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Shivangi Sinha
Professor Jyotsna
Popular Literature
15 October 2019

Bhimayana as a Graphic Novel

With the rise of graphic novel into mainstream literature, our collective literary consciousness is

slowly transforming. The graphic novel uses sequential artwork along with dialogues as its

narrative style. By combining both imagery and words, it heightens the storytelling effect and

hits the readers with a multi-sensory impact.

The roots of Graphic Novel can be traced to manga. The tradition of portraying serious issues

like the effect of war was initiated in Japan in mid nineteenth century through manga post World

War II. One of the most prevalent themes that graphic novels explore is the socio-political

scenario. In this sense, the very origins of the graphic novels are political in nature not only

questioning authority but challenging it as well.

The graphic novel, Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability shows the all pervasive caste

system through the life story of B.R Ambedkar primarily focusing on the humiliations he

suffered on account of his birth in a Dalit community.

The graphic novel begins with an argument about the quota system between two youths sitting

on a bench that has been bifurcated with a figure seated at the central. This figure’s arms and

legs are branched out in opposing directions pointing towards the youths. This opposite

branching reflects the public discourse about the quota system and the confusion of the reader

who does not understand the binary of the caste system and its manifold troubles.
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In Bhimyana, artistic devices such as imagery, symbolism, parallelism, metaphor, irony,

reportage and journalism are employed. Ambedkar’s basic need for water is manifested in the

image of a fish out of water. The image of the thirsty boy pleading for water is followed by the

newspaper clipping showing atrocities on Dalits for drawing water from the public tanks and

wells in the present times. Juxtaposition of the past and present reveals the bitter fact that Dalits

are still being considered sub-humans even below the animalistic existence.

Bhimayana breaks away from the convention of adopting sequential artwork as it traces

Ambedkar’s journey from his childhood back to the two arguing youths. In this manner, it does

not follow a chronological story-telling pattern deliberately as if to emphasize that in order to

understand caste; the reader needs to turn back to the roots of the problem which lie in the past.

The artists of the book use a traditional art form called the Pardha Gond art to depict Ambedkar’s

life story and teachings. What distinguishes the art from the traditional graphic style is the open

representation of art rather than in square boxes. The artist of the book wanted their art to be

“khulla” (open) where there is space for all to breathe. They believed art should flow and not be

restricted to small-boxed spaces.

Almost every page contains multiple gutters. These spaces may appear to be devoid from

information but nothing could be further from the truth. In Bhimayana, the gutters become part

of the story. They are also used as roads for vehicles or as boundaries for parks and ponds. When

the artist removes the gutter, he brings in the chaos of action leaving it to the readers to interpret.

“The comic reader fill each gutter based on her own experience; she paints the canvas of white

space with her personality and perspectives. And the more personal a reading experience is, the

more immersive it becomes”, says Tulien.1

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The speech bubbles are also unique in the sense that they are represented in three ways – one, it

looks like a bird and appears for characters with soft speech and victims of caste; second, it

appears with scorpion tail for those who propel caste discrimination; third, a thought bubble with

eyes hints what the character is thinking but not saying out loud. Moreover, the dialogue bubble

that remains blank reflects the growing awareness of the caste-biased boy as he comes to realize

the unfairness of the caste system. At the beginning, the same boy said, “caste is no issue” yet at

the end of the book, he resonates with his acquaintance’s view that “caste never seems to go

away.”

The Gond art in Bhimayana is used to signify emotions and events. The image of scattered body

parts suggest the social order based on the division of humanity along human body parts. It also

suggests the dreadfulness and unkindness of the caste system. The image of upper-caste people

with sticks in their hands suggests the violence inherent in the caste system. Just like how

Spiegelman in Maus uses animal allegory by representing the Jews as mice and Germans as cats,

In Bhimayana the upper-castes are represented as wild beasts and Dalits as preys in form of

cattle. Such animal imagery runs throughout the book with the Dalit’s body covered in fish

scales hinting at their deprivation, the image of lion roaring represents intimidation while a

dancing peacock symbolizes the happiness of the people from Chalisgaon when they meet

Ambedkar. The vehicles are shown with an animal head and vice-versa like the bus is shown to

be Ambedkar who carries the backward people ahead.

The effect of colors on the reader is profound as it expresses mood. Bhimayana employs both

earthy color and black and white. Every image of a person featured in this novel is in black and

white. This is because regardless of the caste, race, or profession -society should view all people
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as the same. By adding space and color, this book gives the untouchables something that they

never had.

Multi-layered symbolism is scattered throughout the novel for instance the statue of Buddha in

water represents the physical reclaiming of water by the Dalits. It also represents the rejection of

Hinduism by Ambedkar and the mass conversion to Buddhism that followed. Moreover, the

image of the artist holding the paintbrush in his hands can be seen as a conscious attempt to

elevate the artist to creator perhaps because graphic novel is seen as subversive. So the

symbolism that artist is the world and the world is the artist is evident here. Similarly through the

imagery of Ambedkar in suit, there’s a conscious attempt to reject the rigidity of the caste system

that conforms the Dalits as inferiors.

There’s also a reassessment of Gandhi’s image which is noticeable by the transfer of axe from

the figure of the beast to Gandhi. The clash between Ambedkar and Gandhi’s views is mentioned

in an elaborate manner. Just as Arudhati Roy in her introduction, The Doctor and the Saint

mentions “Ambedkar was Gandhi’s most formidable adversary. He challenged him not just

politically, intellectually but also morally.”2 The text too depicts their different ideologies and

their definition of ‘free India’. While Gandhi wanted freedom from British rule, Ambedkar

desired equality for all. Gandhi’s fight was against the forces outside the nation while

Ambedkar’s battle still resides in the nation.

Conclusively, the intent of graphic novels is to generate response from the reader and Bhimayana

rightfully succeeds in doing so by making the reader question the realities of social hierarchy.

The text also attempts to deconstruct the binary opposition of touchable and untouchable, of

pure and impure as it attempts to redefine freedom divorced from cultural prejudice.
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Works Cited

1. Sean, Tulien Comic, Graphic novels and Mangas Rowman & Littlefield, 2017

2. Roy, Arundathi The Doctor and the Saint: Caste, Race, and Annihilation of Caste, the

Debate Between B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi Penguin Random House India Pvt.

Limited, 2017