Maya Kamath Cartoon Exhibition in Bengaluru Puts Women’s Rights at the Center
A selection of cartoons on gender justice and women’s rights is on display at the Indian Cartoon Gallery in Bengaluru in an exhibition dedicated to Indian political cartoonist Maya Kamath.
The exhibition features 110 works selected from Indian entries to the 2026 International Maya Kamath Memorial Cartoon Contest. It opened at the beginning of August and will remain on view through August 22.
Organized by the Indian Institute of Cartoonists, the exhibition coincides with the institute’s 25th anniversary.
This year’s Maya Kamath competition was held to mark the 75th anniversary of the cartoonist’s birth, with “Gender Justice / Women’s Rights” as its theme.
The international competition concluded earlier this year. Valentin Georgiev of Bulgaria won first prize, while Indonesia’s Dendy Heru Hardono took second place. Third prizes went to Bahram Arjmandnia of Iran and Indian cartoonist Subhas Babu.
An earlier exhibition at the Indian Cartoon Gallery presented 150 cartoons selected from international entries to the competition. The current show turns the focus to works submitted by cartoonists from India.
Born in 1951, Maya Kamath was a painter and illustrator before establishing herself as a political cartoonist. Her work appeared in Indian newspapers including the Deccan Herald, Indian Express, Asian Age and Times of India.
Women were still a rarity in Indian political cartooning during Kamath’s career. Her cartoons covered subjects ranging from everyday life to national and international politics, and many dealt directly with the position of women in society.
Kamath died in 2001. Her family later entrusted her body of work to SPARROW — the Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women — which preserves an archive of thousands of her cartoons. SPARROW has described her work as witty, thought-provoking and sensitive to questions of gender.
Censorship also became part of the discussion surrounding this year’s memorial contest. At the prize ceremony in Bengaluru in June, Kamath’s daughter, Deepa Kamath, spoke about self-censorship and her mother’s awareness that an editor ultimately decided what would be published.
A panel discussion following the ceremony examined censorship and the challenges faced by political cartoonists.
The Maya Kamath exhibition at the Indian Cartoon Gallery in Bengaluru remains open through August 22.
Sources
Indian Institute of Cartoonists — Exhibition updates
https://x.com/CartoonistsInd
The New Indian Express — No vaccine for the virus that is satire: Political cartoonist Sandeep Adhwaryu
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2026/Jun/14/no-vaccine-for-the-virus-is-satire-political-cartoonist-sandeep-adhwaryu
SPARROW — Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women
https://www.sparrowonline.org/
