Times Of India cartoonist whose sketches satirised Indian life and politics dies after illness

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

RK Laxman, the renowned Indian cartoonist whose sketches appeared on the front page of the Times of India for more than five decades, has died aged 94.

His cartoon strip satirised Indian life and politics through the eyes of the ‘Common Man’, a silent observer who Laxman said stood “for all Indians”.

Laxman suffered multiple organ failure after being admitted to hospital on 17 January, his doctors told the Press Trust of India news agency.

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, led the tributes, saying: “India will miss you.”

“We are grateful to you for adding the much needed humour in our lives & always bringing smiles on our faces,” Modi tweeted.

Laxman was born on 24 October 1921 in the southern city of Mysore and began sketching when he was five.

India gave him the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest civilian award, in 2005, and in 2001 an 8ft bronze statue of him was unveiled in the southern city of Pune.

The bespectacled cartoonist had stopped drawing a few years earlier due to ill health.