Cartoons in the Raj; A study of the

illustrated periodicals of Colonial India

Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the social and political climate

of colonial India was charged by the calls for freedom and growing sense of self-identification.

The front-runners in building social consensus and generating awareness were newspapers and

periodicals printed in English, Hindi, Urdu, and many other vernacular languages. While many

publications utilised illustrations to provide a visual representation for their readers, some used the

power of satirical and political cartoons in order to drive their messages home. These publications,

many of them named after the British publication Punch, were able to utilise satire and cartoons

in order to negotiate with the growing and changing identity of an Indian populace. This paper will

first give a short historical overview of the London Punch and

the Indian Punches, before proceeding with an analysis

of some of the cartoons in the Oudh Punch and

Parsi/Hindi Punch.

History of Punch

The Punch (Figure 1) was an illustrated periodical that was a

staple of English daily life for 162 years. From its first issue
Figure 1: Cover of first issue of Punch,
on 17 July 1841, to its final issue in 2002, Punch was an The London Charivari, 17 July 1841
Source: The History of "Punch" by
active observer and satirical commentator on British life1. M.H. Spielmann 1895

1
I use the two terms – English and British – in order to differentiate between what was the localised site of London
and the events occurring on a day-to-day basis, and the larger “colonial” British worldview which included, over
Local news and political events along with dispatches from across the world formulated a unique

spice for Punch’s satire. While many scholars have pored over and written on Punch and its history,

such as M.H. Speilmann in The History of Punch (1895), Richard D. Altick in Punch: The Lively

Youth of a British Institution 1841–1851, and Brian Maidment in The Dictionary of Nineteenth-

century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland, their analysis has often been defined by the

habitus 2 of a western social paradigm. Punch was started by Henry Mayhew the writer, and

Ebenezer Landells the wood engraver; with Mark Lemon as the editor and James Last as the printer.

The British Punch took its inspiration from the Le Charivari, a French publication that ran from

1832-1837, published by caricaturist Charles Philipon; and the sub-title for Punch was given as

The London Charivari. Punch was a weekly publication with an initial page count of 12, costing

a ‘three penny bit’ or 3d. The images and drawing were wood engraved, allowing them to be

coupled with type for quick and efficient printing. The pages were square, which also allowed for

reprinting and binding for later compilations. For its content, the young Punch was graced by the

words of writers such as Thomas Hood, Douglas Jerrold, and William Makepeace Thackeray, as

well as the artistic skills of John Leech, Richard Doyle (who designed the masthead), John Tenniel

(who was also known for the iconic Alice in Wonderland illustrations) (Figure 2) and, in later

years, George du Maurier. As per Brian Maidment, “Renowned in its early years for outspoken

criticism of various social ills, notably the exploitation of women in the sweatshops of the clothing

industries, Punch lost much of its radical energy in its later history but remained a broad-based

repository of social and political commentary.” (Asian Punches, 19).

time, the different parts of the world under colonial rule, such as the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia,
Ireland, Africa, and sites in the Caribbean.
2
In Distinction; A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, (1996) Peirre Bourdieu delinated the idea of the habitus
that unconciously guides and informs the social tastes in a culture. According to Bourdieu, the habitus shapes and
links individual sensibilities to a larger, social cultural capital, defining taste and aesthetic sensibilities.
 John Tenniel Self Drawing Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland
Source: M.H. Spielmann's The History of By John Tenniel
"Punch" (Cassell & sons, 1895) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De_ Alice%27s
_Abenteuer_im_Wunderland_Carroll_pic_25.jpg

Figure 2

The illustrations in Punch were based on a number of different topics and subjects, however what

gave Punch its uniqueness was Mr Punch – the anthromorphized figure of the magazine. Mr Punch

was a rotund, buffoonish character whose antecedents can be traced back to the Punch and Judy

puppet shows from England in the 1600s, which in themselves have their roots in the Italian

commedia dell’arte or comedy of the professional. Mr Punch, or Punchillo, was a quasi-outsider

to polite society, and much like his stringed cousin, could comment on the ills and vagrancies of

the elite and the rich. While particular features of Mr Punch differed from artist to artist, the basic

template of a hook-nosed sharp face with a sly, knowing grin, remained the same. As seen in the
figure, (Figure 3) the different styles of Mr Punch each bear the same

underlying physiological characteristics. The shading on the nose of

many of the faces speaks to the aesthetic convention of the epicurist

or figures who can embody in vino veritas. His popularity made Mr

Punch the voice of the people, being able to speak truth to those in

power, while being protected by the populace and power of his satire.

In the words of M.H. Spielmann, written as early as 1906, “For even

outside politics vox Punchii is still commonly regarded as vox populi,

and Cabinet Ministers, we know, would rather have ‘Punch’ on their

side than against them.” (Cartoons of Punch 1906 vi-vii).

Figure 3: Versions of Punch through the years
Source: Source: M.H. Spielmann's The History of
"Punch" (Cassell & sons, 1895)

Punch in India

While Mr Punch was taking the measure of British society, his presence was seen in some parts of

India as well. However, it was after the 1857 rebellion in India, known as the First War of Indian

Independence or as the Mutiny, that his presence became

much more prolific. The upheaval caused by the

Rebellion, followed by the horrific backlash by the East

India Company led to the transference of India’s

governance from the Company to the British Crown;

beginning what is unpopularly called the “British Raj” or

rule. (Figure 4)

Figure 4: British response to the Indian

Mutiny by John Tenniel in Punch, 1857

Source: Punch Volume 64-65; archive.org

The Raj, which lasted for nearly 200 years saw the growth and proliferation of western language

and education in the Indian subcontinent. This spread of English and the increasing awareness of

British modes of culture and thought brought the Punch to India. A popular staple in England, it

is not hard to image Punch’s arrival in India in official dispatches and personal belongings. At the

same time, the nawabs and rajas of India, who travelled to England to pay obeisance to the Empress,

might have brought back with them illustrated periodicals showcasing British social life as

souvenirs. The meeting between Mr Punch and the growing printing industry in India allowed for

Indian writers and thinkers to create their own versions of Punch, each with a distinct style, yet

shared ancestry. These included The Indian Charivari, Delhi Sketch Book, Matvala, Basantak, The

Oudh Punch, Gujarati Punch, Hindu Punch, and the Parsi Punch, which was later renamed The

Hindi Punch3. While some of these, such as the Parsi Punch and the Delhi Sketch Book were

mostly published in English, others, such as the Oudh Punch, Gujarati Punch, and Hindu Punch,

were published in the vernacular languages, allowing for a mixture of satirical traditions and

semantic linkages that led to new visual and literal associations for the readers.

The Oudh Punch, as the name suggests, was published in the then United Provinces of Agra and

Oudh, which are now the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand. Its publisher was Sajjad

Husain, who was also its editor and often its graphic director. In The Avadh Punch; Wit and

Wisdom in Colonial North India, Mushirul Hasan gives a short biography of Husain, who was

born just a year before the rebellion in 1856 and who grew up in the Raj, witnessing the changing

shape of colonial Oudh or Awadh. As per Mushirul Hasan, while studying in Canning College in

Lucknow, Sajjid Husain also taught Urdu to British soldiers in the nearby town of Faizabad –

3
Partha Mitter in Art and Nationalism in Colonial India (1994) and Mushirul Hasan in Wit and Humor (2007) and
Wit and Wisdom (2012) have brought some of these Punches within the ambit of Indian academic studies.
which used to be the older capital of the Awadh kingdom. Inspired by the boom in the publication

of English and vernacular newspapers, Hussain set up his own lithographic press in Lucknow and

brought out the first issue of the Oudh Punch on 16 January 1877. Each issue was folio sized (8.5

x 13.5) with 8 pages and each page had 2 to 3 columns with lithographed text in them. The first

print run for the weekly Oudh Punch was 250 copies, which soon increased to 500. Individual

issues cost 4 annas (one anna being equivalent to 1/16th of a rupee) with a yearly subscription

costing Rs 12. By 1878, 4 more pages were added, as well as occasional free supplements. While

the Oudh Punch employed many different artists for its cartoons and caricatures, there is not much

known about them, as often they would not sign their names. However, there are three that we do

know of; Wazir Ali, who designed the very first page, Lal Bahadur, who could amazingly adapt

illustrations from the London Punch into contemporary settings, and Ganga Sahay, who drew

under the nom de plume Shauq. The Oudh Punch was represented by an anthromorphized character,

much like the London Punch.

The Parsi Punch was a weekly publication that was printed in what was then the Bombay

Presidency. The publication started in July 1854 at Apyakhitar Press by Dadabhai Soheri. It was

edited by Barjorji Nowrosji and focused more upon the Parsi community and its interactions with

British rule. The paper was published in 4 sheets demy-quarto, (11”x8”) with an annual

subscription rate of Rs 6. Much like the London Punch, the Parsi Punch also brought out a

collected set of its illustrations in a monthly format of 24-36 pages under the title Pickings from

the Parsi Punch. The Parsi Punch was represented by Panchoba, the “Indian cousin” to the London

Punch. A short, rotund man with a hooked nose, Punchoba wore Indian vestments, yet could easily
communicate with the English-speaking sahib or officers. In 1859, the paper changed its name to

Hindi Punch in 1859 for the pragmatic reason of acquiring a broader subscription base.

The figures of Mr Punch, the Oudh Punch, and Punchoba, along with the other Punchis, operated

and interacted in what has been defined as “contact zones” by Mary Louise Pratt in her book,

Imperial Eyes; Travel Writing and Transculturation. According to Pratt, contact zones are “social

spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly

asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination—like colonialism, slavery, or their

aftermaths as they are lived out across the globe today.” (4). The semantic economies within these

zones operate via the process of transculturation – the ethnographic process through which

subordinated or marginalized groups select and use materials transmitted from a dominant culture

in order to generate an semantic barter system with the dominant group. In other words, it is the

process through which the colonized, in the case of this paper, have used the London Punch to

create their own Punches in order to not just copy, but to create a visual lingua franca through

which to be able to “talk”; not only with the colonizers but also with each other.

The next section of the paper will set out to analyse some of the illustrations from the Oudh and

Parsi Punch and try to understand the different aspects that the visuals present and operate in.

Figure 5 was the cover of the first issue of the Oudh Punch, and showcases a proto-Punch character

with two angelic beings flying next to him. While his hat has the words Oudh Punch written in

English, the writing above it, as per Mushirul Hasan is in Arabic script, and is the date of the issue,

16 January 1877. It is the eyes and the nose of the figure that form the words Oudh Punch and are
 presented via calligraphic Arabic letters. Similar calligraphy is seen around the mouth and

protruding tongue of the figure, which form the words ‘ya lataif’ meaning “jest”. The legend on

his belt states the motto for the Oudh Punch, “Life is pleasure”. Over the next few issues, the

Awadhi Punch came into his own, with a cover from a later date (Figure 6) showcasing him as

sitting at the head of a table while an assortment of figures from the varied levels of Indian society

sit on his sides. The figures shown here include British officers wearing bowler hats, Nawabs and

Thakurs – landowners– wearing turbans, and noblemen wearing fezzes. This can almost be seen

as a visual presentation of Pratt’s contact zone, where the Oudh Punch is acting as a host, i.e. site,

for both the colonizers and colonized to meet.

Figure 5 Oudh (Awadh) Punch, Cover of First issue, 1877 Figure 6 Cover of second volume of Oudh Punch

Source: Wit and Humor in Colonial North India by Source: Oudh Punch, rekta.org
Mushirul Hasan (2007)
At the same time, the Oudh Punch, like all other Punches, did not shy back from adopting

illustrations published in the London Punch for its own pages. An interesting example is this image

(Figure 7) which was printed in the 14th June 1892 issue. The characters and the Urdu labels

around the images inform the reader/viewer that this is a representation of Dadabhai Naroji (1825-

1917) along with anthromorphized figures of Britannia (i.e. Britain) and Hind (India). The image

commemorates the election of Dadabhai Naroji, also known as the Grand Old Man of India, to the

House of Commons in Britain in 1925. The words underneath the image are being spoken by India

to Naroji, which have been translated by Munshirul Hasan as “Well done! My Son! Well done!

This achievement is possible only by you; this is how men with noble character act”. This

illustration was taken from the 1873 issue of the London Punch (Figure 8) that was drawn by John

Tenniel on the visit of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (1831-1896) of Iran to England, where apart from

signing a peace treaty, he was also knighted under the Order of the Garter. In this illustration, the

speakers are reversed, with the Shah speaking to Britannia, and assuring her that no one would

“cross into the gardens” of her child Indiana. Side by side, there images allow us to read how a

transcultural exchange occurred vis-à-vis the anthromorphized tropes being projected by the

British, and the transformation of these tropes in an Indian context. In Tenniel’s image, Indiana or

India is a young defenceless girl who is being threatened by the domineering masculinity of the

Shah, but is being protected by the bulwark of her “guardian” Britannia. She has no voice of her

own and is a mute spectator. But in the Oudh Punch, she is transformed into Hind, the proud

mother who is looking benevolently at the union of her “son” with Britannia4.

4
It can also be conjectured that one of the reasons behind choosing this image by the Oudh Punch was the shared
ancestry between Iran and Parsis.
Figure 7 Hind congratulating Dadabhai Naroji,
Oudh Punch, 1925

Source: Wit and Humor in Colonial North India by

Mushirul Hasan (2007)

Figure 8 Shah of Iran assuring Britannia, Punch, 1873

Source: Punch Vol LXVI

Another image that allows for a fascinating reading is from 1878 and was drawn by Shauq on the

topic of the fall of Kabul in the second Anglo-Afghan war. (Figure 9) The image commemorates

the victory of Lord Lytton, the Viceroy of India, over Afghanistan. However, the trope of the image

is an episode from the Indian epic Ramayana, where the god-King Rama breaks the stone bow,

something which no one is able to do, in order to win the hand of Sita. Lytton is here represented

as Rama, while Afghanistan is represented by Sita and the war effort is the breaking bow. What

makes this image a unique anthropological and sociological object is the multiplicity of strings

that were weaved in its creation.

Drawn by a Hindu artist for an

Urdu publication, representing a

contemporary event occurring

outside the borders of the country,

but drawn in a visual idiom that is

intrinsically social and cultural,

this single image encapsulates the

prismatic facets of Indian history.

Figure 9 Lord Lytton’s victory over Afghanistan

Source: Wit and Humor in Colonial North India by Mushirul Hasan,

2007
 Similarly, the Parsi Punch was also able to utilize

visual tropes from western styles and aesthetics into a

unique display that allowed for Punchoba to interact

with Governers, Nawabs, industrialists, and council

members with a certain level of familiarity and

authority. The first such image is (Figure 10) the figure

of cupid with the Nymph Indiana. The legend under the

image speaks states that the image was modified from

an engraving of C.E. Thibault, after Jean-Ernest Aubert.

In the original illustration, (Figure 11), the Nymph is

letting the cherubic figure of the cupid drink water from

Figure 10 Indiana giving water to cupid her hands, which she has collected from the stream
Source: Wit and Wisdom; Pickings from the
Parsee Punch, Mushirul Hasan, 2012
flowing behind her. However, in the transformed

illustration, the nymph is not a mythical creature but

rather the mythopoetic representation of India, who is

providing waters from the stream of “National Honour”

to the bearded, yet still cherubic, cupid. My current

working hypothesis is that the cupid represents Lord

Ripon, who was the Viceroy of India from 1880-1884

and who introduced the Illbert Bill, which sought to

grant Indian citizens more legal rights, including

allowing Indian judges to preside over the trials of

Europeans. This transformation of the visual schemata

Figure 11 At the Fountain by C.E. Thibault,

after Jean-Ernest Aubert, 1880
Source: http://www.talismanfineart.com/
from a purely aesthetic and simple mythic theme into a socially relevant and evocative narrative

allows us to look at how Indian artists were able to utilise the aesthetic impulses from the west and

adapt them into stronger, more socially relevant forms.

Punchoba was the voice of the Parsi community, which in itself was a financially and industrially

strong player in the Bombay Presidency. This allowed Punchoba to speak directly to the British

power and allowed him, i.e. Punchoba, to laud those who it felt helped the community/country or

lambaste those who did not meet it expectations. One such illustration from 1884 (Figure 12)

shows Punchoba giving a bouquet to Lord Ripon whose term as Viceroy was at an end, while a

shorter figure represents Grant Duff, the Governor of Madras (present-day Chennai), who was

disliked for his partisan behaviour, specifically during a case of rioting in 1881; in which he

acquitted the guilty party, overruling the court. The text underneath the image labels Duff as

“Duffy (That mischievous boy of Madras)”. This not only allows Punchoba to speak directly to a

figure as powerful as a Governor, but also to speak down to a British official who is not liked and

who can warned, “Be a good boy!”.

Figure 12 The Reward of Good Conduct, Parsi Punch, 1884

Source: Wit and Wisdom; Pickings from the Parsee Punch, Mushirul
Hasan, 2012
Apart from the Parsi/Hindi and Oudh Punch, many other Punchobas and Punch-cousins

proliferated across India. At many places, the linguistic transference of the word Punch from

English to the vernacular languages helped the Indian Punches gain a much greater level of

authority and importance. The word punch in the Indian vernacular habitus is semantically linked

with the number 5 or panch or punch; which in itself is considered an auspicious number. The

word also relates to the committee of 5 elders in a village – the panchayat – who are traditionally

associated with giving guidance and solving disputes. The Punchs being published in the native

languages were aware of this fact and were able to recalibrate the tongue in cheek humor of Mr

Punch into a quasi-authoritative voice of Punch, or as one such publication named itself, Sir Punch

Hind. The phrase Sir Punch also operates as sarpancha or the head of the panchayat. Similarly,

the Hindu Punch from Thane, Maharashtra, transformed Mr Punch into 5 distinct Hindu characters

for its masthead.

In conclusion, these satirical illustrated periodicals and their cartoons are not simple copies or

attempts at aping a western idea. Rather, within their zones of contact, they were able to emulate,

absorb, and re-emit the visual and social tropes of the colonisers as newer and transformed

semantic elements. Through their illustrations and satire, these punches became the precursors to

the long history of cartooning and comics in India, such as the political cartoons of Shanker, RK

Laxman, Maya Kamath, and Abu Abraham and the new emerging world of Indian graphic

novelists such as Orijit Sen, Sarnath Banerjee and Vishwajyoti Ghosh. The visual representations

in the Punches not only allowed for multiple readings during their own times, depending on the

habitus of the viewer, but also allow us to re-visit them as social and cultural archives that can be

analysed through a post-colonial scopic regime.

Bibliography

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List of Figures

1. Figure 1: Cover of first issue of Punch, The London Charivari, 17 July 1841
2. Figure 2:
a) John Tenniel Self Drawing
b) Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland By John Tenniel
3. Figure 3: Versions of Punch through the years
4. Figure 4: British response to the Indian Mutiny by John Tenniel in Punch, 1857
5. Figure 5 Oudh (Awadh) Punch, Cover of First issue, 1877
6. Figure 6 Cover of second volume of Oudh Punch
7. Figure 7 Hind congratulating Dadabhai Naroji,
8. Figure 8 Shah of Iran assuring Britannia, Punch, 1873
9. Figure 9 Lord Lytton’s victory over Afghanistan
10. Figure 10 Indiana giving water to cupid
11. Figure 11 At the Fountain by C.E. Thibault, after Jean-Ernest Aubert, 1880
12. Figure 12 The Reward of Good Conduct, Parsi Punch, 1884