Abu Abraham
Abu Abraham | |
---|---|
Born | Attupurathu Mathew Abraham 11 June 1924 British India |
Died | 1 December 2002 | (aged 78)
Area(s) | Cartoonist |
Pseudonym(s) | Abu |
Attupurathu Mathew Abraham (11 June 1924 – 1 December 2002), pen name Abu, was an Indian cartoonist, journalist, and author. In a career spanning 40 years, Abu Abraham worked for various national and international newspapers including The Bombay Chronicle, Shankar's Weekly, Blitz, Tribune, The Observer (1956–1966), The Guardian (1966–1969), and The Indian Express (1969–1981).
He was a lifelong
Early years
Born in
Work in London
In 1953, he met Fred Joss of the London Star, who encouraged him to move to London.[2] At 32, Abu arrived in London in the summer of 1953 and immediately sold cartoons to Punch magazine and the Daily Sketch and started to contribute material to Everybodys' London Opinion and Eastern World using the pen name 'Abraham'.[2] In 1956, after two cartoons were published in Tribune, he was sent a personal letter by David Astor, the editor of The Observer, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, offering him a permanent job as its first ever political cartoonist. Astor asked Abu to change his pen name as 'Abraham' would imply a false slant on his cartoons, and so he settled on 'Abu', a schoolboy nickname of his.[2]
He was described in The Guardian as "the conscience of the Left and the pea under the princess's mattress".[2] He also produced reportage drawings from around the world. In 1962 in Cuba he drew Che Guevara and spent three hours in a nightclub with Fidel Castro.[2]
Return to India
He returned to India with his first wife (Sarojini, from Tamil Nadu, who he later divorced) and two daughters, Ayisha and Janaki, in 1969 to work as the political cartoonist on the Indian Express until 1981. In 1970 he was given a special award by the British Film Institute for a short film based on Noah's Ark called No Arks.[2] From 1972 until 1978, he was nominated a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.[2]
In 1975
From 1981, Abu worked as a freelancer, syndicating his work to several newspapers and commencing a new strip cartoon, Salt and Pepper.[3] The crow and the elephant in this philosophical strip begin to take over from the political cartoons, according to his daughter Ayisha Abraham. In 1988 Abu moved back to Kerala.[2] He died on 1 December 2002 and was survived by his British-born wife Psyche. His death was marked by a two-minute silence in the Rajya Sabha and he was cremated with full state honours.[2]
References
- ^ "His strongest theme, as India sank faster into factional and religious politics, had remained adherence to the original vision of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru for a wholly secular state: Abu was a rationalist and atheist." Michael McNay, 'Obituary: Abu Abraham', The Guardian, 7 December 2002, Pg. 26.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Mark Bryant, Fleet Street's Star of India, History Today, 57(6) pp. 58–59 (June 2007)
- ^ Qureishi, Humra (2 November 2003). "Cartoonist who provokes you to think". The Sunday Tribune.
External links
- Abu Abraham bibliography at WorldCat
- No Arks, animation film written by Abu Abraham
- Abu Abraham's cartoons at the British Cartoon Archive[permanent dead link]
- Frontline Archives
- Report from Spectrum, The Tribune dated 2 November 2003.
- Rediff.com article
- Homage from Indian Institute of Cartoonists Archived 26 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine