Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minutePC Slower Than It Used to Be?
A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11No Laughing Matter: The Ambedkar Cartoons, 1932–1956 is a politically committed reading of historical cartoons featuring B. R. Ambedkar. Editor and selector Unnamati Syama Sundar argues that recurring forms of ridicule—sometimes making Ambedkar childish, diminished, feminized or opportunistic—can reveal caste privilege and, in some cases, misogyny. The book makes that case through a selected corpus; it is not a comprehensive history of Indian cartoonists or an exhaustive archive.
What the book contains
Published by Navayana, No Laughing Matter brings together cartoons of Ambedkar from 1932 to 1956. Hindustan Times reports that Sundar collected 122 cartoons from major newspapers. Scroll describes the selection as mostly English-language cartoons, arranged around Ambedkar’s emergence as a Dalit leader, his work on the Constitution’s Drafting Commission and his time as law minister.
The cartoons appear with historical context and commentary. That context matters: the images touch on disputes and decisions including Ambedkar’s opposition to Gandhi, the Hindu Code Bill, his resignation from cabinet and his decision to leave Hinduism for Buddhism. Reading a cartoon alongside the political issue it depicts makes it easier to distinguish its immediate joke from the assumptions or exclusions that may shape it.
The Indian Express lists the book at 408 pages. A 2025 review listing identifies a paperback edition, dated 20 May 2019, with ISBN 9788189059880. That bibliographic listing does not establish current price, stock or digital access.
Recommended Free Tools
#1 Best Overall
How Sundar reads the cartoons
Sundar’s argument, as described in reviews, is that patterns across the selected cartoons matter. Some images reduce Ambedkar to a small, childish or sexually degraded figure, or portray him as opportunistic or disloyal. Hindustan Times notes that certain cartoons give other leaders greater stature or dignity while diminishing Ambedkar. Sundar reads these recurring choices as signs of a visual culture shaped by caste privilege; Scroll’s review also points to misogyny in the imagery.
This is an interpretation of a particular collection, not proof that every cartoonist shared one motive or that every cartoon has the same meaning. The book’s useful question is not simply whether an image is funny or offensive, but what political circumstances it turns into a joke, whose authority it protects, and whose experience it diminishes.
Rank #2
Why the 2012 NCERT controversy matters
The project emerged amid renewed attention to a cartoon in an NCERT Class XI textbook. The image showed Jawaharlal Nehru with a whip and Ambedkar riding a snail, and became the focus of a dispute about offence, caste, pedagogy and freedom of expression.
Hindustan Times’ account presents the controversy as more than a choice between artistic freedom and censorship. It also raised the question of who gets to shape public discourse and whose historical experience is marginalized. That context helps explain why Sundar treats the cartoons as political objects as well as examples of caricature.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Rank #3
What the book does not claim to be
Scroll’s review says the book does not aim to fill the broader academic gap in the study of cartoonists or provide an exhaustive index of archival cartoons about Ambedkar. It gives relatively little attention to cartoonists’ identities, careers and differing positions. Sundar described the project as having a political imperative rather than a research agenda, while explicitly disclaiming an exhaustive archive.
That scope is important when weighing the argument: No Laughing Matter offers a committed reading of selected images, not a neutral institutional history of Indian cartooning. Its central contribution is to direct attention to how visual ridicule can carry caste and gendered assumptions, while leaving broader archival and biographical questions open.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- B-Flat Instruments
- Pages: 536
- Instrumentation: Bb Instruments
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
