Why Chandrayaan-3’s success has put focus on New York Times’ ‘racist’ 2014 cartoon

Indians have been in a celebratory spirit since the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully landed on the lunar surface on Wednesday (23 August) evening. India is now the first country to soft land on the south pole of the Moon and only the fourth to safely land on the lunar surface. As the country hails Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) feat, some users on X, formerly Twitter, have dug up an old New York Times (NYT) cartoon that was deemed ridiculing India after the success of another space mission. What was the cartoon about? Why is it again in the spotlight? How has NYT covered the momentous success of India’s third Moon mission ? Let’s take a closer look. ‘India’s Budget Mission to Mars’ In 2014, the NYT newspaper published a cartoon showing a man, wearing a shirt, dhoti and a turban, standing with a cow and knocking on the door of a room marked ‘Elite Space Club’ where two bespectacled men donning Western clothes were reading a newspaper on India’s Mars Mission. The cartoon accompanied an article titled ‘India’s Budget Mission to Mars’. The cartoon, which was made by Singapore-based artist Heng Kim Song, had generated widespread condemnation, with some calling it “racist” and accusing it of mocking India. On 24 September 2014, India became the first nation to successfully put the Mangalyaan robotic probe into orbit around Mars on its first attempt. With this, ISRO joined the elite club of NASA, the European Space Agency and the erstwhile Soviet Union for carrying out successful missions to the Red Planet.

Its time for a new cartoon i guess @nytimes #Chandrayaan3 #ProudIndian pic.twitter.com/HSbwGdJMrZ

— Rahul Dixit (@Er_Rahul_Dixit) August 23, 2023

The total cost of India’s Mars mission was about Rs 4.5 billion ($74 million), making it one of the cheapest interplanetary space missions ever, noted BBC. NYT’s apology As per a BBC report in October 2014, Andrew Rosenthal, the then editorial page editor of NYT, took to Facebook to apologise for the offensive cartoon, saying a “large number of readers” had complained about it. He wrote in the post that the “intent” of the cartoonist was to “highlight how space exploration is no longer the exclusive domain of rich, Western countries”. “Heng, who is based in Singapore, uses images and text – often in a provocative way – to make observations about international affairs. We apologise to readers who were offended by the choice of images in this cartoon.” According to Rosenthal, Heng “was in no way trying to impugn India, its government or its citizens”. ALSO READ: Chandrayaan-3: What will happen after 14 days? Will lander, rover return to Earth? The cartoon saga continues When India scripted history by launching 104 satellites on a single mission in 2017, Indian media got its moment to respond to the NYT cartoon. A cartoon published by Times of India (TOI) at the time altered the NYT’s version. The TOI cartoon showed the Indian man and his cow inside the ‘Elite Space Club’ room reading a newspaper on India’s historic feat, while the two men in Western clothes can be seen knocking on the door, eager to be let in with their rockets. Now, as India has taken a giant leap to the Moon, the NYT cartoon is back in focus. Taking a dig at the American newspaper for its nine-year-old cartoon, an Indian user on X wrote, “Its time for a new cartoon i guess @nytimes”. Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Y Sathish Reddy also shared NYT’s cartoon. “You chuckled, questioning our capabilities. Today, we silence you with our triumph! Now, go ahead & sketch a fresh cartoon,” he tweeted.

Recalling @nytimes for their Racial Taunt. You chuckled, questioning our capabilities. Today, we silence you with our triumph!

Now, go ahead & sketch a fresh cartoon.#IndiaOnTheMoon #Chandrayaan3Landing #ISRO 🫡 pic.twitter.com/K1nd7W2yd6

— YSR (@ysathishreddy) August 23, 2023

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“Time to look back at this racist cartoon by the New York Times,” a user commented. Another user tweeted to “never forget” TOI’s cartoon reply to NYT “when it mocked India’s space programme”.

Never forget @TOIIndiaNews cartoon reply to @nytimes when it mocked India’s space program pic.twitter.com/L5M64L9BIc

— Nav 🇺🇸🇮🇳/acc (@Navdeepak_) August 23, 2023

How has NYT covered Chandrayaan-3’s success? NYT in its story titled “‘India is on the Moon’: Lander’s success moves nation to next space chapter” mentioned that the Indian public “takes great pride in the accomplishments” of the country’s space programme. It says the “achievement of Chandrayaan-3 may be even sweeter, as it comes at a particularly important moment in the South Asian giant’s diplomatic push as an ambitious power on the rise”. “In space exploration, as in many other fields, the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been clear: The world will be a fairer place if India takes on a leadership role, even as the world’s most populous nation works to meet its people’s basic needs,” the NYT article reads. With inputs from agencies