Indian Comics and Their Relationship with the Mainstream Media

Mainstream is usually defined as “a current of thought that is presently widespread”. However, this does not emphasize enough on the fact that the mainstream is a very fluid, dynamic concept. It is akin to the public opinion to an extent as mainstream has a recursive relationship with itself; Mainstream is what the Mainstream insists it is. We see many glaring examples of it in the recent past. Movies like “Gangs Of Wasseypur”, which would have been classified as an Indie, Experimental movie in the not-so-distant past, went on to be a massive success and became a widely love and often quoted movie. Therefore, inclusion of any content into the Mainstream is an unpredictable event.

Literature in India has always been on the fringes of the mainstream on its own accord. Until the arrival of the youthful generation of popular writers like Chetan Bhagat, Ravinder Singh and Amish Tripathi writing easy to read, accessible fiction, India had a dedicated but extremely small community of voracious readers. As a result, inspite of a rich literary heritage, books and reading never entered the mainstream and public consciousness in a significant way. There have been sporadic instances of books gaining some traction with the mainstream over the years, but they still never yielded the kind of influence Movies and Popular Music did.

Indian Comics have remained on the fringes of Literature which in and of itself remained on the fringes of the Mainstream. As a result, Indian Comics have never received their due in Indian Mainstream Media. Inspite of the “Nerd” and “Geek” stereotypes associated with Comics readers in the Western Hemisphere of the planet, there has always been a demand and supply of Comic related content in the Mainstream. Dating back to the Adam West Batman show to the 1960s and the recent surge in comic book inspired content brought on by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Comics have had their share in the Mainstream for a very long time now in the West. Nothing similar had ever been achieved in India inspite of almost 30 years of comic book publishing now.

In the Indian Mainstream Media, comics have always had a step-brotherly treatment meted out to them. Inspite of the rich gallery of characters and stories, the mainstream preferred to go for the same old hackneyed plots in movies and TV instead of experimenting with some new forms of content. I shall now talk about the factors that caused this prejudice.

First, and possibly the most important factor, is age. Indian Comics are still in their infancy compared to Marvel or DC. Marvel has been operation for nearly a 100 years now, same goes for Disney and DC. In comparison, comics with original characters were published in Indian starting in the 1980s. Before that, most of the content published had been syndicated Western titles like “Mandrake”, “Phantom” and “Tarzan”. Indrajaal Comics had been an important publisher of the syndicated content for a very long time. In the late 70s and early 80s though, India saw a boom in new, original content. Many big players like Raj Comics, Manoj Comics, Radha Comics and Diamond Comics entered the market with a fresh roster of characters and stories that inspite of being inspired from the west, were still Indian at heart. However, while Hollywood was making dedicated shows and movies on superheroes, Indian writers and artists were still finding their voice, leading to a lack of quality, original content for the Mainstream media to adapt in the first place. This process continues somewhat to this day too. While Hollywood has almost 70 years of source material to draw inspiration from, India has less than 2-3 decades of content to offer.

Secondly, lack of investment. Comics in India have traditionally been marketed to children. As a result the cost of the comics had been extremely low to attract children towards them and ensure that the parents did not begrudge paying for their children's hobbies due to the high cost. As a result, inspite of selling hundred of thousands of copies at their peak, comic firms made little profit. This dissuaded many investors from investing in comic book inspired content as well. Entertainment, at the end of the day, is still a business and investments are made to gain profit. Because the target audience had been children whose say mattered very little back in the day (till the 1990s) in choosing the forms of entertainment of the family due to the social structure, the investment was deemed too risky and no money was put into creation of Mainstream Media content.

A sub-heading of the investment argument can also be the high investment needed to make content in the first place. Making any good quality comic book inspired content would demand a high capital investment for special effects and other over heads of a production. A good example of this is the “Nagraj” TV show attempted in the 90s which never made it to the TV screens due to hilariously bad special effects which were corny even by the 90s standard.

However, it would be amiss to not address the one glaring exception to the rule. Sahara TV, back in the mid 2000s, produced a show based on the quintessential Indian Comic Character, Chacha Chaudhary which became loved and acclaimed due to its simple plotlines, brilliant depiction of the character by Raghuveer Yadav and faithfulness to the source material.

There has also been some retro-fitted comic content, where a TV show was produced followed by the release of a comic to cash in on the popularity of the show. “Shaktimaan” and “Captain Vyom” are important examples of this. However, as the source material did not begin as a comic, I do not count them within the purview of this paper. The comics were mostly a frame by frame retelling of episodes of the show. The shows however, did achieve significant mainstream success, especially Shaktimaan, which has achieved almost a cult status of late.

There is however, also an upward swing in the interest in comics and their reluctant inclusion into the mainstream. Acclaimed film maker Anurag Kashyap has shown interest in “Doga”, a Raj Comics character and have gone on record saying they want to make a movie using the character. The recent “Comic Cons” in cities like Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad have also generated a lot of buzz and interest into the Indian Comic Scene amongst the fans.

Another important factor here again is age. The generation Y, which grew up reading these characters' exploits and escapades has now turned into the new consumers that will inevitably support content based on their childhood characters, for nostalgia if not the actual content itself. We saw this recently with Byomkesh Bakshi, with many from the Generation X going to watch the movie simply to revisit watching the TV serial on Doordarshan.

Thirdly, the developments in the Indian Special Effects and Animation industry. Many of the major blockbuster Hollywood movies have often outsourced their Special Effects work to India. Movies like “Life of Pi” had all their special effects jobs done right here in India. Therefore, we have the work force and skill to make a convincing special effect laden, high octane, action movie full of flying bullets, swinging heroes and exploding cars at a fraction of the cost than would have been just a decade ago.

Lastly, and perhaps the most important of them all, content. With the rise in the recent Indie publishing houses and the rich gallery of characters from the past, we now have adequate good quality content to adapt. It varies from a single, ridiculously themed supervillain (like the Sam Raimi Spiderman movie) to Planet threatening plots (Like “The Avengers”). The Indian counterparts would be the silver age comics like “Chumba Ka Chakravyuh”, to the more recent and much grander in scale “Nagayan”.

 In conclusion, my thesis remains this. Indian comics have been always been resolutely ignored by the Mainstream for a long time now. The reasons have varied from lack of original content to lack of investment. But now, the time is just right for a forceful inclusion into the Mainstream by the Indian Comics scene. We need to ride the superhero wave brought on by the bitter Marvel-DC rivalry in the theaters and remind people that India has some amazing characters capable of awe-inspiring feats as well. The Indian Comics community has sat out on the fence for too long and now its time to gain both love and respect from the Mainstream audience as a legitimate art form and medium of entertainment.

Science and Technology : An Indian Comic Perspective

Science and Technology have always been an integral part of comics, especially in the super hero genre. Starting from Radioactive spiders in the early days of Spiderman to genetically mutated ones in the recent years, Science has always been an important weapon in the arsenal of the writers to explain superhero (and super villain) origins, create new problems for the heroes to solve and even act as plot devices to solve some of the problems that would have otherwise baffled our beloved caped crusaders.

Science and technology, however, have had a slightly different manifestation in Indian comics than they have had in the comics in the western hemisphere of the planet. We will discuss them one by one. In the comics in the West, most importantly USA, Science has mostly been treated as a Deus-ex- machina-ish device. There has never been much thought put into the mechanism behind the science and most of the time it has been treated like the fantastical elements of science fiction. For example, as we had talked about this earlier, Peter Parker's powers are simply explained away by attributing them to him being bitten by a radioactive spider. There had never been any deeper discussion of the fact until much more recent years. In this context the Fox Network's TV show is noteworthy as it dealt with how being bitten by the spider affected Peter's physiology and even had a story arc where Spiderman turns into the Man-Spider, a mutated, out of control creature that is eventually defeated by Kraven the Hunter. The Sam Raimi movies also dealt with it and in the second movie of the trilogy, Peter loses his powers. This trend however is relatively new and throughout most of the Silver and Golden age comics, Science had been used merely as a plot device without much consideration to its practicality.

Another important feature of DC and Marvel Comics has been rampant use of scientific terms out of context when the mechanism of the science has to be addressed and an almost blasphemous disregard for actual laws of Science. Flash, for example, is allowed to run faster than the speed of light and Superman can turn back time by rotating the Earth in the opposite direction, amongst many others. However, we all can also agree that realistic science would not make for awe-inspiring story lines and this is dramatic license that all writers working in the realm of science fiction and fantasy retain. Indian comics, however, have had a very grounded and realistic approach towards science. Time Travel, Alternate Dimensions and the other more fantastical elements that have been staple to the comics in the DC and Marvel universes for a very long time, have been incorporated into Indian Comics very recently and they are still used sparingly and in tandem with the old style scientifically correct story telling.

The flagship Diamond Comics character, Chacha Chaudhary, whose stories are much more grounded in realism and day to day Indian life, has depended extensively on Science and even more often, common sense, to solve crimes. There have been many instances when Chacha Chaudhary has used his knowledge of Science to thwart criminals. In the much loved TV Show based on the character (aired by Sahara TV), an episode deals with a story where Chacha Chaudhary exposes a fraudulent hermit by calling out his “miracles” as basic science experiments. In the comics, instances of science playing a role in helping Chacha Ji solve crimes are innumerable. The important thing to note here is that the science used in these comics was pretty basic and more importantly, correct. There was no jargonism about Genetic Mutation, Cosmic Rays and Kryptonite, all the science used could be easily verified in grade school level science textbooks.

In the other important Indian Comic Publication, Raj Comics, Science has been indispensable to story telling, even in fantasy based titles like Bhokal and Kobi-Bhediya. There have been many instances, mostly in the comics of Parmanu, Super Commando Dhruv, Doga and Nagraj, of our heroes using Science to thwart the plans of the villains. Super  Commando Dhruv, a character with no real super powers depends almost exclusively upon science to defeat his enemies.

The principles used vary from Physics (Chumba, Dhwaniraj) to Chemistry (Alchemist in “Gupt”) to even Biology (Doctor Virus, Pasteurization in “Maine Maara Dhruv Ko”). There has been a thankful lack of magic cures, antidotes and other time saving plot devices. Even Nagraj, a character whose origins are embroiled in divinity and mysticism, gets a proper scientific explanation to his powers in “Snake Park”. The science has more often than not been correct here as well and the jargon-ism about Space Travels and what not had been absent until very recently.

The trend however, has been changing in the recent years. Stories dealing with Time Travel, Alternate Dimensions and Space Aliens have been increasing in number and frequency. I like to believe that one of the reasons is increasing exposure of young writers and readers to comics from the west where themes like these are extremely common with the dawn of the internet.

The question that begs to be answered now is why exactly has there been this stark difference between the two schools of comics. Anupam Sinha, the creator of Dhruv and one of the driving forces behind Raj Comics' popularity, has often said that he had been influenced by the early Batman comics while creating his characters and stories. Many of the characters as well in the Raj Comics roster have striking similarities to the more established characters in the west (Tiranga – Captain America, Inspector Steel – Robocop etc.). Then why has there been such a stark difference in the treatment of such an important part of the stories?

I believe the answer lies in the Indian academia, society and with the mindset of the readers as well as the writers. Most of the comic book writers in the west have had degrees (or atleast extensive experience imbibed by reading and writing comics) in creative writing, which places more emphasis on characterizations and plotting. That, combined with the post-modernist view towards humanizing villains and giving readers something to sympathize with them, leaves very little time for the writer to attend to the mechanics of how exactly is the science working to help the character in his or her journey. India, in contrast, does not have any such academic programs for creative writing and most of the writers have taught themselves the intricacies of plotting and writing stories. Considering the lack of formal education in writing, most writers drew their inspirations from what they knew.

This is where Indian society came into play too. Indian comics, even till today to some extent, remain a middle class hobby. The readers of Indian comics usually are children and teenagers from middle class families as the comic reading in the more well off families ventures into the territories of Graphic Novels and Imported titles. Indian Middle Class families have always placed almost religious amounts of emphasis on education and schools and this even reflects into the kind of literature the kids from these families read. The writers, in order to appease the parents of their target demographic included, consciously or sub-consciously, included elements into the plot that would not only entertain their readers but also appease the parents who were in fact paying for their kids' hobbies.

So, considering the kind of society India had till the 90s and the early 2000s, where education was paramount and the only way out of an unsure, meagre existence was to study and get a good, high paying job, the emphasis of Indian comics on Science makes sense. The science could not be fantastical due to the lack of the exposure of the readers and in some cases, the writers themselves, to that kind of story-telling and so they resorted to what they knew. It is also  noteworthy here that many prominent writers, like Anupam Sinha. have had their formal education in Science. So combining both the factors, it is very easy now to see, with the benefit of hindsight why Indian Comics always had their roots in hard, correct science instead of fantastical and ridiculous sounding words lifted off from books that the authors had not read themselves.

The change in the trend supports the thesis too. As comics move beyond just being a middle class hobby and begin to interest a much broader cross section of the society, the stories get more and more complex and varied to appeal to all the readers equally. Some of the older fans have responded to this with disappointment, but it is a necessary step if the comic industry needs to thrive in India. We could practically see this trend as a shift from modernism, where everything was dealt in absolutes, to post- modernism, where nothing is absolute. This shift had been achieved much earlier in comics in the West and its high time that Indian comics community adopt this practice too. The time for writing simple stories where all villains were evil without much motivation to it has passed us by and we need to recognize the need of the hour and increase our pace so that we can compete with the ever increasing competition from the west.

Even if it means sacrificing scientific accuracy to an extent in the favour of Time Travelling, Space Aliens attacking from an Alternate Dimension.

Change of Name

It has been brought to my attention that various blogs with "Desi" in their title exist already and it leads to confusion amongst the readers just discovering the blog. Moreover, the title itself was very ambiguous and did not tell the reader what the blog is actually about. Considering all this, I have decided to rename the blog to "Indian Comics' Criticisms" as it conveys the objective and purpose of the blog unambiguously. Sometimes, a clear meaning has more impact than a clever pun, I guess.

Morality in Indian Comics

Morality has always been an important theme in literature, and this trend has continued itself into comics and graphic novels significantly. Starting from the clear distinctions between  good and evil, many comics have also dealt with extremely delicate and nuanced issues like Power, Immortality, Desire etc. My favorite so far has been Alan Moore's works. "Watchmen" explores the ideas about how much power is a man justified in possessing (Dr. Manhattan is practically a God), how culling of human race is justified if it protects it from pushing its own self to extinction and so on and so forth. His graphic novel, "V for Vendetta", deals with Liberty, Freedom and Dictatorship along with ideas of terrorism and free will. As you can see, comics have clearly transcended their early roles as kid-friendly, trite fiction and have taken on the mantle of a genre with literary merit.

Indian Comics however, have been slow to jump on the bandwagon. Morality is one of the most under-utilized themes in India. In most comics, ranging across all the time-periods (the Golden, Silver and Contemporary ages) and publication houses, morality has remained practically black and white with the Villains clearly evil and the Heroes irreproachably good. This is in stark contrast with the American comics where even Superman, the poster boy for hope and virtue, isn't beyond reproach. Many story-lines have questioned how much power is justified in the hands of one person. The "Injustice : Gods Among Us" straight up paints him as a villain as he uses his near limit-less power to turn the Earth into more or less a police state by incarcerating or killing every villain. In the Marvel cross-over series, "Civil War" something similar happens as both warring factions, led by Iron Man and Captain America respectively, have justified motivations and arguments and there is no  objective good or bad side and the reader is free to choose a faction that appeals to him to support without feeling any guilt for supporting the bad guys. No such comics have ever been published in India though. Comic Firms have sometimes pit its heroes against one another but there has never been any real conflict between them and more often than not, it has been a weak excuse to increase sales of cross-over issues. For example, Dhruv has an extremely strict no-killing policy while Doga executes crminals by the dozen in every issue and yet the two of them have never really clashed upon their ideological and operational differences beyond a cursory verbal acknowledgement of the fact.

Another important thing that we should address here is the flexibility of morality in Indian Comics. Morality isn't absolute across any comic Universe in India, with different characters having different morals that is held absolute in the universe of that particular character. This might seem like a good thing at the first glance as it reinstates our faith in the fact that the characters have their own personalities but it is not so much when you consider that the moralities are absolute in their respective universe. This does away with any possible ambiguity that can be utilized to write compelling story-lines. For example, in titles like Doga, Aatank Harta Nagraj, Dynamite (Diamond Comics) etc., killing villains isn't much of a big deal and the readers support the actions of these heroes simply because it is loud and clear by the tone of these comics that this is the only way to go about it. However, in titles like Dhruv and many others (across publication houses), killing is seen as morally wrong and the readers again support incarceration and legal punishment as the way to deal with criminals without a doubt. As a result what we get is a character universe which may have some brilliant questions to raise about morality but the questions are stifled as the morality in that particular universe is assumed as an objective truth, beyond any challenge.

This trend needs to stop if comics have to gain acceptance as a form of literature with literary merit. Not questioning the morality of the actions of both the heroes as well as the villains (something I talked about in a previous post "Crime in Indian Comics") leads to flat story-lines and non-compelling characters. There has been an upward swing in the recent years but the progress has been far too slow. Writers like Abhishek Sagar ("Axe", "Alter Ego", "Genius" - Raj Comics) and Shamik Dasgupta ("Daksha" - Level 10) have incorporated characters into their stories which are grey and have justifiable and almost virtuous motivations but questionable actions which engages the reader without being pedantic or patronizing. The new generation of writers have shown promise in creating engaging story-lines with grey areas of morality but it is time that the trend takes an upwards swing or quick considering the Internet has introduced fans to work from all over the world and their tastes are swiftly becoming more demanding. With the meteoric rise of Marvel Studios, comics are experiencing a resurgence in popularity in the mainstream and this the perfect time for comics to make a mark for themselves in the mainstream. This can, however, happen only the quality of the comics in India can give competition to the more established titles, something I believe can happen. The Indian comic community has a lot of talent and potential, what it lacks is a tendency to take risks and monetary returns. I will deal with these problems in some later post. But for now, it is my highest recommendation that writers step out of the crib and create stories that not only entertain the reader but also force him to contemplate and maybe, even confuse him about what he/she knew to be true for a fact. 

Nature of Crimes in Indian Comics

Crime, due to the nature of the genre of Superhero comics, has always been one of the defining and most prominent themes of comics. Some of the most loved characters in comic books are villains and anti-heroes, a trend which is observable even in Indian comics to some extent (Doga, one of the most identifiable character in Indian Comics). Joker, the arch-enemy of Batman, is one of the most iconic and recognizable characters across all mediums and formats. The buck however does not stop there as there are a whole lot of other characters that are memorable and loved inspite of being the bad guys in a format of story-telling primarily aimed at catering to kids.

It is a clear trend in comics in the western hemisphere that the villains are usually grey characters instead of black. Joker's origin story included him being disfigured and rendered insane after falling into a vat of toxic chemicals the same day his wife died. Dr. Freeze's crimes are motivated by his quest to revive his wife and find a cure for her illness. Kingpin (Marvel Universe, Spiderman / Daredevil), inspite of being a crime lord has a soft spot for his wife Vanessa which makes the character a lot more human. The case however is not so ambiguous in Indian comics.

The villains in Indian comics are evil. End of discussion. There is no moral ambiguity, no shades of grey and no motivations beyond money and/or power. Attempts have been made a few times to give justifiable motivations to characters but they are not significant enough to be mentioned and certainly no such villain has come even close to being iconic. Most of the villains aren't even given a proper back-story. Majority of the villains have a life of one or two issues followed by their convenient vanishing or incarceration. Out of all the villains featured in Super Commando Dhruv comics, only Grandmaster Robo has appeared in more than 10 stand-alone issues. Nagraj's villains have a better rate of re-appearances but the motivations there are flimsier than the villains in Dhruv. Nagpasha simply wants the treasure, Nagina wants to rule Nagdweep etc. In the recent years, there have been attempts to retrofit the villains with sympathetic backstories but the efforts have usually fallen flat in the eyes of the general readership, with absolutely no increase in the liking or sympathy towards the character.

It is also noteworthy that the villains in Indian comics, like many of the heroes, have been influenced by the more iconic villains from the USA but their backstories have still been left out. Robo's backstory sounds suspiciously similar to Wilson Fisk's and he is the only character in Dhruv's comics who is even given an origin story. The other major villains like Chumba (Magneto), Bauna Vaman (Toyman) and Dhwani Raj (Banshee) have not even been graced with those. They are evil because they are, end of discussion.

One of the obvious reasons is the same old demographic argument. The comics were written for kids and therefore the villains had to be unambiguously bad for the kids to know who to root for. However, the argument is not so strong when you consider the amount of violence depicted in the comics. People have been literally torn apart, burnt alive, beheaded with wooden swords and much worse in these comics. So obviously the writers had more faith in the wisdom of the kids back then to differentiate between fictional and real violence than they do now.

The primary reason I believe is the lack of characterization. The comics, during their early days, were severely plot driven. Very little time was spent on minor, or even secondary characters as the writers had a lot of ground to cover in the usual 30 odd pages. It is clear in the Golden and Silver Age comics which had exposition, 2-3 fight scenes with minions and then an exciting and drawn out climax with the main villain. With such a packed story-board the writers could not squeeze in musing on the morality of the actions of the villains, it was much easier to allow the villain to simply be bad to save space. This trend has been changed to some extent in the contemporary age, with writers focusing on stories spanning multiple issues, giving them more space to deal with fleshing out of characters but as the influences of the new generation of writers has been the golden and silver age comics, the morally ambiguity is not as pronounced as it has been for many of the iconic characters in the west.

The independent comics scene however, has seen a rising trend in the recent years. For example, "Ravanayan", a graphic novel series published by Holy Cow Entertainment, treats Raavan, the quintessential Indian villain, as the protagonist and focuses on his motivations. There have been other titles too, which focuses on anti-heroes, characters whose actions lie in moral grey area but as they are the protagonists, we, the readers, end up rooting for them anyway. "Odayan" and "Aghori" are relevant to an extent (published by Level 10 comics and Holy Cow Entertainment respectively).

In conclusion, during the Golden and Silver age, the villains were bad without spelling out any reasons whatsoever, do which could have ended up in the reader possibly sympathizing with the villain. carried the risk of the villains being sympathized with. The reason was usually the plot-driven stories and the limited frame space available and to an extent self-righteous censorship by the writers and publishers. The trend however has seen some changes in the recent years, with a rise in negative characters, anti-heroes and morally ambiguous and even likable villains. These comics usually are aimed at teenagers and adults and in the comics aimed at kids, the villains still remain morally and inexplicably bad to this day. But in order for the comics to truly have memorable and iconic characters, a lot more needs to be done in order to make these characters appear humans instead of villains.

Nationalism in Indian Comics

Nationalism has always been one of the major themes of the comics published in India throughout all the different phases. One of the major reasons is that the target demographic of the comics was children, usually pre-teens, and so to simplify the motivations of the characters, nationalism became a handy tool. Nationalism could spare the children's impressionable minds of the intricacies of morality and tell them unambiguously who the good guy and bad guys were. Also, publishing houses in their early days, were self-righteous in a way, and believed it to be their moral responsibility to impart good values and morals to children. Of course, on later readings, usually as adults, this leads to a great many number of plot holes and flimsy characterization but it did qualify wonderfully as the simple story-telling that children are attracted to. This has changed however in recent years and we will return to these points in much greater detail later on and possibly in later posts as well.

Even though nationalism has remained a constant theme (Tiranga being a superhero with the Indian National Flag as his costume and general theme and Modus Operandi), the nuances themselves have changed quite often and significantly over the years. Again, I will be focusing my analysis on the characters from Raj Comics publication simply because they have dealt with the issue most extensively and have the most material for me to draw from. I will touch upon other publications too but the basic tone has remained more or less consistent across publishing houses during any given period of time and so I will not address them exhaustively.

During the golden age, when Nagraj had been a newly created character, he was an international crime-fighter who roamed the world fighting terrorism. This was changed later on in the timeline of the character when he settled down in the fictional city of "Mahanagar" (and later brought back in an alternate universe title called "Aatankharta Nagraj"). In these story-lines, Indian nationalism and Identity formed an important part of Nagraj's character. He was hailed within the comics not only as an accomplished crime fighter but also as some sort of a brand ambassador of the values traditionally India stood for. Spirituality was treated as an inherently Indian concept and the stories always had undertones of religion and spirituality with Nagraj chanting "Jai Baba Gorakhnath" (Hail Sage Gorakhnath) almost in every issue, usually before undertaking a fool hardy endeavor. There have been many instances in the comics where Nagraj passed off his virtues as being bequeaths to him by his Indian heritage. Therefore, we can safely conclude that the idea of Indian Nationalism and Identity have been around for a long time in Indian comics.

Next came the Silver age, where the face of Indian nationalism changed slightly. These were troubled times in the country and the Kargil war had fallen right in the middle of the Silver age leading to widespread mistrust and dislike for our neighbors in the North West. As a result we see that on many occasions, Pakistan as well as official Pakistani agencies were cast without any attempts of camouflage whatsoever as the antagonist, usually cruel, barbaric or in the case of comedic titles, inefficient (Fighter Toads' Nayi Dilli).

It was not till the arrival of the contemporary age of Indian comics that names were changed and the antagonists, instead of being countries, again became terrorists and rogue agencies etc. Some of the comics that showcased this more politically correct form of story writing were "Pakistan Zindabad" ("Long Live Pakistan") and the Chumba series featuring Super Commando Dhruv with the neighboring country named "Paastan". The comics went out of their way to insist that no country is inherently bad in itself but it were the bad people in those country that harm all humanity, which was a fitting moral to be given to children.

Many of the other titles had always been reluctant to overtly name names and usually stuck to setting controversial story-lines in fictionalized versions of actual countries after thinly veiling them. As a result, Nepal became "Mapal" in Super Commando Dhruv's "Ruho ka Shikanja" (Vice-grip of the Souls) among several others. It is noteworthy though that this veiling was done only for the SAARC nations. Countries, usually the powerful ones like China, Russia and USA were often featured by their true names with surprisingly generic names for the characters hailing from them. However, the earlier stories of Nagraj were a clear exception and the countries mentioned therein were not renamed for dramatic or clandestine purposes. Later though, in the second run of the character after his settling down as the protector of Mahanagar, the real names were slowly phased out and were not used until absolutely necessary. This wasn't so difficult anyway as Nagraj's storylines began dealing with the Supernatural a lot more often than international terrorism.

Diamond comics, which were aimed at younger audience still, did not engage in aggressive nationalism though. They kept their primary focus on national pride and used the comics as a medium to promote a sense of belonging to the nation instead of painting another nation as the antagonist. The villains in these stories were usually terrorists or independent agents acting without any affiliations to any countries whatsoever.

In conclusion, Indian Nationalism has always been a prominent theme in Indian comics. Starting from promoting Indian pride to sometimes being overtly critical of inimical forces, they have always striven to educate children, which were their primary audience back in the day, of the ideas of nationalism and patriotism and instill these values in them. The form of expression of these ideas have changed over the years but never have they ever gone critical of the idea of India itself. For most parts, India has remained absolutely above reproach and any short comings are a product of the vile elements present in the society. This idea, in recent years, has been extended to all the countries of the world (discounting the nuances of national interests and diplomacy) and led to a more humane world view of the people of the world as being simply good or bad, irrelevant of where they come from, which is, in my view, the perfect lesson to be taught to children.

Law Enforcement in Indian Comics

In many of the superhero comic titles around the world, one of the major conflicts is between the protagonist, generally a masked vigilante working outside the boundaries of law and the law itself. The protagonist generally deems the law as insufficient for making a difference (eg. Batman, Punisher, Daredevil) or sees it as his/her moral responsibility to try and help people (eg. Spiderman, Captain America) and thus operates without sanctions of the law to impart justice, more often than not by violence. The law however does not usually support this and as a result we see a constant conflict between law enforcement and the protagonist.

Indian Superheroes however, have had very little to no trouble at all with the law. In fact many of the Indian crime-fighters have been endorsed by the government (Super Commando Dhruv's Commando Force is recognized by the government as a crime fighting body). Only notable exception has been Doga whose early storylines included a constant stand off with the Law. Of late however, during the contemporary era, the police stand off stories have taken a backseat and Doga spends his time fighting crime almost exclusively. Let us take a moment to understand why is there such a stark difference in the treatment of an almost similar plot point in both these styles of writing.

In the comics from the developed world, superheroes and crime fighters are essentially alternate dispensers of justice. They usually operate outside law and as a result end up competing with the law enforcement agencies to enforce it. The highly efficient law enforcement agency of the developed countries with access to resources and skills to get the job done takes offense at this vigilantism and uses its resources to combat it. The characters that are supported by the police however, either come from the government in one or the other, or live and operate in a city which has a bleak environment. Superman is USA's poster boy and so the cops do not hate him whereas it took decades of hopelessness and despondency to get Gordon to support Batman. Spiderman operating in New York receives no such support from the police or the media in his efforts while Daredevil operating in the crime ridden Hell's Kitchen has favor with the cops.

So we can see a clear correlation between the hero's precinct of operation and the support, official or otherwise, that he receives from the law enforcement. Vigilantes working in safe, happy environments never receive any substantial help and often meet resistance from the law enforcement while characters operating in bleak, crime ridden settings often are supported by the officials.

This is what ties into the attitude of law enforcers in Indian Comics about vigilantism. During the Golden and Silver Ages of Indian comics, trust in the police was waning and the situation of law in India was bad in general. The police was viewed as corrupt and inefficient amongst the masses and was generally mistrusted. As a result they were effectively written off from the story lines. This reflects in Indian comics as the police's role being negligible. Parmanu's alter ego is that of a police officer but even then we see very few glimpses of the police working a case. Most of the crimes are handled by the super heroes while the police are merely concerned with detaining the criminals and keeping them in the prison (something they are hilarious ineffective at for obvious purposes). The police even when appearing in these comics were almost exclusively used as a comic relief and were often shown as cowardly and bumbling fools who could not get anything done to save their lives, literally.

You could argue that the police handles the lower level crimes but we see in many comics characters like Dhruv or even Nagraj dealing with pickpockets, muggers and general low life thugs, something which is way below their usual job profile of saving the universe every other thursday. Another argument that can be made in opposition is that the writers could not factor in police subplots into the 32 or 64 page comics which were the norm back then. This however can be denied as one of Doga primary antagonist back during its early years was Inspector Cheetah and we often saw Cheetah on Doga's tail (pun intended) in something almost resembling a subplot.

One major counter example however is that of Diamond Comics' Chacha Chaudhary. In Chacha Chaudhary comics, the police are shown neither as ineffective nor as irrelevant. They do however seek Chachaji's help on crimes they can't solve. It is also noteworthy that Chacha Chaudhary himself isn't as much of a crime fighter than he is a consulting detective. He is an old man incapable of running around, fighting criminals and so he outsources the justice dispensing to Sabu or almost as often the police. Therefore in Chacha Caoudhary comics, the police play a somewhat important role and have not been relegated to being nobodies.

In conclusion, in Indian comics, most characters do not face any trouble with the law enforcement. This is an effect of the general perception of the police being ineffective by the Indian population in real life which manifests itself into the storylines causing the police to take a backseat and their faults appearing as exaggerated versions of themselves, with the force usually being portrayed as irrelevant and almost useless in fighting crime. There has been a shift of late in the contemporary age where the police have been given some amount of recognition but the change is still too slow and too little to be of any significance.