The Common Man is the creation of author and cartoonist R. K. Laxman

R. K. Laxman

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Iyer Laxman is an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist. He is widely regarded as India's greatest-ever cartoonist and is best known for his creation The Common Man....

. For over a half of a century, the Common Man has represented the hopes, aspirations, troubles and perhaps even foibles of the average India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n, through a daily cartoon strip, "You Said It" in The Times of India

The Times of India

The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...

. The comic was started in 1951.

When Laxman began to draw cartoons in The Times of India, he attempted to represent different states and cultures in India. In the rush to meet deadlines, he began to draw fewer and fewer background characters, until finally he found only one remaining - the now-familiar Common Man. The Common Man generally acts as a silent witness to all the action in the comic.

Other depictions

• The Common Man featured in a commemorative postage stamp
  Postage stamp
  A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
  
   released by the Indian Postal Service
  Indian Postal Service
  The Department of Posts functioning under the brand name India Post , is a government operated postal system in India; it is generally referred to within India as "the post office"....
  
   on the 150th anniversary of the Times of India in 1988.It became one of the most recogonised feature on The Times of India the largest-circulation English language daily broadsheet newspaper in the world.

• A 10-feet high bronze statue of "The Common Man" has been erected at the Symbiosis Institute, Pune
  Pune
  Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
  
  .The Common Man has a wisp of white hair that is perpetually standing, leaving him with a bewildered look.
• The Common Man was the mascot for the low budget airline Air Deccan
  Air Deccan
  Kingfisher Red, known formerly as Simplifly Deccan and prior to that as Air Deccan, is a low-cost brand run by Kingfisher Airlines. It is headquartered in Mumbai, India....
  
  .