Comic stripped
Is the controversy over the Ambedkar cartoon in the NCERT textbook a sign of a deeper intellectual and cultural malaise? The plot line is eerily familiar. One set of politicians raises, in this case falsely, the apprehension that a cartoon is offensive. There is a high-pitched debate. Members of an offended community accuse others of insensitivity and impunity. Others respond by variously denying that the image in question is offensive, or more generally that even if it is at the margins, it should be protected.