It is never easy to convey humour through satire, and in a place like India it can be tougher still. There are too many holy cows here and too many quick-tempered livewires out to defend them. And yet, somehow in the face of all the menaces, political cartooning thrives.

The winners of the Maya Kamath Memorial Awards Competition 2015 illustrate this well.

The Indian Institute of Cartoonists announced the results of the contest on Tuesday, and the winners reference hot-button topics like the Bihar elections, superstition, farmer suicides and beef wars.

The Bangalore-based institute says it received 108 entries for the awards in excellence in political cartooning, 35 for best budding cartoonist award and 73 for best foreign cartoon award. These entries were judged by a four-member jury comprising playwright and actor Girish Karnad, artist SG Vasudev and cartoonists BG Gujjarappa and Satish Acharya.

Acharya, the winner of the award last year, tweeted this image:

Instituted in the year 2011 by the family of late Maya Kamath, a political cartoonist, the competition is open to all cartoonists. Participants are allowed to send a maximum of three political cartoons published in newspapers, magazines, news portals/websites between January 1 and December 31, along with the date and name of the publication in which the cartoons appeared.

Cartoons published in regional languages are to be accompanied by an English translation of the text.

Best Political Cartoons

1st prize: Alok Nirantar, Sakal Times, Pune

2nd prize: VR Ragesh, Madhyamam, Kerala

3rd prize: Gokul Gopalakrishnan, Deccan Chronicle

Special Jury Appreciation prizes

1st prize: Manoj Kureel, Santabanta.com

2nd prize: Uttam Ghosh, Rediff.com

3rd prize: Unnikrishnan, Mathrubhumi, Kerala

Best Foreign Cartoons

1st prize: Yaser Delfan, Iran

2nd prize: Makhmudjan Eshankolov, Uzbekistan

Best Budding Cartoonist

Rs 10,000 - MK Kishan, Bangalore

Pictures credit: Indian Institute of Cartoonists and Maya Kamath Memorial Awards.