A new cartoon by German newspaper Der Spiegel about India overtaking China as the world’s most populous country has sparked outrage among Indians who have called the artwork “racist.”
The cartoon shows a scene of an Indian Railways train that is packed with passengers, with some hanging from the sides and top of the train, passing by a modern Chinese train running on a parallel track.
Trains in India are often very crowded due to the large number of people who rely on them for affordable transportation across the country, however, the depiction of this in the cartoon has caused many Indian Twitter users to lash out at the German publication.
‘Racist’ India cartoon
“#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,” Kanchan Gupta, Senior Adviser, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India in New Delhi said.
“Cartoon by German Magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ is in bad taste. The Western World prefers to depict India as poor and struggling. They won’t show India’s Vande Bharat or upcoming bullet trains. Cannot wait for the next few years when India will overtake Germany as the 4th biggest GDP,” Vijayasai Reddy V, a member of the parliament for India’s Rajya Sabha said.
While many Indians (including journalists) have lashed out against the artwork, some Indian Twitter users said the artwork brought a “chuckle” out of them.
India in line to surpass China as world’s most populous country
The United Nations (UN) released data indicating that India’s population is expected to exceed that of China and become the world’s most populous country by mid-2023.
The report from the United Nations Population Fund shows that India’s population has surpassed 1.428 billion, which is slightly higher than China’s population of 1.425 billion.
According to the UN data, this means that India will have approximately three million more people than China.
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