The Lady and the Gentleman: Changing Gender Relations and Anxieties in Early Malayalam Cartoons

Kerala, towards the end of the nineteenth century, witnessed an awakening which left impressions on all the walks of the society. The advent of modernity, which was triggered by the British rule as well the state’s attempt to widen education and welfare measures, initiated reform movements among almost all the communities. The accessibility to modern education and resultant exposure to scientific, philosophic and humanistic values as well as ideas such as liberty, equality, secularism and individualism changed the perception of men and women towards the society and towards the self. This also resulted in the formation and spread of media and journalism, which in turn led to the rise of humour magazines and eventually, cartoons in Malayalam. However, the perception of these media and medium towards the other aspects of modernity was quite complex to say the least. The western educated woman and man, it can be found, have been featured in quite a number of cartoons across magazines. The article, therefore, focuses on the representations of changing gender relations in the Malayali society through cartoons published in humour magazines (Sanjayan, Vishwaroopam, Naradar and Sarasan) from late 1930s to 1960s. Starting with Sanjayan, these cartoons targeted the ‘modern’ women and men, albeit in different ways. Those on women lampooned their emancipation, education, access to the public sphere etc. and its perceived effect on the sociocultural setup, especially within and in relation to the institutions of marriage and family. On the other hand, men were ridiculed for their westernisation and emasculation.