In this Morgenstierne seminar, anthropologist and historian Ritu Khanduri will address question of free speech, laughter, and political caricatures in contemporary India.

The Charlie Hebdo attack and Jyllands Posten’s publication of cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed spurred global attention and debates on free speech and modern liberal democratic rights. But how does the demand for free speech play out in everyday multicultural contexts and in modern democracies? Turning to India’s cartooning culture, its past and present, offers a unique vantage point for unraveling the contradictions within liberal demands for free speech and the right to laugh.

Dr. Rita Gairola Khanduri is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Arlington, and the author of Caricaturing culture in India: Cartoons and history in the modern world (Cambridge University Press, 2014).