2. R. K. Laxman and Bearing Witness 🔗

1/ Let's talk about a deceptively simple-seeming concept: to bear witness.

2/ To testify is an after-the-event act. To bear witness is a broader behavior that includes how you are present within an event

3/ You can act or intervene in an event, but the simplest way to bear witness is to simply not look away, and be seen to see.

4/ This is power. If you see somebody being harassed in the subway and look straight at the act instead of away, you bear witness.

5/ When you bear witness, you force the enacted narrative to reflect on itself, without saying a word.

6/ This is why the characteristic phrase of a bully feeling threatened by someone bearing witness is "what are YOU looking at?"

7/ The power of bearing witness is that you don't need to contest the narrative: the actor being witnessed does it himself.

8/ Through your silent, "I see you," you force the actor to acknowledge that they are knowingly enacting a false narrative.

9/ I rarely do eulogies, but this was what R. K. Laxman was: someone who bore witness through his work.

10/ His character, The Common Man, never spoke in the cartoons. He was simply present, looking on bemusedly.

11/ Laxman was not the greatest comic. His jokes were not always funny. But The Common Man was a masterful invention.

12/ The political rhetoric of post-Independence India was ALL about 'aam aadmi': The Common Man.

13/ From Nehru to Modi and Kejriwal, all have presumed to speak for the Common Man.

14/ Laxman did not challenge this presumption directly by giving the Common Man a critical or satirical voice.

15/ Instead, he simply mirrored the hypocrisies and bullshit of the political classes by having his character bear witness to it.

16/ This is what made Laxman the cartoonist of post-independence India.

17/ He was not always the most politically astute. To those who do not understand his milieu, he can appear somewhat tame.

18/ His cartoon commentary was not radical. It was even pedestrian at times. But the Common Man elevated every gag panel to sublime.

19/ Laxman knew this, as his writings show. He did not claim political genius or astuteness. He knew his power lay in bearing witness

20/ In a deep way, my own writing, while lacking the brevity of cartoons, is about bearing witness. I learned that from Laxman.

21/ You need no genius to bear witness, nor great insight. Just the willingness to stay present and not look away.

22/ You do not need to even understand or challenge what is going on. The witnessed will challenge themselves.

22/ RIP R. K. Laxman, 1921-2015. The First Witness of modern India. R. K. Laxman - Wikipedia