Attupurathu Mathew Abraham (1924 – 2002), pen name Abu, was an Indian cartoonist, journalist, and author.
In a career spanning 40 years, Abu Abraham worked for various national and international newspapers including The Bombay Chronicle, Shankar's Weekly, Blitz, Tribune, The Observer (1956–1966), The Guardian (1966–1969), and The Indian Express (1969–1981).
He was a lifelong atheist and rationalist.
He was the only Indian political cartoonist to become famous both in his own country and in Britain.
Born in Mavelikara, Kerala, Abu started drawing cartoons at the age of 3.
Abu started his career as a reporter for The Bombay Chronicle in 1946 before switching to cartoons (with stints at The Observer and The Guardian).
At 32, Abu arrived in London in the summer of 1953 and immediately sold cartoons to Punch magazine.
He produced reportage drawings from around the world. In 1962 in Cuba he drew Che Guevara and spent three hours in a nightclub with Fidel Castro.
He returned to India in 1969 to work as the political cartoonist on the Indian Express until 1981. From 1972 until 1978, he was nominated a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.
In 1975 Indian Emergency was declared and the freedom of the press was suspended, and Abu fell out of favour with Indira Gandhi. The direct result of this was the publication of the book The Games Of Emergency in 1977, which contained the political articles and cartoons that he could not print during the Emergency.
As well as illustrating other books, other collections of his cartoons were Abu on Bangladesh (1972), Private View (1974), and Arrivals and Departures (1983). He also edited the Penguin Book of Indian Cartoons (1988).
The hallmark of Abu Abraham's cartoons was their merciless attack upon the corruption in politics. As a mark of the man, his cartoons were an assortment of simple lines that stood out for their directness of expression augmented by arresting punch lines that never missed the mark.
From 1981, Abu worked as a freelancer, syndicating his work to several newspapers and commencing a new strip cartoon, Salt and Pepper.
Cartoonists have to think with a certain amount of passion, have to respond and react to world and local events whether it is poverty or corruption or dowry or sati. In other words, cartoonists should be liberals and radicals. Generally, you have to have some radical thinking. But if you are for the status quo, what is the point in drawing?