Bahadur (meaning The Brave Man) is a comic book superhero published by

Indrajal Comics Indrajal Comics was a comic book series in India launched by the publisher of ''The Times of India'', Bennett, Coleman & Co, Bennet, Coleman & Co in March 1964. The first 32 issues contained Lee Falk's ''The Phantom'' stories, but thereafter, the ...

and created by

Aabid Surti Abid Surti or Aabid Surti (born 5 May 1935) is an Indian painter, author, cartoonist, journalist, environmentalist, playwright and screenwriter. He was given a National Award by the government of India in 1993 for writing a series of short stor ...

in 1976. Although it had been initially created by Aabid Surti a few years earlier, it was finally offered to Indrajal Comics. Aabid Surti was at that time freelancing for Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. After he moved on, Jagjit Uppal took over the task. The artwork was illustrated by Govind Brahmania and later by his son,

B Pramod B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It represent ...

. The comics were published in various languages including

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

. Besides regular comics, the series was also featured in dailies and weeklies along with other comic heroes. Apart from India, there's a huge fan club of Bahadur, abroad. Reportedly, there are Bahadur fan clubs in the

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Characters

Bahadur

Bahadur comics was created in December, 1976.

Dacoity Dacoity is a term used for " banditry" in the Indian subcontinent. The spelling is the anglicised version of the Hindi word डाकू (ḍākū); "dacoit" is a colloquial Indian English word with the meaning "a robber belonging to an armed ...

was at its first in India in the 1970s and the Bahadur series focussed a lot on dacoits. Bahadur himself was the son of a dacoit Bhairav Singh who died in combat with Police. Bahadur, then a teenager, was adopted by Vishal, the police officer who shot Bhairav Singh. Bahadur initially wants to avenge the death of his father, but eventually switches sides with the police to fight evil for the rest of his life.

Citizen's Security Force (CSF)

Upon growing up, Bahadur set up the Citizen's Security Force or the Hindi translation Naagrik Suraksha Dal (NASUD) that aids the police in combating dacoits. Though Bahadur dealt with many kinds of villains, he displayed a much softer corner towards dacoits trying to rehabilitate them. One of his assistants Lakhan was also a reformed dacoit. After surrendering to the police, he started helping Bahadur in curbing crime.

Bela

Bela is Bahadur's love interest in the comic series and very skilled in

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

. She assists Bahadur in his missions against the villains. Whenever, Bahadur would ask Bela to go out with him Bela's favorite reply was "Neki, aur puchh, puchh".

Others

The other prominent characters featuring regularly in the series were Sukhiya, Mukhiya and Lakhan. While Sukhiya was a policeman, Mukhiya (meaning head of the village in

) was the village leader. Bahadur also got a dog Chammiya in some of the later stories.

Evolution

The stories evolved with time and portrayed the changing face of India. While beginning with dacoits in deep

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

s and the small town of Jaigarh, Bahadur later moved to tackling themes such as

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

. The town itself moved from being a small sleepy town to a modern city. Aabid Surti conceived of Bahadur and started the comic strip in 1976. "Bennett, Coleman & Co wanted me to create an Indian character that could take on the popularity of the four foreign comics that ruled the market in India then—The Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon and Tarzan," he says. "During that time, the Chambal Valley was becoming increasingly notorious, and there were exhortations to people to group together to fight crime. So I developed the character of Bahadur as someone who helps create a citizens' police force to fight the dacoits." About Bahadur's saffron

kurta A ''kurta'' is a loose collarless shirt or tunic worn in many regions of South Asia, (subscription required) Quote: "A loose shirt or tunic worn by men and women." Quote: "Kurta: a loose shirt without a collar, worn by women and men from South ...

and

jeans Jeans are a type of trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with the addition of copper pocket rivets added by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and patented by ...

, the author Aabid Surti says, "A kurta and saffron were symbols of Indianness. And jeans were a Western import and indicated progress. Hence, the combination,". Aabid Surti showed Bahadur and his girlfriend, Bela, in a live-in relationship in his Bahadur comics, something unheard of in those times. But it was very well accepted by the audience." Though Bahadur's portrayal also changed with time as the artists drawing the series changed, Bahadur's appearance remained the same until 1986, when his trade mark long-hair chopped to shorter & a neat look, which gave him a necessary urban look, and his outfit was changed from an orange

to a tight-fitting pink

long-sleeved T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt, or tee for short) is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirt ...

. Bahadur comics series stopped in the year 1990 when Bennett, Coleman & Co stopped publishing Indrajal Comics.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Wiktionary, Appendix:Bahadur Indian comic strips 1976 comics debuts Indian comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1976 Adventure comics Crime comics Indian superheroes Male characters in comics Fictional portrayals of police departments in India Fictional Indian police officers Comics superheroes