MIGRATION WITHIN FRAMES: REPRESENTATION OF GULF MIGRATION IN THE CARTOONS OF KERALAM

Abstract

The present study assumes that cartoons, as a visual product of culture, wraps social reality in humour. The cartoonists from Keralam have actively and consistently represented the socio-cultural evolution of the state. The transformation of agrarian economy into a Gulf remittance economy can be visualized in the cartoon series in the decades of 1970s and 1980s. Migration refers to the flow or movement of people to a new country for several reasons, the major ones being the settlement based on better employment opportunities and standard of living. Migration has been a crucial factor in the social and economic framework of Keralam in the twentieth century. This phenomenon was especially and almost exclusively known as the Gulf Migration, whereby a majority of the migrants from Kerala were in the countries in the Middle East – popularly referred to in Malayalam as ‘the Gulf’. Gulf migration is a favoured topic of novels and movies at that time in Keralam, but the representation of the same can also be found in the cartoons as well. This study focuses on the representation of Gulf boom in the cartoons of Keralam roughly spanning from 1950 to 2000. The intention of the paper is to look backwards into the history of Keralam to interrogate the representation of migration in select cartoons in Malayalam (published between 1950 and 2000) presenting how Keralam become the ‘Kerala Model’ and beyond.