Gandhi and the Satyagraha of Newspaper Cartoons

Newspaper cartoons are significant because their inherent ambiguity withstands scrutiny as historical and anthropological texts. This article focuses on Gandhi's writings and analysis of newspaper cartoons published in the South African press. Addressing the Indian community in a period of growing resistance, Gandhi situated cartoons as a part of the necessary vocabulary for understanding the British mind. Serving a pedagogical role, through his translation and interpretation, Gandhi also urged his readers to see what the whites were already seeing. Engaging Gandhi as an interlocutor in the colonial visual milieus he inhabited shows the newspaper cartoons' intimate connections with colonialism and resistance.