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.

Hello World!

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to DeSi Comics (DeSi - DC, geddit?), a blog dedicated to analyzing and critiquing Indian Comics and giving them the academic attention that has been denied to them for way too long.

India has had a vibrant community for comics for over 25 years now but it has never been recognized by the mainstream as a form of literature. It has been viewed, and often dismissed, as intended for kids. In the recent years, due to the advent of internet and increasing popularity of superheroes in Hollywood, there has been some upward swing but the Indian comics community still remains restricted to a small number of extremely dedicated fans.

This blog is dedicated to analyzing the themes, motifs and symbolisms that are common place in Indian comics and their implied meanings. However, a lot of this blog will deal with characters from the Raj Comics universe as it has the biggest roster of characters hands down and the characters have had long enough runs in print for their personalities and ideologies to have surfaced unambiguously. Other characters like Diamond's Dynamite and Agniputra will be dealt with later on but they have not enjoyed anywhere near as much popularity as Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruv. Moreover, the number of issues printed for these characters is no where near the RC bibliography and so clearly less can be said about them.

Now, as it is with every form of literature, we need to divide the comics' history into some rough time frames to recognize the themes. I choose to divide the Indian Comics Industry intro 3 stages, The Silver Age (1985-1991), The Golden Age (1992-2002) and The Contemporary (2002-). These ages are separated not just by their styles of arts but also the stories that are featured in these comics and the themes and motifs explored therein. I, as a reader and critic, am a bit partial to the character Super Commando Dhruv so I would be drawing upon examples more often from his comics however for other themes I will draw upon from other characters as well, especially for ideas about morality and law and justice from Doga and nationalism from Tiranga.

We will also try to contextualize some other secondary ideas and situations that often creep up in these comics. Some of the things said therein would not be the most politically correct things to say in the present day and age but we need to understand the climate of the country, both culturally and politically to understand the significance of these dialogues. For example, Pakistan featured as an antagonist in many of the comics of the 90s and the early 2000s and had character portrayals that may be deemed offensive in today's socio-political climate. We will be talking about these phenomena at length as well.

Lastly, I would like to invite the readers to engage in civil, informative discussions over the ideas presented over the course of this blog, which is after all, the main aim of this blog in the first place, to promote and cultivate the academic attention the comic culture in India deserves. All of this said and done, let's begin! Hope you have fun!