all these antics.

By making a mockery of the fine system that Ambedkar fashioned our
"honourable" it is our MPs who are denigrating the father of our
Constitution on a daily basis. It is ridiculous that they are whipping
up an imagined insult by making an issue of a 50-year-old cartoon. It
only underscores the fact that they are incapable of handling serious
issues that affect the common man. There can be no greater insult to
Ambedkar than our current crop of MPs. The public will not be fooled by
all these antics.

I found nothing wrong in the cartoon.BSP had lost UP so she want to come back in light,by these types of propoganda she will never get chance to get back power in UP.All other parties are also take advantage of this sitiation and think that this the right to time to make fool Schedulde cast people.

How has a cartoon which was not considered offensive in 1949 - even by
Dr.Ambedkar himself - suddenly become offensive in 2012?

The interesting thing is that the cartoon makes no fun of Dr.Ambedkar
at all. It is the snail's pace of the drafting of the Constitution
that the cartoonist K.Shankar Pillai was having a dig at. Nobody in
his right senses would have accused Dr.Ambedkar of being responsible
for the slow pace. Who can ever deny the extraordinary contribution of
Dr.Ambedkar to the herculean task of drafting of the Constitution?

Perhaps the Government should conduct a survey among the students for
whom the lesson is meant and assess their understanding of and
reaction to the cartoon. I won't be surprised if the students see
nothing offensive in the cartoon and dismiss the episode as a storm in
a tea cup.

Either our text books should stop including lessons about any person
or they should go about publishing uniform eulogies of them all so
that everyone goes home smiling.

I believe the cartoon was appropriate for the time it was published as a constructive criticism. Unfortunately, the current leaders don't see
it in the right perspective. However, as to why the cartoon should appear on current text books is questionable. Oh yes, if the tortoise is replaced by the Parliament, Ambedkar is replaced by Manmohan Singh
and Nehru is replaced by Bharath Matha it would be appropriate for now!

An unfortunate, unwarranted, avoidable episode.
The ' snail's pace ' delay should be research subject for degree level students. How many were originally included in team of preparing the draft of The Constitution? How many parted half of the way and why? The reason that why the other members did not sincerely work towards the full shape of The Constitution.
These are the pertinent questions the scholars who resigned should answer.
Besides, i do not find any valid reason to include this biased cartoon in 11th std school books; apart from caste prejudice.

What an irony. These folks raising an issue over a cartoon on the making of the constitution have forgotten that the same constitution allows for freedom of speech. What great minds we have up there in the Parliament.

"Ved Vyas" of the constitution ? Far from it. Look at what Ambedkar
himself has to say on this :

Dr.Ambedkar, 2-Sep-1953, Rajya Sabha Speech :

"People always keep on saying to me:'O, you are the maker of the
Constitution'. My answer is I was a hack. What I was asked to do so,
I did much against the will... Sir, my friends tell me that I have
made the Constitution. But I am quite prepared to say that I shall be
the first person to burn it out.."

A casual walk through of the proceedings of the Constituent assembly
would point to that 'contribution' of Ambedkar. We come to know of
the painstaking debate, voting on addition or omission of clauses,
impeccable leagal acumen of people such as Seervai, Alladi
Krishnaswami Ayyar, Sardar Panikkar, Rajaji, Patel and Rajendr
Prasad. Ambedkar was appointed the head of the 'drafting committee'.
And by the time he was appointed, the 'draft' was already in place by
B.N.Rau's team.

Do we still want to perpetuate this myth that Ambedkar wrote it?

Alas, we have rascals and dirty rogues in the Parliament, those who make furore in the Parliament for nothing. The so called cartoon was there on the NCERT books since 2006 but the goondas in the Parliament do not want to run the business sommthly. The spineless and incompoop government was bent to the rogues as usual. The opposition leaders proved themselves as rascals and dirty fellows even after the Minister's appology and order for inquiry into the matter.

I can not make a comment here as some of our politicians read "The Hindu" daily. But today, I have come to know about K. Shankar Pillai , read about his life and work , a great person indeed .

What?? "Scholars quit textbook body"?? Scholars???

I have read all the history text books of my nephew who is now in 9th. What a shame. It is
purposefully dry and boring. This government has instilled ignorance on Indian people
about the past. There are many Pakistanis here in US/Canada. I see Pakistanis armed with
false history and sneak in few lines of their version in conversations with us. That is
insulting. And our people can't defend any thing!! That's because they don't know the
history. This is disgusting.

When Germany now can allow publication of Hitler's Mein Kempf, why can't we teach
history!! Our people need to know the reason behind why and how Indians became slaves
in their own country for 1000 years! Our kids must know the difference between our
people, friends, enemies and traitors. The higher castes who weakened India are the
traitors. The Muslim invaders and their decedents are our enemies. Those who have
helped us are our friends - Russia, Israel and now USA.

They say knowledge has no limit. But I see that ignorance has no limit as well. Ambedkar is not the Ved Vyaas of Indian Constitution. The political parties in their over enthusiasm to woo the SC and ST votes have deified him. Now they are being repaid with the same coin.

"Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high"
I'm wondering whether Tagore's dream would ever be realised when we have a bunch of fools governing us. Now these scholars would be forced to leave this juvenile country to take up positions in more tolerant and mature societies. India will continue to lose its intellectuals and gain its idiots. God save my country!

It is very unfortunate that members of parliament undermine freedom of
expression and respect of democratic process and institutions.
Government has lost all sense of propriety and wisdom and is playing
to gallery. In this manner why talk about justice, equality and rule
of law?
In a way it is mockery of history also. Those who are in power choose
and hand pick history., as was done by monarchies and dictators around
the world. Even Dr. Ambedkar did not seem to have disapprove of this
cartoon. Actually people's representatives should guide and educate
people about the context and time in which this particular cartoon
was drawn.

I'm not able to understand democracy...

This just reflects very poorly on the people who run the country today. The cartoon gives a
divergent point of view, and an important one at that. Otherwise what we normally get in
schools is mere glorification of all things that happened in this country's history. The study
of history should encourage perspectives, and it is really sad that the deletion of this
cartoon will just deny that opportunity to the future students.

This shows the hollowness of our politicians - who are only creating a
tension among various communities, in the name of "insult to Dr.
Ambedkar". History shows that both Nehru and Ambedkar were statesmen,
and not mere politicians. They had the courage to face criticism and
were truly leaders who represented the people who brought them to
power.

The fact that today's politicians are raking up an issue from 1949,
shows how irresponsible they are. No one denies the importance of
Dr.Ambedkar, especially his contribution to the downtrodden classes.
That being said, if he himself did not take umbrage to this cartoon,
why should today's politicians create havoc in parliament? If they
believe in the ideals of Dr.Ambedkar, they should bring people
together, and not divide them on lines of caste - which is exactly
what they are doing

What next, banning clapping because it insults the Congress symbol ?. Banning the wheel because it is part of our national flag and symbol ?. Our gods and legends are not humourless or petty that they require protection from cartoonists, comedians or the public.

As citizens of INDIA, we became so intolerant and obsessive that we don’t take kindly to even a slightest bit of criticism. I am 100% sure, the great Dr.Ambedkar would not like the way this was made to look like, and used for unethical gains by some people. (Politicians/leaders did not descent from heaven. They came from and represent us , the citizens of this great country INDIA. So I refer politicians also as people). I don’t see any issue with a cartoon that presents us with situations during those important times. I really appreciate Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar for they stood for what they believed is right. We should shed away from our habit of people worship and try to learn, adopt and implement the many good ways these great people like DR.Ambedker gifted us. They wanted us to do the same good deeds and never wanted to be blindly worshiped / used for unethical gains like this.
My thanks to The Hindu for publishing this cartoon that helped me to look at old times

There is a bigger fish to fry. Why parliamentarians are twiddling with
such trivial matters ? Everything depends on how we perceive. Each and
every day of Parliamentary proceedings/sittings costs crores of public
money and an election causes at least thousand crores. It is time that
Parliamentarians concentrate on improving the living conditions of
millions of Indian masses, living below the poverty line, for which
they have been voted for. Credulous Indians should understand that
these statements are not out of respect to the arbitrators of
Constitution but mere vote bank politics.

This has got to be a joke. A cartoon that in no way berates an individual in this case is being politicized for nothing. So what if the cartoon has Dr.Ambedkar, bigger personalities than him have had had far too worse comparisons drawn on them. At some point, this stops being democratic and is more fundamentalist.
Given that many of MPs in our country cannot be expected to understand these nuances, it is the prerogative of the GoI to do so. In any case, what's a society that cannot take a joke on itself - I'd say, pretty boring..

I don't get why the MPs are protesting and what was humiliating in that
cartoon? The cartoon clearly depicts that being framer of the
constitution Dr Ambedkar is on the driver seat and since the framing of
constitution was going slow and public becoming impatient so Ambedkar
and Nehru(being Prime Minister and representative of public) both are
whipping the snail to move faster. If anyone who should be getting
offended by this cartoon are "snails" .

For the last couple of decades, the country has been gripped in a fear
psychosis where no reasonable, intellectual and or humorous comments
about anything or anybody is used to stifle dissent or difference of
opinion, and precisely for that even people like Kapil Sibal and
Pranab Mukherjee jump into declare this cartoon in question as bad.
Pranab M., blew his chance to be a president in my books by this one
stupid utterance. That audacity of the criminals and corrupt among the
so called "backward" classes think that they can get away with
anything by their sheer nuisance value. Of all the people, it was
galling to see "behen" Mayawati demanding action against the people
responsible for the cartoon in the text book. None of these
"worthies" in the parliament have any idea of what democracy truly
means. Their action in the house must be condemned and civil society
must target them to be defeated for ever in the next elections. They
do not have place in a modern democracy.

Sad day for democracy. Our esteemed politicians need to see the same cartoon in the light of political situation prevailing at that time. Mr. Ambedkar was not seen as a caste head then, but the political head of a very important and responsible post.When the constitution was not yet finalized, Mr. Ambedkar and Nehru too were subject to public criticism on the delay in this part - It was reflective of the nation's aspirations.
this is true for every new and important project undertaken by the government today. The book attempted to show the same to the students. The furore over this issue after more than 60 years shows the nearsightedness and the vote-bank politics of the politicians - snowballing a non issue into a prestige issue.

It is quite jejune for parliamentarians to waste precious time to discuss the issue of publication of a cartoon drawn way back in 1949 in a textbook. The cartoon is not obscene, disgraceful or derogatory to the people featured therein, who I believe the artist himself must have held in high esteem like we all do. It is not at all criminal to portray prominent people in a funnier vain in newspapers and books to arouse humour rather it is a common practice across all the democracies. It therefore does not suit India that prides itself on being the largest democracy in the world to be so irascible and make so much ado about this simple and harmless expression of democratic freedom. If anything this only reveals the immaturity of our leaders who will all do well to follow the trail blazed by the people whose insult they are apparently protesting instead of raising temper in and outside the House.

If Mr Shankar would have been alive today, certainly these politicians
would have put him behind the bar. The controversy has pointed out two
things:
i. Level of thinking of these politicians has gone down radically.
ii. They (Politicians) don't have patience to listen or understand some one.
Because we have given them license to decide, therefore, we have to bear.

Publishing of cartoon at the time of Nehru and Ambedkar with no offense
from these great people clearly shows their open and mature way of
leading the country. Not to be wrong neither Nehru nor Ambedkar had
asked such an idol position, they worked for the cause and expected that
their next generation will be much broader minded and have more
leadership approach.But shamefully we failed in leading their dreams and
started creating their idols, which deflected us from their vision and
indulged creating irrelevant hoax in the name of these personas.

I do not see anything wrong with this cartoon. As mentioned in the
article, this was accepted way back in 1949, neither Nehru nor Ambedkar
objected to it. Then why are these people objecting it now.
There is a dire need for kids in India to know and learn history as it
happened ( the truth and not the way few people want).

As one, who had seen the original cartoon and as one, who knew that Shankar
caricatured Nehru mercilessly, much to the delight of the latter, and as one, who
was aware then that, none, including Dr.Ambedkar, never dreamt of protesting, I
feel that dark days had fallen on us and that we are ruled by a bunch of George
Orwell's Big Brothers.

Why should politicians raise a hue and cry for something that was very relevant over 60 years at this time. Do they want to get any political mileage out of it? It makes no sense for any politician or party to raise objections to history. Can they take sceptre against anything that happened when most of them were either toddlers or not even born. All raising up agaist the cartoons are POLITICAL CARTOONS themselves. Shame on all the silly billy politicians.

What a waste of national time and money, when a cartoon drawn in 1949 can create such futile furore, and the HRD minister has to apologise. Also, what does prosecuting the 'wrong doers' mean? Cartoons are meant to be witty and sarcastic. As a nation, have we lost all our tolerance, or our leaders have failed us. In either case, its our misfortune. All the political parties have joined this bandwagon, but I am still unsure if any common man is hurt by this cartoon. Had the furore been on acquittal of those allegedly responsible for masacaring Dalits, it would have served the purpose better. I am not offended by the cartoon. And I respect Babasaheb a lot.

Day by day the politicians are lacking the sense of humor.This was
published in 1949 news paper and none had protested on it.Now it has
become an issue.There are many burning questions to be discussed and
solved for the sake of people....

I cannot believe this !!! If the cartoon was published in 1949 why
cant it be published now. Looks like the Indian people are going back
to the stone age. Grow up guys. Don't make everything political. It
is a fact the drafting of a constitution took an unusually long time
and nobody can deny that. The cartoon was not intended to degrade
Ambedkar and everyone knows that. God save India.

What a bunch of political tools! The cartonnist who drew the caricature Sri K. Sankaran Pillai was awarded a Padma Vibhushan by the respectable Govt. of India,and Mr. Kapil Sibal says "government would also examine whether those who drew the allegedly objectionable cartoon had committed a criminal offence". All the furore for political posturing and publicity. If only the MPs were interested in real life problems like alleviating poverty, social welfare, improving saniation and standards of living, and tackling the Maoist problem, just to name a few. But who is interested in such low profile ventures?

What an irony! Ambedkar framed India's constitution which grants rights to freedom of expression such as this cartoon. But modern day lawmakers find such a constitutional niceties too inconvenient for their political shenanigans and vote bank politics. Wonder what Mr. Ambedkar would have had to say about such misplaced priorities of our lawmakers who are supposed to be defenders of the same constitution and the rights it grants to the Indian citizens.

I wonder what was the need for reproducing a cartoon published 60 years ago - and that too in a textbook. Whatever may have been the intention at the time of publishing the cartoon - it certainly conveys a wrong message in a modern day context. One needs to understand that Dr.Ambedkar was not just an individual or a leader - but a symbol of Dalit pride and self esteem. In a society where Dailits are still discriminated against - a cartoon like this, is certainly offensive. We must also realise that cartoons are only the cartoonist's perception - which at times can be wrong / inappropriate or even tasteless. It doesn't become someone's "democratic right" to publish them in a textbook.

People do not understand the humour which speaks very highly of Dr. Ambedkar. There were so many hurdles in making the Constitution
and Dr. Ambedkar was given the tough task of driving snail( slow pace) He in fact wanted to drive the move very fast but alas he could not do it. Let the people understand his greatness of him Just as the smile of MonaLisa there will be many interpretations Sooner the bigotism goes better for the nation

Why can't the eminent professors understand a simple truth? A cartoon from a bygone era of democracy is totally unacceptable in the present day of religious intolerance. Will they like it if their god (yes, at least for some of us..) is shown as being whipped? It is a different matter that our god stood for something else, we believe he stood for us.

Yes, Ambedkar is the ved-vyas of the Indian Constitution..if the cartoon did really disrespect him, it should be removed.

A very very sad day indeed in the history of our democracy. Democratically elected representatives do not know the limits to their freedoms. The Parliament is supreme but the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. The members of Parliament cannot sit in judgement over a text book that they obviously could not follow.

Can a cartoonist waist so much time of our parliamentarians,or they have no other
issues to discuss,lo and behold,what was so objectionable that people came out in
streets in Tamil nado.What a waist of time,but who cares.

Our Politicians have NO SENSE OF HUMOR. The cartoon shows the
slow pace of drafting of the constitution of India, Not because
Dr Ambedkar had been slow in his work, but because of the
enormity of the task assigned to the Committee to refer extract
and draft the best Constitution in the world. Elders of this
period know the Humorous cartoons appearing in the World famous
"Shankers weekly" and it did not spare any one and every one had
a smile at the cost of others including Politicians. Is it not
gagging the press and snatching the freedom of expression of the
Citizens of India? Can we not brows through the old magazines and
reproduce what was there in those days for the benefit of present
day readers.

In 1949 when it was published, both Nehru and Ambedkar who were alive
did not have a problem. Now after 63 years these jokers have found
something to munch on instead of discussing something productive. Like
me, millions of students have read the textbook, only now I have noticed
it.

There isn't anything wrong with cartooning as it's a matter of one's right to expression. But it's inclusion in the XI class book surely is a wrong step. The intention behind its inclusion should surely be brought out. Most of our history textbooks of primary and secondary schools are already highly biased. Contributions of few Congress leaders and M.K.Gandhi itself occupy all the pages leaving Ambedkar and his struggle with a mere mention. This has been continuing for 3-4 generations now, who hardly knew about his contributions to the nation building. Highlighting the intellectual influence he had brought to the people of the nation, his political ideals in nation building which had transformed the lives of millions of socially disadvantaged is the immediate need of the hour. How did the course designers who found no space to include his achievements found space for a cartoon criticizing him?

This is very funny. What harm does a cartoon do? Its not the author of the book's fault that our politicians don't have a sense of humor.

Both Ambedkar and Nehru were both alive in 1949 when the cartoon was reportedly published and obviously did not take any offence on its publication. I wish these lawmakers had shown similar anger against rampant corruption and misuse of public money in the country such as Rs 86 crores reportedly spent by Mayawati for renovation of her official residence when she was CM of UP. Would Ambedkar have approved such wasteful expediture?

Textbooks are the results of the hard work of the Textbook Development Committee
of experts that follows a rigorous process and determine the contents of the textbooks. The ban on the cartoon because of the opposition of narrow-minded politicians, undermines the efforts of the experts and make a mockery of the textbook development. In India, the living politicians of all parties rely on their dead leaders to keep themselves 'active' and their parties alive. Therefore, they are reactive to even the most trivial things and make a mountain out of a molehill. The main role of education is developing the critical thinking of learners. Teachers and textbooks must facilitate that. Do the living politicians expect the next generation of Indians to be blind followers of their dead leaders? Shame on those who try to instigate people by sensationalizing the issue.

Baba Sahib was not only the trade mark of Dalits. He then , while
drafting a constitution never took chances of Dalit cards nor he
offered any concessions in the constitution he drafted.The issue of
arousing Dalits to get their rightful rights was totally kept out from
forming the constitution. Now that the Dalit Trade mark is widely used
to rake up the dalit cards in each and every issue by those who want
gains out of dalit card. Thirumavalavan is a pure opportunist. He
swithches to the side where the wind blows. Mayawathi has learnt out
how to make out fast bucks by playing dalit card. The cartoon shall be
published wide among every citizens to find out what sort of offence
it contained agaist Ambedkar or praise over Nehru.These are all bogus
cries for creating sensations only.

The cartoonist was not at wrong, though it is funny to say that 3 years
was too long time to formulate the constitution. But definitely it did
not have to be in a school text book!

This is utterly disgraceful! At this rate, we will see all our history rewritten in a highly prejudiced and hyper-sensitive vein! My humble request to the Hindu: Since the cartoon dates back to 1949, when both Nehru and Ambedkar were alive, could you please furnish some historical responses to the original publication of the cartoon? I believe that'd put today's reactionaries in their place!

Apparently it took a 63 year old cartoon to bring out the illiteracy of our current politicians. What is so criminal about these cartoons? Who are these idiots to make a huge cry when Nehru & Ambedkar themselves did not?

This is ridiculous! The Govt. is ignoring all the big issues and scams and worrying about maintaining the hallowed status of erstwhile leaders. I grew up reading only the glorified stories of the political leaders from pre-independence era. And I don't think thats the only view kids should be subjected to. These are or were people leading the nation and shaping the policies, but like any job it doesn't mean that the public can not be critical or appraisive of their actions and performance.

Our country is supposed to be considered a model of democracy but these
days our politician seems to object everything

This is what happens when you banish all elements of elitism from a
country's political leadership. By elitism I refer to educational
elitism, practical knowledge and sound common sense. These scruffy
populist MP's cannot distinguish between humor and derogation. I would
go so far as to suggest that both Dr Ambedkar and Mr Nehru must be
turning in their graves at this turn of events. I doubt anyone who has
studied either or both of these personalities with a grain of
seriousness can suggest that they would be at all pleased by the MPs'
indignant ire.

Drawing from Hindu myth, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee described Dr. Ambedkar as the Ved Vyas of the Constitution, and said the cartoon was “totally wrong.” The Hindu quoted Mr. Pranab Mukherjee describing cartoon is totally wrong. Cartoon cannot be wrong because it is a satire to the situation. those cartoon who depicted/(s) Late Indira Gandhi may be termed wrong by sycophants but truth is that the 'political cartoons are unbiased history themselves for their time'. you may disagree with it/them but one cannot termed them wrong.

this cartoon for me is:-
standing ambedkar says that there is long way to go...
snail is the 'system' which is slow and indeed need a whip to move
forward..
jawahar lal nehru, the first prime minister with a whip is 'showing'
that they are also working for the nation to go forward.
lastly the agressive crowd, agressive because of- the pace, the
leaders, the carriage and also the whip... are ready to move out; in
their on way... by either peace or violence but yeah they are at the
last... headed by the leaders and than by the system... and finally by
the people in the system..!!!
the government employees who thinks they are the GOVERNMENT..@kapil
sibbal

Dr Ambedkar himself never saw it fit to protest against this cartoon
back then and now we have 'holier than thou' politicians across the
Indian political class trying to outdo one another in proving their
affinity to the concerned groups. It is a shame that everyone has
behaved so badly.
If the legendary cartoonist K. Shankar Pillai were alive today these
people would have lynched him together. I guess all it takes to muzzle any difference of opinion, even if it in the form of a harmless cartoon or a book, is to raise a mob and invoke the fear of anarchy to get things done your way.

the line between the democratic constitutionality and political is
becoming dangerously thin, pushing us into ghettos ....courtesy our
narrow visioned political parties and politicians.

Sir, It seems that our society is slowly losing the proper contextual
perspective required for understanding the history. If the history is
to be subjected to the test of current political correctness, the
history books will become thin with bare facts of dates. At this
rate, every political cartoon would look repugnant in near future.
Surely the greatest lawmaker would turn in his grave at our
intolerance, when a small cartoon projecting opinion of a section is
banned after more than sixty years. There appears to be an urgent need to inculcate the proper social and historical perspective atleast in future generation of India.

Can The Hindu throw light into into timings of such incidents. I mean
there are many such cases of banning seems to be come out of blue. This
cartoon was certainly not draw yesterday. What made the MPs debate about
it today.
And do the leaders of our country really think that banning/not banning
of such cartoons has anything to do with the greatness and legacy they
had set.

The person who created equality in India is 1st target of people like you. when British left India they told that because of caste,language India will be divided into at least 20 parts within first 10years of Independence, But becos of Dr Ambedkar Constitution we are still united India. If this is a democracy people will start writing anything abt anybody like Mahatma Gandhi and so on then what will be the effect.

What was the context in which the cartoon was printed? If the
textbook talked about the time taken and delay in framing the
constitution then I don't see anything wrong in the cartoon. Politicians nowadays cater to the lowest common denominator. Its no surprise that Mayawati has pounced on this issue to gain some political mileage after the UP debacle