From Ershad to Hasina’s regime through Huda’s cartoons

Every morning in Bangabhaban, the first thing Ershad (the former Bangladesh President Hussain Muhammad Ershad) used to do was take a look at Huda's cartoon in 'Dainik Janata' and laugh out loud. 
 
The said newspaper belonged to Ershad's Jatiya Party. Every day, Huda used to draw a single column, 2 to 3 inches long, for it.  
 
Ershad liked his cartoons, but did Huda like him?
 
"I used to work at Janata for professional purposes, but I didn't like Ershad. He was an autocrat. There is no reason for me to support the policies and philosophy of an autocrat. I am a pro-democracy person. I stand for democracy," said Asiful Huda. 
 
Ershad or his secretary would often call Janata's editor Sanaullha Nuri and voice their appreciation for Huda's cartoons. The editor would later pass on the compliments to the artist.

Once, the President expressed special appreciation for one of his cartoons. 

"Back then, there were frequent reports of gold smuggling at the airport, with smugglers swallowing gold to sneak it through. My cartoon showed an immigration officer eyeing a pregnant woman's belly suspiciously, and she responds, 'It's not gold; it's a child!'," Huda reminisced.

On another occasion, the President invited Huda for tea at Bangabhaban, but Huda declined the invitation.
 
How it all began 
 
After finishing his Master's degree, Huda was not doing much else. His elder brother told him to come to Dhaka for BCS examinations with caution as the city was expensive. 
 
But Huda had already made up his mind that he would become a cartoonist. 
 
At the time, Rafiqunnabi and Nazrul were well-known cartoonists. But political cartoons were not common; almost all of them were simple or based on social issues at best. 
 
In 1983, at a book fair, Huda met a senior batchmate, poet Mahbub Hasan, by chance. Hasan offered to help, after learning that Huda had been living on borrowed money. The duo went to 'Sachitra Swadesh', one of the most famous magazines of that time along with 'Bichitra.' 
 
The owner-editor Zaki Mosharraf said that Huda had to submit one cartoon each week, and would be paid Tk15 for that. It amounted to a total of Tk60 per month— not bad for that time.
 
Once he had a somewhat fixed earning, Huda began to spend more time on theatre, something he was also interested in from a young age. He was a member of the theatre group 'Natyachakra.'
 
Fighting mismanagement with cartoons
 
Huda was a resident of the Sergeant Zahurul Haque Hall in Dhaka University. 
 
The quality of food, especially the diluted daal (lentils) at this hall was notoriously bad. Not only that, the toilets were unclean, and the hall seats were allocated based on political affiliations. 
 
Huda's friends, aware of his drawing skills, asked him to make cartoons and protest against all these issues. 
 
He drew 7 to 8 different cartoons on a mount board addressing the various issues at the hall. One of the cartoons depicted a diver searching for lentils in a bowl of lentils.
 
He later hung the board in front of the hall's main gate. Throughout the day, students crowded around it to see the cartoons. 
 
The next day, the mount board was missing. The hall provost had seized it. He later called Huda in and said, "You could have complained to me directly instead of doing this and I would have taken necessary measures."
 
Huda didn't respond. Rather, after returning to his room, he thought about drawing several other cartoons addressing the mismanagement of the entire university.
 
He cut each mount board into six or eight sections and drew around 30 cartoons. He hung them at the entrance of the Fine Arts building. 
 
Through these incidents, Huda realised that cartoons were a powerful medium and had far-reaching impacts. It was then that he decided to become a cartoonist. The decision was also part of his political awareness. Huda was involved in leftist politics during his university days.
 
Best cartoon of the year
 
After three months at Swadesh without any pay, Huda grew concerned. He encountered Mahbub Hasan and asked, "Hasan Bhai, what's going on? I don't understand any of this."

Hasan explained, "There's someone with evil intentions who convinced the editor that, since you're gaining fame, you don't need to be paid."

Following this, Huda decided to stop creating cartoons for 'Sachitra Swadesh.'
 
Later, he started working at 'Khoborer Kagoj'. One of the cartoons he drew during this time was a three-framed strip cartoon. 
 
In the first frame, a student enters the university with a book, with the caption: "Come, let's study."
 
In the next frame, the same student is wandering around the university with a pen slung over his shoulder like a gun, with the caption: "Come, let's fight." 
 
In the last frame, his body is being taken away for post-mortem, with the caption: "Come, let's die."
 
The weekly 'Jai Jai Din' had selected this cartoon as the best cartoon of the year.
 
His work was sold at Tk1 per piece
 
However, Huda didn't work at Khoborer Kagoj for long. After that, he joined the daily 'Janata', where he worked for quite a while. 
 
When Ershad's downfall became apparent, he drew a cartoon showing him in a TV frame wearing a tie, but from the point where the frame ended, he was naked.
 
Someone took that cartoon, made photocopies of it, and sold them for Tk1 each.
 
"A cartoon must depict an event in a satirical or humorous way, with a message or thought at the end. Besides pocket cartoons, newspapers publish various types of cartoons such as strip cartoons, comic cartoons, editorial cartoons, and political cartoons," Huda said. 
 
However, as mentioned earlier, political cartoons were rare in the 1980s. Cartoonists mainly drew on social and economic issues. But many funny or strange incidents were reported in the newspapers and Huda looked for ideas from them.
 
A headless goat
 
Around 1994, Huda joined the 'Dainik Bangla', where he received a salary of Tk3,500. Before Sheikh Hasina came to power for the first time, she had declared that there would be no government newspapers.
 
Accordingly, Dainik Bangla and Bichitra were shut down in 1997.
 
In actuality, Hasina realised that even though these were government newspapers, they did not work in favour of the ruling party. Therefore, they were taken out of the picture.
 
A few days before the closure of the newspaper, the editor of Dainik Bangla, Ahmed Humayun, had a conversation with Huda. He told him, "You know, Huda, since the Pakistan era, the salary scale for cartoonists and editors has remained the same." 
 
Upon learning this, Huda was both surprised and disappointed. He could not understand why there was such a discrimination. 
 
However, this rule was abolished in the next wage board, and cartoonists were given the same grade as a senior assistant editor.
 
While working at 'Inqilab', Huda had a three-hour-long meeting with the editor regarding this matter. They wanted to hire him as a staff member. However, Huda refused to work under that scale. He agreed to draw cartoons but insisted on being paid on a contractual basis.
 
By 1998, he was simultaneously drawing cartoons for three newspapers—'Daily Dinkal', 'Inqilab', and the weekly 'Jai Jai Din.'
 
At that time, Sheikh Hasina's government was in power. Huda drew a cartoon for  Jai Jai Din showing a headless roasted goat being presented in front of Hasina, with the goat's tail drawn short. 
 
On the day the newspaper was published, he noticed that the cartoon was not there. He asked the editor Shafik Rehman who told him that the goat could be mistaken for a pig and that could land him in jail. 
 
Huda proceeded to ask him, "You could have just erased the tail on the computer." 

"No one can do that without the cartoonist's permission. No developed country allows for such a thing to happen," Rehman replied.
 
Impressed, Huda thought to himself, "Now that's what an editor should be like!"
 
Changing colours from black and white 
 
The editor of 'Dinkal,' Akhtarul Alam, used to encourage Huda to draw bold or hard-hitting cartoons. In this context, we asked Huda if he had ever faced any threats or intimidation.
 
He said, "I have never drawn something false. It was never my intention to deliberately harm anyone. I focused on real events."
 
Once, Akhtarul Alam asked him, "How many newspapers do you draw for?"
 
Huda replied, "Including Dinkal— three."
 
Akhtarul Alam said, "Your work was discussed in a meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs. Continue drawing for all of them. If anything happens, all three papers should root for you."
 
Huda never compromised his principles for any temptations. Many would say, "No problem if you don't draw anything controversial, just stay quiet." He would respond, "But this is my job. How can I stay quiet?"
 
He was the first to draw a coloured cartoon for Inqilab, and that too at the editor's insistence. According to the editor, it would look odd if the entire page were in colour but the cartoon was in black and white.
 
Huda argued that black-and-white cartoons could create a stronger impact, unlike coloured cartoons. But the editor's point also made sense, so he started drawing with colour.
 
A life dedicated to cartoons and cause
 
At that time, Huda was fully absorbed in drawing cartoons. He thought about cartoons all the time— while eating, going to market, or even showering. It became like an addiction. He received many letters from his fans reacting to his cartoons.
 
On the occasion of Eid, Jai Jai Din used to publish full-page cartoons. Once, Huda received a note with Tk1 saying, "Your cartoon was worth every penny."
 
After Dinkal, Huda joined 'Amar Desh', where he got more scopes to draw bold cartoons.
 
We finally asked Huda a question we'd been hesitant to bring up for a while. Fortunately, he responded without any discomfort.

The question was, "Why have you only worked for newspapers associated with the BNP?"

He answered, "I find the BNP to be more democratic. Under their governance, there was less restriction on freedom of speech."
 
Huda then spoke about the 1974 famine. Back then, he was living with his family in Bhairab. The haunting memories of starving crowds roaming the streets, going door to door, pleading for rice water, still linger with him today.

"The famine was more man-made than natural. With better management, many lives could have been saved. The Awami League government did nothing about their own party's hoarders and smugglers. They turned a blind eye to their own people. Since then, I could no longer support the Awami League," Huda said

 
Huda enjoyed his work at 'Amar Desh' and earned a good salary. However, in 2014, the Awami League government shut down the newspaper. Following this, incidents of enforced disappearances and killings increased, forcing Huda to stop drawing.

He went without income for a decade, relying on his savings and selling some land to get by.

His eldest daughter earned a scholarship to study in the US, where she works as a teaching assistant and sends him part of her earnings. His younger daughter studies Business at the University of Dhaka, and his wife remains by his side.

"We three somehow manage to get by. However, during this time, I made a 2D animation film, not for any media, but just for fun," he said.
 
When asked about his views on modern cartoons and cartoonists in the country, Huda shared that he feels today's works lean more towards caricatures than traditional cartoons.

"Caricatures focus on the face, while cartoons focus on events," he said. "We have more characters than cartoons these days. And I think Shishir Bhattacharya is the best caricaturist in the country. His drawings are great."
 
We asked Huda one final question—after a lifetime of drawing cartoons, how does he feel these days?
 
"I'm completely satisfied. Cartoons are a powerful form of expression. A single cartoon can convey more than a thousand words, appealing to both educated and uneducated audiences alike," he said.

He continued, "I've heard that my cartoons are displayed in village stalls. For years, I've focused on themes of society, politics, economics, and culture, always supporting the common people in hopes that policymakers might do the same. Only time will reveal if I've succeeded, but I am satisfied."

At 69 years old, Asiful Huda is still active. He has drawn around 6,000 cartoons in his lifetime so far.

"If I get the chance in future, I will draw again," he concluded.