- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A cartoon carried by Germany weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, which depicts India’s population overtaking that of China, has left many Indians aghast, so much so that they called it “racist”.
In the cartoon, it was shown an overcrowded not-so-modern train with people even sitting on top holding the Indian Tricolour, overtaking a modern Chinese bullet train running on a parallel track with two drivers inside. The train also bears the flag of China.
Besides common social media users, even politicians and leaders from India were appalled by the cartoon and slammed it.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s minister of state for information technology, said in a tweet, “Dear Cartoonist at @derspiegel…Notwithstanding your attempt at mocking India… it’s not smart to bet against India under PM @narendramodi ji….In a few years, India’s economy will be bigger than Germany’s.”
Dear Cartoonist at @derspiegel
Notwithstanding ur attmpt at mocking India, its not smart to bet against India under PM @narendramodi ji ??In a few years Indias economy will be bigger than germany's ??#NewIndia pic.twitter.com/Evzooqfc2J
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar ?? (@Rajeev_GoI) April 23, 2023
Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser to India’s ministry of information and broadcasting, wrote in a tweet that the illustration “caricaturing India in this manner has no resemblance to reality”.
“Hi Germany, this is outrageously racist. Der Spiegel caricaturing of India in this manner has no resemblance to reality. The purpose is to show India down and suck up to China,” he tweeted.
??#Germany this is outrageously racist. @derspiegel caricaturing India in this manner has no resemblance to reality. Purpose is to show #India down and suck up to #China.
This is as bad if not worse than the racist cartoon in @nytimes lampooning India’s successful Mars mission. pic.twitter.com/z9MxcPQC7u— Kanchan Gupta ?? (@KanchanGupta) April 23, 2023
Baijayant Jay Panda, national vice president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, tweeted, “In German, the name of the influential magazine Der Spiegel means The Mirror. But going by this derogatory, racist cartoon, it should change its name to Rassistischer Troll. & considering Germany’s difficult history involving racism & the holocaust, Germans everywhere should force this race-baiting publication to hold a mirror to its conscience.”
Sarvesh Kaushal, former chief secretary of the northern state of Punjab, called the illustration “obnoxious” and wondered why the “developed world” never misses “any opportunity to hit India below its belt, and demean its people”.
No politics, but an uncalled for obnoxious #cartoon against Indian national pride by #Der #Spiegel. Why is the developed world not missing any opportunity to hit India below its belt, and demean its people? They have a reason to worry: they are basking on old glory while dark… https://t.co/mujtBh2lzf
— SARVESH KAUSHAL (@sarveshkaushal) April 23, 2023
Last week, the United Nations said India went past China as the world’s most populous nation with a population of 1.4286 billion people. This is the first time that India topped the world body’s list of most populous nations since it started gathering data related to population in 1950.
