Sudhir Dar

Sudhir Dar (14 May 1932 – 26 November 2019) was an Indian cartoonist and illustrator. Starting with The Statesman in 1961, he went on to work as the political cartoonist with Hindustan Times from 1967 for over two decades. Subsequently, he joined The Pioneer and in 2000 started working as a freelancer.[1]

Sudhir Dar
Born(1932-05-14)14 May 1932
Allahabad, British India
Died26 November 2019(2019-11-26) (aged 87)
Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
NationalityIndian
OccupationCartoonist, illustrator
Years active1961–2019
Spouse(s)Rummy Dar
Children2
Parent(s)Krishna Prasad Dar and Daya Shuri

Early life

Sudhir Dar, who was of Kashmiri descent, was born in 1932 in Allahabad to Krishna Prasad Dar. He earned a master's degree in geography from the University of Allahabad.[2][3]

Career

Dar started his career with All India Radio, working as an announcer in the 1950s. A sketch he drew of the news editor of The Statesman during a talk radio show led to an offer to work at the paper.[4] So, with no formal training,[5] he joined The Statesman under editor Evan Charlton in 1961 and continued until 1967 doing front-page pocket cartoons without captions titled Out of My Mind.[4]

In 1967, Dar joined the largest-selling newspaper in North India, The Hindustan Times, where he was the political staff cartoonist for over two decades.[6] Dar's pocket cartoon This is It appeared regularly on the front page. According to Maurice Horn in The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons, Dar's time at the Hindustan Times was marked by acts of resistance against attempts to curtail his freedom, until he resigned in anger in 1989.[2][4]

For a few years, Dar worked at The Independent in Bombay. Later, he also worked for The Pioneer from 1991 to 1998, and Delhi Times (a supplement of The Times of India).[4] Dar retired in 2000, but continued working as a freelancer.[4][3] His cartoons had also appeared in other publications like The New York Times, Saturday Review, Washington Post and Mad.[3][7][8][9]

After retirement, he worked as an illustrator on assignments for the World Bank, Microsoft and various government departments including the Ministries of Tourism, External Affairs, and Jammu and Kashmir.[4][6] He illustrated his father Krishna Prasad Dar's Kashmiri Cooking. He also illustrated physicist Jayant Narlikar's Journey Through the Universe.[3]

His originals are reportedly in possession of the Queen of England, Richard Attenborough, Yehudi Menuhin and many other leading politicians and celebrities.[3]

He lived in Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi.[10] He died on 26 November 2019 in Noida following cardiac arrest.[7][11]

Reception

According to the Indo-Asian News Service, although Sudhir Dar worked as a political cartoonist, he largely refrained from satirising specific politicians and events, instead taking digs at more general subjects such as corruption and bureaucracy.[3]

According to cartoonist Rajinder Puri, "Dar was never by inclination a political cartoonist. He is not a political animal. His attitude to politics is somewhat akin to what I imagine would have been the attitude of Bertie Wooster. Dar's forte was humour. Pure humour of the zany kind."[6]

Bibliography

As author and illustrator
  • Out of My Mind. The Statesman, 1966.
  • This Is It!. Vikas Pub. House, 1976.
  • Out of My Mind Again!. Vikas Pub. House, 1977.
  • The Best of This Is It!. Rupa & Co., 1988.
  • The Best of Sudhir Dar. Penguin Books, 2000. ISBN 0141002468.
  • Sudhir Dar Classics. Penguin Books, 2004. ISBN 0143031112.
  • The Mad, Mad World of Elections. Penguin Books, 2004. ISBN 0143032038.
  • The Mad, Mad World of Cricket. Penguin Books, 2007. ISBN 0143101846.

As illustrator
gollark: I… see.
gollark: It is a shame nobody's come up with a particularly good model for funding IP development which doesn't either make it artificially scarce or basically rely on goodwill.
gollark: Presumably, poor incentives to actually improve performance? Maybe their corporate structure is such that nobody can really work on crosscutting stuff like that and everyone does individual features.
gollark: Solution; swap places somehow.
gollark: And Macron can be compiled on 100% of computers.

References
  1. Cartoonist Sudhir Dar (1932 - 2019) video while drawing. 22 July 1995 – via YouTube.
  2. Horn, Maurice (1999). The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons. Chelsea House. p. 218. ISBN 0791051854.
  3. "Renowned cartoonist Sudhir Dar, best known for portraying bureaucratic corruption, passes away at 87". Firstpost. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  4. "Meet Mr. Sudhir Dar". BhashaIndia. Archived from the original on 23 November 2010.
  5. "A humorous innings (Interview)". The Times of India. 19 August 2001.
  6. Puri, Rajinder (12 March 2001). "Drawing Out His Best". Outlook.
  7. "Cartoonist Sudhir Dar dies at 87". Scroll.in. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  8. Gilford, Doug. "Mad #147 December 1971". Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site.
  9. Shyam, Netra (6 June 2004). "Stock Talk". The Hindu Literary Review.
  10. "Mr Hooda, give Gurgaon its due". The Times of India. 30 June 2011.
  11. "Cartoonist Sudhir Dar passes away at 87". The Indian Express. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
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