Criticism pours in for cartoon deemed as racist.
By Dileep Thekkethil
A cartoon that appeared in The Australian, one of the most circulated newspapers in Australia owned by News Corp., has set off a controversy as it depicts a starving, turbaned Indian trying to devour solar panel pieces along with mango pickle as a side dish.
The veteran Australian cartoonist Bill Leak, who is known for his controversial cartoons, took the recently concluded climate summit in Paris as the theme for his Sunday’s cartoon, which has irked many Indians and climate experts.
India played a prominent role in the passage of the treaty in Paris.
The cartoon has triggered wave of protests on social media with people questioning the racist tinge in the creatives used by the cartoonist, which according to them is hammering the stereotyped perceptions regarding third world countries.
“India and other developing nations are too stupid to handle renewable energy and should stick to coal,” wrote Leak in his official twitter account along with the cartoon.
How on earth did this racist drivel make it into print? https://t.co/6H1unHqEXF pic.twitter.com/vavF3fxTsn
— David Fickling (@davidfickling) December 13, 2015
Amanda Wise, associate professor of sociology at Macquarie University, told Guardian Australia that the drawing would be unacceptable in the US or the UK.
“India is the technology centre of the world right now and has some of the most high-tech industries on the planet in that part of the world,” she said.
Wise added, “This is really old imagery he has drawn on. Thin, starving people wearing turbans, who are so starving they are going to chop up solar panels. That is 1950s symbolism. We have moved on. The rest of the world has moved on.”
Earlier during the year, Dharnai village in Bihar had become the first ever Indian village to be powered with solar electricity. Also, Cochin International Airport in Kerala had set a new global standard by becoming the world’s first solar-powered airport with the 12MW solar power plant in the airport premise lighting up the whole area.
This is pathetic.
What an embarrassment that a cartoon like this could appear in a national Australian… https://t.co/EAtkvJVSUU
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) December 14, 2015
Indians are the second largest group of immigrants in Australia. In the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of hate crimes meted out against Indians.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi had urged the developed countries to compensate for their undeniable chuck of historical carbon emissions and also said trying to evade from it would be “morally wrong”, in Paris.
India, on the other hand, said it is willing to reduce the use of coal to generate power and instead use renewable sources of energy to increase the countries power growth.
Leak’s cartoon, which tried to categorize India as a less knowledgeable, poverty ridden, has started receiving criticism from around the globe. Some have already set off to teach Leak a few core chapters of solar energy.
2 Comments
What an uninformed and uneducated cartoonist, he should not be calling himself as one.
According to wikipedia,
Australia gets 69% of its power from coal compared to 59% for India
Get your facts before you start dabbling.
Stupid cartoonist not worth his salt and totally oblivious to the rest of the world.