‘The Boondocks,’ a leftist, angry-black-man comic drawn like anime, reeeeeeaches for a punchline. This is more puerile than its usual fare and conflates Hinduism with Islam, though it’s more a comment on the grandfather character’s bumbling.
Mohandas Gandhi’s hunger strikes have long been the object of derision in cultures without ascetic tradition. Churchill dismissing Gandhi as ‘nauseating’ and a ‘half-naked fakir’ wasn’t just the poisoned fruit of an embittered colonialist, it was also gut-level cultural revulsion which transcends political orientation. When Jon Stewart makes fun of ululating Arabs on the Daily Show, or show alumnus Stephen Colbert cracks a Gandhi starvation joke, they’re expressing culture clash. Personally, I draw the line at the Shi’as’ bloody self-flagellation during the Ashura festival and the self-mortifying skin hooks for the Thaipusam festival shown in the ‘Mundeyan To Bach Ke’ video (thanks, jeet).
But dissidents like Mandela have long gone on hunger strike, and many African countries are much poorer than India. The American shorthand for starvation used to be Ethiopian famine — why now Gandhi?
I blame Richard Attenborough. There’s nothing you can teach an American about what’s outside our borders that we can’t make fun of 
In 2003, Maxim beat up an icon.
Related posts: Fatty fatwa, New evidence uncovered about Gandhi’s assassination, Promo’s pizza leaves bad taste in actor’s mouth, Gandhi didn’t wear Armani
Update: Ennis points out that pork chops are Southern food, like yams and greens. But pork is still laden with cultural connotations with which I’m sure Aaron McGruder is familiar, and he uses it for comic effect.
That video was shot in Kuala Lumpur, where the largely Tamil Indian population celebrates Thaipusam
That’s a complicated Boondocks, because Huey–whom I feel is the closest to the voice of the comic–is clearly mortified by the conversation, even if it’s just in his Grandad’s head. I might interpret it as a McRuder dig at the very rampant starvation-Gandhi-dismissal you’re pointing out, in the more serious context of various oppressed and activist groups fixating on the external of the Gandhian package such that they miss out on his larger message and tactics, and the possibilities therein. Why is it that so few struggles around the world since Independance/Partition so thoroughly and charismatically take on Gandhi’s nonviolent-arrest-me tactics? There’s probably a very large multiplicity of reasons why, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them might be that the essence of his work is obscured by the exotic trappings. McRuder/Huey usually rail at people–particularly their people–who get sidetracked and distracted from issues of substance by issues of style.
Ok, I wasn’t too offended by the Boondocks comic. I mean it still showed the contrast between the Grandpa and the kid. But I think the “Maxim’s Kick-Ass” workout went too far. If Maxim is looking for a “kick-ass workout,” they should try this guy. They’ll either get clobbered or have the best cardio-workout in their life (by running away from him)
Ekshully, Gandhi’s tactics were impeccably British in origin. The Suffragettes, campaigning for the vote for women, pioneered the hunger strike as a means of protest. Gandhi took imported ideas and gave them Indian dress.
It might just be that some ideas are either universal or evolve in parallel. While I agree that some of his ideas are British, or even American, I’m not sure that Hunger strikes are though–refusing to eat was a fairly common tactic for personal protest in a family or slightly larger context in the subcontinent long before. . .
“Ekshully, Gandhi’s tactics were impeccably British in origin. The Suffragettes, campaigning for the vote for women, pioneered the hunger strike as a means of protest. Gandhi took imported ideas and gave them Indian dress.”
Huh, Madame suffregette movement hunger strike started ~1909, with due respect. Gandhi was leading disobedience, forming new ideas and concepts in around 1893-96. If you read Gandhi’s autobiography, his fasting/ hunger strike concept had self-purification connotations that were clearly inspired by his mother and other experiences from childhood. Very deeply rooted in Vaishanava culture.
If you want to say, he was inspired by Ruskin, Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Emerson, that is very right and noteworthy. Let us not be a revisionists.
You may agree or disagree in his role towards mankind’s progress, let us not have our own set of facts.
Saheli: very interesting set of thoughts here…
“Very deeply rooted in Vaishanava culture.”
I must add Jain influences in Gujarat too in his shaping of satyagraha philosophy.
If you/ anyone want to add his deep friendship and influences from Tolstoy and CF Andrews, or being part of the Vegetarian Society at UCL (University College London) as part of liberal western thought shaping him- I would say you are well-read otherwise…………
For some reason I am not mortified at all.
“angry-black-man” comics can rave and rant all they like till the cows come home, but they have bigger debts to Gandhi than they know, especially in the US.
Their ranting is a little like a kid throwing a stone at a shrine, if his toy breaks. and ranting:
“I dont like you. You want me to be fair, The world is not fair. I am going to smash everything. Ill start with you”
That would be a good parallel to this cartoon. Why?
Well for that, one has to know the intricacies of the civil rights movement and sources of its inspriation, without which these cartoonists would still be doing something else rather than drawing cartoons. Clearly they mised their own history classes. Oh wait, did they attend any?
This ignorance is plain pathetic, nothing to waste rants on.
Sumita
Gandhi did admire suffragette movement
Excerpts from African National Congress Web site on Gandhi (http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/people/gandhi/1.html)
……..
Gandhiji was inspired by the heroism of the people even as they were inspired by his example.(13)
The courage and sacrifice of women, who responded to his invitation to join the satyagraha in its final phase, was particularly striking. He had closely followed the suffragette movement in Britain and admired the tenacity of the women. He was perhaps also inspired by the sacrifices of Boer women during the Anglo-Boer War.(14)
Yet his call to the Indian women was bold and their response magnificent.
…………
Oh no! The Civil Rights movement leaders may have been inspired by Gandhi (not only Dr. King but others whose vision went beyond civil rights such as the legendary Howard Thurman) but they owe nothing to him. For Gandhi non-violence is not a substitute for violence, it is a way to uplift both the oppressor and the oppressed. By expecting someone – anyone – to feel obliged to Gandhi or his principles we are ignoring the ideas that he lived and died for.
Maxim’s cartoons do not anger me; in fact it is amusing. Gandhi and his colleagues stood up to far worse.
As much as the civil rights movement may owe to Gandhian ideas, we Indian Americans also certainly owe our own freedoms to the black civil rights movement. So perhaps Indian culture has been repaid any debts owed.
The boondocks cartoon doesn’t clearly seem offensive to me, even though it is pretty random, as cartoons go. There’s almost something sweet about the senile old man having familiar squabbles with Gandhi in his dreams. (Although the Islam-Hinduism conflation is unfortunate, I agree.)
The Maxim thing, on the other hand, makes me ill.
Sumita’s not really trying to say that black civil rights activists somehow owed their entire inspiration to India, and weren’t, say, continuing the work of their predecessors in women’s rights and labor rights in America? I hardly think one can accuse McGruder of not attending history classes. Why lionize one person so much more than the many others who have stood up for oppressed people in many countries in the last century or two? Why can’t we celebrate the fact that people speak out against injustice all over the world, rather than turning this into the Mr. ‘Everything Comes from India’ character from Goodness Gracious Me?
There’s an interesting discussion over on Pickled Politics on the complete and utter lack of South Asian and Muslim presence in anti-racism and anti-war rallies, by the way. One may rabbit on and on about how great Gandhi was, but the point is, what are you doing NOW?
In reading your examples of the self-mortification, the ululation I was reminded of another example where a culture was ambushed in print and made out to be much less than what it stands for, what it is – read on…
oh – woe!
Arm chair activist
First of all why would you choose to hide behind anonymity whle fighting for the oppressed? That is always a laudable effort.
Two, am not sure whether you are mortified by the cartoon or not. I was responding to the emotion expressed in it, saying, if a cartoonist wants to beat up Gandhi to feel powerful, more power to him.
Thirdly, I was entirely ignorant about Gandhi’s true role until an american educated me about it recently by highlighting the role of certain African American leaders who actually influenced King to follow the non-violent path. They hadworked with Gandhi in South Africa, and saw the effectiveness of these methods, and like good Americans, (who are quick to learn and adapt ideas, their most admirable quality in my view) not only picked this method, but also influenced the key players in the civil rights movement. People who were in the civil rights movement know this intricate history. I certainly didnt.
It was illuminating and surprising. At no point do I feel that “Everthing comes from india”
However, am guessing many issues on this board do…Would you disagree?
Sumita
Sumita and others,
You probably know this. The list of African Americans even before King who were touched by Gandhi were…Marcus Garvey, WEB Du Bois, Howard Thurman, John Holmes, and others. Howard Thurman was spiritual teacher for King and others.
Here is a quote from Du Bois
By 1932 Du Bois had declared that “there is today in the world but one living maker of miracles, and that is Mahatma Gandhi. He stops eating, and three hundred million Indians, together with the British Empire, hold their breath until they can talk together; yet all that America sees in Gandhi is a joke, but the real joke is America.” You might want to read this.
Sumita, Are you talking about CORE and SNCC activits versed in Gandhian tactics?
PS: I have no problem with the cartoon. As Shiva pointed out, Gandhi suffered more. He had sense of humor, so I have read.
Kush
I have posted this before. One of the people I am talking abou was this
http://www.rustin.org/about.html
Read the excerpt. I didnt know there were people who had worked with Gandhi in the civil rights movement at its forefront
Sumita
I’m fairly certain that Gandhi wasn’t the first person to go hungry deliberately. He might have been the first person who, when he stopped eating, didn’t just get sent to his room but actually brought his country to a standstill.
My sister followed in his footsteps and tried this tactic back in 1979; it didn’t have much of a political impact beyond our household, and it was mainly because she really just didn’t like eating very much, though revisionist historians may attribute nobler motives to her, such as furthering animal rights or more sustainable methods of agriculture.
I was there, though–I saw it with my own eyes. She really just didn’t feel like eating.
And I’m not even slightly offended by the Boondocks cartoon.
the Grandpa, on The Boondocks, is notorious for saying some of the more insensitive/racist/hateful things. it’s his character. The part being overlooked is that usually the kids call him out, or at least express some sort of disagreement to his ignorance…
I wasn’t offended, only because such is expected from the character. I don’t expect Joey Tribiani to be a Rhodes Scholar either.
i made the mistake of reading the comment thread before checking out the actual comic strip in its entirety, not just the one pane that got posted here.
this conversation was sent off on the wrong track by only posting that pane. readers of “boondocks” will have seen it in context. the grandfather is having a dream in which he encounters gandhi. multiple topics including not just hunger strikes, but also peaceful resistance and british oppression are alluded to. throughout, the grandfather is being boorish and crass, while huey, who is listening to the grandfather speaking in his sleep, gets increasingly embarassed. note also that huey tells his granddad to leave gandhi alone.
pretty hard to lump that with the maxim cartoon.
pretty hard to use that as a starting point for some absurd claim that african-american artists, or black people in general, ought to know their history but don’t.
sumita, for you to turn the fact that YOU didn’t know the influence of gandhi on black liberation activists into the claim that BLACK PEOPLE don’t know their history and are ignorant is a remarkable logical achievement. congratulations.
peace
Although, I am no expert by any stretch of imagination in this subject, how would you explain the derision of Rosa Parks in the movie Barber Shop ??
Still today, Gujarat has very heavy Jain influence on the entire culture.
Siddharth
Ahhh!! what gentle sarcasm, even bordering on friendly!!
You didnt get the point of what I said.(not even remotely) But in that I must, accept complete inability to communicate.
Sumita
Although I must admit (while laughing) that the maxim cartoon got my attention much more than the grandpa one did.
But I see your point
Sumita
Xeno would be proud.
Maxim has done similar things with people or Gods like Jesus, so this isnt the first time they have done things like this. Every political figure gets made fun of in some form or another and no one is above it, last time I checked Gandhi was just a man right? Who cares about little things like this? As long as the magazine doesnt have a caption like “All white people should beat the hell out of skinny indian bitc hes” then who cares?
Dhaavak
Darn!! You checked my Ellis island records!!!
and I thought I was incognito!!
Sumita
Fair use vs. copyright infringement. There are two links to the full comic at the beginning.
and
and
As acknowledged up front: itÂ’s more a comment on the grandfather characterÂ’s bumbling. It’s still a childish punchline. This is clearly played for exotic humor, not politics. Huey does not dissect or exclaim about the wrongness of it as he does for issues more central to McGruder (I’m a long-time Boondocks reader). “Sigh” is not a rebuttal. Huey gets verbose and preachy when he’s making a point.
Same category of American humor, Gandhi as a weakling.
Flip the roles: Maxim stomps on Abraham Lincoln…
He was a man and he became a symbol.
Gandhi vs ghengiz khan on celeb deathmatch (mtv prod) Go to http://streams.gandhiserve.org/mgmw.html on the bottom left side are the links they take forever to start
There was a Weird Al Yankovic movie, UHF that had a “trailer” for “Gandhi II” in which Gandhi was no longer the pacifistic type…
Boondocks has always long on hype and short on insight and laffs, just like their creator.
Why do the Daily Show and Colbert get a free pass on the grounds of “culture clash” (i.e. ignorance)? I think the Daily Show is more worth critiquing than one of the few leftwing Black media enterprises that exist on the basis of the size of the audience, the influence that hte show has, the political position it occupies, and the relative offensiveness of the comments, etc. Smacks of a doublestandard to me–informed by what, I’ll leave it to you to explain.
A little more lattitude from the culture police would also be helpful. Racism is only okay when it’s sophisticated? Dave Chappelle had some f@#ked up $hit on his show too, but, overall, it was engaging and critical, even when it was being “puerile.” Where else would you find out the lyrics to Good Times and see slaveowners get shot?
If you really want to go after someone, take a look at the way Family Guy portrays women.