Abstract

Political cartoons play a significant role in the image construction of nations on the basis of foreign policies and relationships. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to examine the treatment of English newspapers of Pakistan and India to portray the Indo-Pak relationship in their political cartoons. This paper also analyzes the signs and symbols used to construct images during conflicts. Political cartoons of Dawn, Express Tribune from Pakistan and Times of India and The Hindu from India published June 2014 to July 2017 are selected. The methods of quantitative content analysis and semiotics are applied under the umbrella of framing theory. It concludes that political cartoons follow national interests in both countries with reference to rivalry between India and Pakistan and constructed the image as “we are the best” and “they are the worst”. It also highlights that terrorism is the most depicted issue by the cartoonists of both sides.

Key Words

Pakistan-India Rivalry, Image Representation, Political Cartoons, Foreign Relations,          Newspapers

Introduction

Media messages play an important role in framing the image of countries. Every country is apprehensive about its representation in the world because foreign relationships of a country depend highly on its image in front of the world (Aryal, 2016). The ability to improve or smudge the image of any country makes media an important medium to study the dynamics of international relations (Turabi, 2009). From print to social media, every form of media construct images of politicians, stakeholders, and countries. Political cartoons are also one of the significant media of image building especially in the context of foreign relationships. Political cartoons not only express the opinion of the newspaper in a humorous way but also present foreign policy of the country in a witty and satirical manner (Lawate, 2012). 

South Asia is an important region of the world as it embraces 20% of world's total population. Pakistan and India are the two most important countries in South Asia and historical rivals of each other. The relationship between these two countries influences the whole South Asian region. (Vidyasekera, n.d.).The conflicting relationship between India and Pakistan started with the partition of the subcontinent in August 1947 that resulted in the largest mass migration in the history of the world. About 3.5 million people migrated from Pakistan towards India, and almost 5 million people moved towards Pakistan from India on religion basis. During that mass migration, many people had lost their lives which reflects the roots of bitter relationship between Pakistan and India. This bitter relationship was further strengthened by a British lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe who unfairly divided the worldly goods of the subcontinent between Pakistan and India (Bates, 2011). In addition to that Hindu ruler of Kashmir decided to become a part of India instead of Pakistan. He ignored the fact that Kashmir was a Muslim-majority region. This decision of Adinath Chandan Currynath led both nations towards the first war which happened in 1948. Due to this war, 37% of Kashmir came under the control of Pakistan while 63% of Kashmir remained in India. After that, both countries fought four wars in 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999 respectively. All these wars added stress and tension between both countries. Especially the role of India in the partition of Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971 makes this relationship even worse (Paracha, 2016).

From 1947 to 2017, many rulers ruled Pakistan and India. All the governments have a different approach towards the Indo-Pak relations but the conflicting issues among the countries are increasing day by day. Currently, both countries have a system of democratic governments. In Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif remained as Prime Minister from 2013 to July 2017 while Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India since 2014. During the regime of Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi, both countries blamed each other for intervention in their respective territories. Pakistan blamed India for intervention in Baluchistan while India accused Pakistan of interfering in Kashmir and some other parts of India. 

The numerous cases like violation of ceasefire across line of control, Pakistan army and citizen’s deaths in ceasefire violation, end of negotiation between both countries, ban on Pakistani actors in India, Kulbhushan Jadhav case, Om Puri insult in India for favoring Pakistan and Indian claim of surgical strikes have been deteriorating the relationship (Abbas, 2016). All these factors emphasize the bitterness in the relationship between Pakistan and India especially during the recent Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi regime from 2014 to 2017. Therefore this paper analyzes the relationship between Pakistan and India from the perspective of political cartoons. Political cartoons are considered as the tool that highlights the conflicting issues in a humorous manner and can be used as tool of propaganda to increase the tension or lessen the bitterness. Therefore it is important to examine the recent political cartoons on Pakistan-India affairs in the English newspaper of both countries and their role in peace promotion as well as image framing of politicians and other stakeholders.

Thus, Dawn and Express Tribune from Pakistan while The Hindu and Times of India are selected from India as the sample of the study. The political cartoons of these four newspapers are selected due to their popularity in their respective countries as well as on international print media. The availability of the online archives of political cartoons is another main reason for the selection of Indian newspapers.

Hence this research probes into the following research question.

1. How did political cartoons in the selected Indian and Pakistani English Newspapers depict the Pak-Indo relationship with reference to PM Nawaz Sharif-PM Narendra Modi regime (2014-2017) by using different themes/ metaphors/sign and symbols?

Literature Review

International relations, foreign policies and image representations of different countries have been one of the significant dimensions of research in political cartooning across the world. 

There are several studies in the international literature that are conducted in the area of the depiction of foreign relations and international issues in political cartoons. Most of the studies in the depiction of foreign relations through political cartooning added that political cartoons were mostly reinforcing the concept of we versus others in terms of ‘we are good’ and ‘they are bad (Yüksel, 2007). Similarly, Diamond (2002) observed the political cartoons published on 9/11 incident in the Arab and Muslims newspapers. It was concluded that Muslims and Arab newspapers highlighted alternative views on this issue by using diverse themes and motifs to depict complex relationship between Pakistan and war on terror. 

In addition to image representation of foreign policies and the country's relationships, there are several studies in the academic literature that are concerned with the image representation of political leaders in political cartoons. For instance, Tahseem and Bokhari (2015) analyzed the political cartoons of The Nation and The News to examine their role in the image saving and image spoiling of the political leaders of Pakistan. By using Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006)’s Visual Social Semiotic, it was concluded that The News is pro-government and defaming sitting Prime Minister Imran Khan while The Nation is anti-government and publishing cartoons against former Nawaz Sharif. 

The studies on framing of political leaders are not only limited to the subcontinent, there are numerous studies which depicted the image formation of American Presidents in their political cartoons especially George W. Bush and his policies towards Iraq war and Osama Bin Laden were predominantly represented in cartoons (Luce, 2005; Calogera, 2008, Mazid, 2008) also analyzed the image formation of George W. Bush during war-related issues. Furthermore, Bal, Pitt, Berthon, and DesAutels (2009) also conducted a study on a controversial cartoon on South African President Jacob Zuma. It was added that controversial cartoons always leave a bad impact on the good image of political leaders in public. Eko (2007) also examines the image construction of African political leaders in three satirical newspapers of Africa. The research was based on Foucault’s concept of governmentality. According to Eko, the depiction of political leaders in such newspapers was dehumanized and deterritorialized. Unlike the negative image formation, political cartoons also use for branding and publicity (Bigi et.al, 2011; Walker, 2003). 

Moreover, most of the studies in political cartooning also focused on presidential campaigns. It has been observed that five leadership themes including character, competence, viability, independence, and charisma were mostly depicted in the political cartoons for image building of presidential candidates. It has also been found in such studies that during campaign cartoonists highlight candidates’ political activities while during their presidential tenure the cartoonists focus on policy matters (Conner, 2005; Edwards, 2001, Palmer, 2011).

In addition to all this, there are several other types of research that have been conducted to present the importance, significant, effects and influence of political cartooning in political, social and historical context across the world but this research is different from above all researches as it not individually concerned with political cartoons, foreign relations or image representation.. This research focuses and comprehends the foreign relationships of Pakistan and India through cartoons with reference to enduring rivalry of Pakistan and India which has never been a focus of any research in the genre of political cartooning. This research aims to understand how political cartoons frame leaders and stakeholders of both countries on recent conflict issues that happened from 2014 to 2017.

Theoretical Framework

This research is conducted under the umbrella of ‘framing theory’. According to Tuchman (1978) news is a window that bounds our perception of reality by focusing on a certain aspect of it and hiding the other aspects of the story. He also defined the frame as ideologies of an organization that directs its actions and particular context. These concepts of Tuchman also define the framing theory as in this theory it is thought that media selects and give importance to some aspects of reality to define a problem and to suggest its solution. Framing theory argues that media socially construct social phenomena through the use of different sources. In framing, a concept is formulated either to support or oppose something (Entman, 1993). Basically framing is a process, by which an issue is emphasized in the news. Media uses frames and offer limitations around a specific news story. Media regulates issues and tells its audience about the worthiness of an issue. Therefore, framing refers to the method by which media and its gatekeepers manage the content and present the issue they cover. Entman (2007) also confirmed this, in his article that media is biased and frames the issues according to their own ideology and make an influence on the distribution of power. Therefore, all Pakistani and Indian selected political cartoons are analyzed to find the frame that builds the image of both countries, their relationship, and foreign policies. 

Research Design & Methodology

This research is based on both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Therefore content analysis and semiotic analysis methods are applied in this research. In the study, to identify the frequency, themes, and type of framing in the political cartoons of Pakistan and India quantitative content analysis method is employed. The sample size for content analysis is the political cartoons that are published on Dawn, Express Tribune, The Hindu and Times of India during Nawaz Sharif’s and Narendra Modi’s regime from June 1, 2014, to July 28, 2017. The sample of the study is drawn on the basis of purposive sampling as the researcher has only selected those political cartoons which are related to recent Pakistan and India conflicting issues in order to access the online archives of Indian political cartoons.

Exclusive categories are designed for the content analysis method to analyze the aspect of framing in political cartoons of India and Pakistan. A number of the following categories are formulated for the quantitative content analysis:

A. Kashmir Issues:  This category comprises all the cartoons related to Kashmir including Indian occupied Kashmir and Azad Kashmir.

B. Terrorism: This term is operationalized in this study as cartoons on terrorism based activities published in Pakistani and Indian newspapers during 2014-2017.

C. Peace Talks: This category is operationalized as the cartoons that frame both countries and are related to the peace talks.

D. Internal Matters: The cartoons on internal political or social issues of Pakistan and India are coded in this category.

E. International Issues: The cartoons that represented the international relations of both countries, fall in this category.

F. Line of Control: It is operationalized as the depiction of the Line of Control in political cartoons of both countries.

G. Water Conflicts: This term is operationalized as the portrayal of water conflict between Pakistan and India in political cartoons of the selected newspapers.

H. Others: This category is operationalized as the cartoons that are based on other issues such as entertainment and sports etc. published in Pakistani and Indian newspapers during 2014-2017.

In this study, to analyze the sign and symbols for creating desired meanings of political cartoons, the coder coded the data into the coding sheet. The coding sheet for semiotic analysis was extracted from the doctoral thesis titled as “the representation of the United States in mainstream English newspapers of Pakistan: An analysis of political cartoons” (Ashfaq, 2014). The sample of the semiotic analysis was selected through purposive sampling, includes political cartoons of Express Tribune, Dawn, The Hindu and Times of India that framed Pakistan as well as India on conflicting issues at the same time. A total of 159 cartoons with reference to Indo-Pak relations were selected for semiotic analysis after the content analysis.

Findings and Discussion

This section divided into three sections as it includes the findings of quantitative content analysis and semiotic analysis.

 

Findings of Quantitative Content Analysis

Analysis of the sample drawn indicates that total of 545 cartoons was published by Express Tribune, Dawn, The Hindu and Times of India. Out of total cartoons, 50 % cartoons were published by Times of India, 24 % were printed in the Dawn newspaper, and the Express Tribune published 16 % of the cartoons while The Hindu published only 10 % of total cartoons on India Pakistan relations. The complete detail of percentage analysis of the political cartoons that published in The Hindu, Times of India, Express Tribune and Dawn newspapers from June 2014 to July 2017 is shown in the table below:

 

Table 1. Political Cartoons Related to Pakistan-India Issues

S.No	Newspapers	Framing	Frequency	Percentage
1	The Hindu	Pakistan	19	36%
		India	26	49%
		Both	8	15%
2	Times of India	Pakistan	153	57%
		India	63	23%
		Both	55	20%
3	Dawn	Pakistan	22	17%
		India	35	26%
		Both	75	57%
4	Express Tribune	Pakistan	35	39%
		India	33	37%
		Both	21	24%

Table 1 (on the previous page) indicates that the Times of India framed Pakistan more than The Hindu as 57 % of their cartoons are related to Pakistan. The Dawn newspaper framed both Pakistan and India equally as their 57 % cartoons portrayed India as well as Pakistan at the same time. The Hindu gave more importance to the framing of India while the Express Tribune gave almost equal coverage to Pakistan and the Indian point of view on conflicting issues.

It was found that both the Indian newspapers and Pakistan Dawn newspaper paid attention to frame Indian politicians more than Pakistani political leaders on conflicting disputes in their cartoons while the Express Tribune framed Pakistani political leaders more than the Indian leaders as the complete percentage analysis of framing of political leaders by all the newspapers are shown in the following table 2:

Table 2. Political Cartoons Related To Political Leaders of Pakistan-India

S. No	Newspapers	Framing	Frequency	Percentage
1	The Hindu	Pakistan political leaders	16	38%
		Indian political leaders	26	62%
2	Times of India	Pakistan political leaders	101	46%
		Indian political leaders	118	54%
3	Dawn	Pakistan political leaders	43	49%
		Indian political leaders	45	51%
4	Express Triune	Pakistan political leaders	28	52%
		Indian political leaders	26	48%

It was also highlighted that instead of framing individuals, newspapers of both countries also depicted the issue or a country as a whole. From the issue point of view, the Dawn newspaper represented India more than Pakistan in its political cartoons. Unlike the Dawn, the Times of India focused Pakistan more than India while the remaining two newspapers gave equal coverage to both countries on conflicting issues in their political cartoons. It was also observed that the major concerns of all the newspapers in their political cartoons were on the different Indo-Pak issues that are depicted in figure 1. 

 Figure 1 also highlights that out of all the conflicting issues, the major focus in political cartoons was terrorism incidents as 22 % of cartoons portrayed terrorism incidents through the use of different signs and symbols. 19 % cartoons focused on the peace dialogues, 16 % emphasized on Kashmir issue and 14 % depicted about international issues that exist between Pakistan and India. The internal issues and line of control matters got equal importance as both of the issues comprised10% each of the total cartoons. 

Figure 1

Most Highlighted Conflicting Issue



Findings of Semiotic Analysis

The second methodology for his research is semiotic analysis. 159 cartoons that framed both Pakistan and India were analyzed on the basis Barthes’ model of Semiotics at connotation and denotation levels. The captions, signs, and symbols used in political cartoons of Express Tribune, Dawn, The Hindu and Times of India were analyzed to understand the connotative meaning of political cartoons. Five themes emerged from the semiotic analysis of the selected political cartoon in Pakistani and Indian newspapers during the selected time period. The discussion with the most prototypical examples is given below: 




The Negative Role of Pakistan 

Political cartoons in Indian newspapers mostly used themes to depict the extremely negative role of Pakistan in conflicting issues. 26 cartoons of the Times of India, 2 cartoons of The Hindu and 1 cartoon of the Dawn depicted the negative picture of Pakistan in terrorism incidents, peace talks, cross-border firing, and water conflict. These cartoons represented Pakistan as a supporter of terrorists, internally unstable, getting negative support from other countries and under full control of the Pakistan army.  Some prototypical examples are the following: 

Figure A 1



Figure A 2



The dominant role of the army in Pakistan was predominantly depicted in most of the Indian cartoons. As on December 11, 2015, the Times of India published a cartoon in which an elephant, wearing the uniform of Pakistan army and bears a motif of NSA is sitting in a rolling chair and also placed its hands on the table. The elephant is looking at Narendra Modi with furious facial expressions while Narendra Modi is looking at the elephant with shocking expressions. Nawaz Sharif in a short height standing on the table, holding a leaf and saying to Narendra Modi that “elephant in the room….leads our delegation” (Figure A. 1). The small size and short height of Nawaz Sharif refer to the powerlessness and helplessness of Pakistani government while the giant elephant denotes the power over him. The caption summarizes the themes as Nawaz Sharif is informing Indian PM Narendra Modi that all the powers and authorities are in the hands of the army so talk with them the resolve all the matters. 

Not only Indian newspaper but also Pakistani newspapers used the same theme and depicted the Pakistani army more powerful and all in all in the foreign affairs. For instance, The Dawn depicted the same confusion of Narendra Modi on June 29, 2016 in a cartoon (Figure A 2), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, holding a page that has the caption of “talks”. Two cloud balloons are designed over the head of Narendra Modi, in the right cloud balloon, the face of Nawaz Sharif is shown while on the left side the back of a person who is wearing army uniform is depicted Narendra Modi is depicted in a state as he is confused that whether he has to talk with Nawaz Sharif or the army of Pakistan. 

Figure A. 3.

Negative role of Pakistan (November 28, 2014)



Moreover, political leaders of Pakistan were also criticized in political cartoons. On November 28, 2014, the Times of India published a cartoon in which the negative input of Pakistan during peace meetings was depicted (Figure A.3). Both the leaders of Pakistan and India are shaking hands and looking towards the cameras but Nawaz Sharif is hiding a knife behind his back. Whereas two persons are looking at the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India and one person is saying “In these photo-ops it’s not what the cameras see but what they don’t see that matters”.  The two persons who are watching Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi refer to media persons. The expressions of Narendra Modi while shaking hands with Nawaz Sharif is assuring that he is willing to maintain Pak-India relationship friendly but on the other hand Nawaz Sharif is expressing that he is also willing to talk peacefully while he is hiding a knife behind his back which is pointing towards bad intentions of Nawaz Sharif. 




Negative Role of India

Like Indian political cartoons, Pakistani leading English newspapers also published political cartoons that depicted India in a negative role especially for terrorism, water conflict, extremism, and cross-border firing. Some of the examples are the following:

Figure B.1

Negative role of India (November 2, 2014)



For instance, in a cartoon of the Express Tribune, India was depicted as the main culprit behind the defilement of the ceasefire on November 2, 2014 (Figure B.1). Two persons are standing across the table that has the caption of “Foreign office” while there is an office chair, Pakistani flag and curtains are placed in the background which refers to the Pakistan Foreign Office. One person with Pakistan flag motif cap is standing, holding papers and aggressively speaking to a man who is wearing a cap that has Indian motif. On the other hand, the second man is holding a dustbin with a caption ‘use me’ and looking at the first man with a smile. The caption “Pakistan summons Indian high commissioner to protest another border transgression” is written on right top of the corner. The cap with Pakistan flag indicates the Pakistan foreign officer while the Indian flag motif cap denotes to Indian foreign officer in Pakistan. Papers and captions show that Pakistan is giving proofs of violation of ceasefire to Indian officers. The dustbin with a caption ‘use me’ in Indian officer hand refers that India is not taking this matter seriously and putting all the efforts of Pakistan into the trash bin. The facial expression of Pakistan officer shows that Pakistan is serious about this issue and also wants to confront India on ceasefire violation whereas Indian officer looks happy and carefree because this issue seems unimportant for India.




India is Stronger, Wiser & Right

Another image of India was constructed as a state which made a right and wise decision while dealing with Indo-Pak relations by the political cartoons of both countries. One of the representative examples is the following:

Figure C.1

India Is Strong, Right and Wise (October 11, 2016)



A cartoon in the Times of India published on October 11, 2016, depicted that Narendra Modi as strong and saving his country from the evil acts of Pakistan with full determination and strength (Figure C 1). In this cartoon, Narendra Modi is standing in front of a map with crossed arms and looking at Nawaz Sharif with very angry gestures. On the other side, Nawaz Sharif is also holding a gun and its muzzle is turning towards him. Behind Nawaz Sharif, two persons are standing who are also carrying bullets holders. One of them is holding a gun while the other one is praying, both of them looking worried while Nawaz Sharif is saying “ It worked fine all these years, I don’t know why it’s now backfiring us”. The map refers to the Indian map. The strings attached to the map are showing that Pakistan is trying to create the conflict in those areas of India. The dressing of persons who are standing behind Nawaz Sharif donates terrorists. The guns in hands of Nawaz Sharif and terrorists indicate that both of them are attacking India jointly. The standing position and gesture of Narendra Modi depict him as a strong and brave; he is not letting the enemies attack India. While the caption, gestures of Nawaz Sharif, Taliban, and the turned muzzle of Nawaz Sharif gun refer that Pakistan has tried to attack India and supporting the terrorists as well but they are not successful in their attempt because of Narendra Modi.




People of Both Countries Love Peace

All the four newspapers portrayed the peaceful and loving people from both sides in their cartoons who love peace and have nothing to do with enmities and rivalries. One of the most exemplary cartoon is the following:

Figure D.1

Both are Positive (October 12, 2014)



On October 12, 2014, Dawn published a cartoon that indicated the desire for peace in the heart of Pakistani and Indian people (Figure D1). The cartoon shows a woman wearing Pakistani dress with the motif of Pakistani flag and a man who is wearing Indian dress with the motif of Indian flag on his shirt. Both are releasing the doves from their hands. Dove is a symbol of peace which refers that people from both countries want peace while their intentions are frightening for a man who is labeled as ‘terrorism’. Because of seeing dove, a symbol of peace, he is running away and dropping his arms including bombs and guns because of his fear and being in the state of shock to see both nations’ peaceful intentions. 




Both India and Pakistan are Negative

One of the common images in the cartoons of both countries was “both India and Pakistan are negative” and both are not playing their role constructively to resolve the issues and bring peace. Some of these most prominent examples are the following:

Figure E.1.

Both are Negative (October 13, 2014)

On October 13, 2014, the Times of India published a cartoon in which Mahatama Gandhi is wearing dhoti and stole. He is also holding a stick in his hand (Figure E1). It is seen that he is leading his followers and all of them are standing on a ship.  Gandhi is depicted as he is saying to his followers “The Nobel committee gave a joint Peace prize to a Pakistani and an Indian so that the two countries might stop fighting each other”. On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi are fighting with each other and saying that “But that didn’t work”. “Now they’re fighting over which is the more peace-loving of the two” is written.  Both are looking aggressive (Figure E.1). The black and white portion in the cartoon has depicted heaven and Gandhi along with his followers are observing the world from it. The captions refer that noble price is shared between Pakistan and India in 2014 but there is no peace between both nations and they are fighting with each other. Both leaders of Pakistan and India were represented in negative role who are not willing to bring peace even after achieving the shared the Noble Peace Award. 

Figure E.2

Both are negative (September 17, 2016)



Similarly, the Express Tribune published a cartoon on September 17, 2016, that constructed the image of nations who are interfering with each other’s internal affairs deliberately (Figure E 2).  In the cartoon, Nawaz Sharif is stirring the spatula in caldron that has caption “India” and blowing up the fire with the help of a hand fan. Narendra Modi is also stirring the spatula in caldron that has the caption of “Pakistan” with both hands while spices are also placed on a stool near him. The caption “Islamabad slams Delhi’s bid to raise Baluchistan issues at UN” is mentioned at the top of the cartoon. The caldron with caption Pakistan refers to the internal issues of the country whereas the caldron with caption India denotes India. The caption explains that India raises the Baluchistan issue in United Nation and Pakistan is not happy with this step of India. The spatulas, spices on the stool and the Nawaz Sharif gesture of blowing up the fire with the fan refer to the interference that both the countries are interfering with each other's territories’ issues deliberately. The facial expression of both leaders highlighted that both countries are happy about the internal instability of the other country.

The semiotic analysis of cartoons emphasized that the Indian and Pakistani political cartoonists used numerous signs and symbols to construct the image of “we are good” and “they are bad” for political moves and political leadership but when it comes to the people of both nations, political cartoons built the negative image of both countries’ governments as both are not willing to resolve the conflicts for peaceful neighbors. Especially for Kashmir, Pakistani cartoons blamed India and vice versa.  Times of India used animal metaphors to represent the army of Pakistan. While Pakistani newspapers did not illustrate any animal and only used birds to portray the issues in few cartoons. The Indian newspapers predominantly used the symbols of dog, knife, gun, and the small size of Nawaz Sharif, the superiority of army leaders over political leadership, terrorists and captions to represent the negative role of Pakistan in the South Asian region. Similarly, Pakistani political cartoons used negative roles and signs to build the image of India as brutal, careless, non-serious and trouble makers. Indian and Pakistani newspapers also illustrated that India is strong, right and wise in South Asian regions by showing its equal level of friendship with United States of America.

Conclusion

Political cartoons are known for their clear, concise and visually reinforced messages which have the ability to shape any image in the public’s eye. Political cartoons, according to Medhurst and DeSousa (1982), have four main functions including entertainment, aggression-reduction, agenda-setting and framing function. Framing is the main function of any political cartoon. This research also emphasized the function of political cartoons for framing foreign relations. In this study it was examined that how English press of Pakistan and India portrayed the Pak-Indo relations in their political cartoons and analyzed that how different signs and symbols were used to build their own respective country and damage the reputation of the rival country. By conducting content analysis and applying Barthes model of connotation and denotation on the political cartoons of The Hindu, Times of India, Express Tribune and Dawn, the study concludes that total 545 cartoons are published on the relationship between Pakistan and India from June 2014 to July 2017. The Times of India published a number of cartoons on Pak-Indo relations than other newspapers while in Pakistan, the Dawn newspaper published a number of cartoons on this issue than the Express Tribune. The analysis of cartoons reveals that Indian newspapers framed political leaders whereas Pakistan newspapers portrayed countries’ images in general. The Indian newspapers represented the highly negative image of Pakistan on all issues in their political cartoons while Pakistan newspapers portrayed the balanced image of both countries. The semiotic analysis reveals that Indian newspaper used the themes that indicate “Pakistan is negative”, “India is stronger, right and wiser”, “Both countries are negative” and “people of both countries want peace”. On the other hand, Pakistan depicted all the above themes along with the “India is negative” theme. Indian cartoons predominately used Zoomorphic metaphors to represent Pakistan and Pakistan newspapers illustrate birds to promote peace among both the countries. The findings of the content and semiotic analyses reflect that the newspapers of both countries farmed politicians, army persons and countries according to their culture, values, beliefs, and environment. In nutshell the political cartoonists of both sides built images of conflicting issues according to their national interests.

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