Kesava Shankara Pillai Biography 
Kesava Shankara Pillai, fondly known as Shankar is one among the most prominent cartoonists of India. He is considered the father of political cartooning in India. He has lovely portrayed many interesting cartoons of leading political leaders of India including Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and Viceroys of British India. He is the founder of Shankar’s Weekly Magazine, India’s first cartoon magazine, Children's Book Trust and Shankar's International Dolls Museum.
Shankar, known as Shankaran in childhood days was born in 1902, Kayamkulam Kerala. Due to conflicts with his grandfather, young Shankaran’s father left the home and his mother married again, leaving him under his grandfather’s feathers, who later played a significant role in polishing the drawing skills of his grandson. Sleeping posture of one of his teachers was his first cartoon which made head master angry. But his grandfather became proud seeing the talent of Shankaran. After schooling, he studied painting at Ravi Varma School of Painting at Mavelikara. He completed his graduation from University College of capital city, then known as Maharaja's College of Science. He joined a law college in Mumbai, but discontinued his studies in the middle.
Shankar's cartoons were published in the The Free Press Journal and Bombay Chronicle. He became the first staff cartoonist of an Indian newspaper and it happened in 1946. He became the staff cartoonist of The Hindusthan Times. He attended a training program in London for 14 months and has also visited Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Geneva and Paris. It polished his skills a lot. Once he returned, he decided to leave Hindustan Times and start a magazine of his own. It resulted in Shankar’s Magazine at the dawn of Indian independence and the function was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. On that particular occasion, Prime Minister made a world famous remark, "Don’t spare me, Shankar". Shankar used to criticize all the leaders using his funny cartoons and it included Prime Ministers like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and party leaders like Gulzari Lal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai and Krishna Menon. He closed down the magazine during the Emergency of 26 June 1975 and started Children's Book Trust and Shankar's International Dolls Museum later.
Very soon India’s first cartoon museum is to be inaugurated in the name of artist Shankar in his home town Kayamkulam, near Krishnapuram palace. It’s to be opened on Onam 2013, in the month of September.
Published: N/A
Updated: September 06, 2013
