Art of the Effigy

Abstract

The Gujarat wing of the BJP, the Ruling Party of India, created controversy on the 19th of February with the publication of a cartoon on its Twitter handle. This cartoon depicting the hanging of a group of Muslim men was read, by the Indian media, in the context of the Gujarat wing's alleged complicity in orchestrating riots that left more than 700 Muslims dead. This article argues that the cartoon was neither a joke nor an insensitive reminder nor provocation. Instead, the cartoon should be read as prophetic, but prophetic in the particular sense of the BJP’s political messaging. The cartoon is prophetic in that its visual distortions create a future which action can transfer from hyperbole to reality. This call to action creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that both the people and the state strive towards. This reading of the cartoon as prophetic reveals the accessory mechanisms of the visual media and the support given by the digital circulation of the cartoon on Twitter to the threat depicted.