Acclaimed political cartoonist Amal Chakraborty passed away here on Wednesday afternoon. He was 90.
A pioneer in prompting the tradition of using political cartoons in the different vernacular newspapers in Kolkata, his cartoons under the title of Amal Aloi (meaning, in the light of Amal) became extremely popular and till the recent past, he had been active in coming out with innovative cartoons on different contemporary developments, be they local, national and international.
His family members said that he completed 90 years just in September this year. Recently, he was also admitted at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital following a limb infection and died there only on Wednesday afternoon.
Associated with almost all the leading vernacular newspapers published from Kolkata since the beginning of his career as a political cartoonist, he was a student of nationally acclaimed cartoonist Shankar Pillai, who acted as Chakraborty’s main inspiration of taking up political cartoon as the principal medium of his career.
His contemporaries feel that the political cartoons by Chakraborty were equally popular among the rural and urban population of the state. His death brings the end of an ear in use of illustrations in the media, they feel.