Bhimayana

Experiences of Untouchability

What does it mean to be an untouchable? Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability, goes on to

answer this very question in an extra-ordinary way. Politics and issues of politics are always seen as
something not accessible to the common man. Fast-paced life does not allow for a person to delve
deep into the historic past to understand the reasons why things are the way they are today.
Bhimayana, therefore offers a valid solution to this problem. It takes the bulk of all the history of a
people, of an oppressed community and re-creates it in a wonderfully accessible form The Graphic
Novel.
Vishwajyoti Ghosh, curator of the graphic novel, This side That side: Restorying Partition says I
think there is a certain attitude and angle of the graphic narrative in that you want to make your
opinion felt visually. The text is not secondary besides the graphic narrative, but visual is the leader
that makes you move from frame A to frame B. And there has to be reason for you to do a graphic
novel. What the graphic narrative always demands from the reader is to participate in the
storytelling, to make it travel.
Thus, the graphic novel not only involves the reader in unimaginable ways but also initiates a process
of de-familiarisation of the subject; the content that the graphic narrative talks about. It
deconstructs the high walls that shroud the subject in politics, history and sociology. It peels away
these esoteric notions that surround the subject and presents the idea, the message; the crux of the
whole argument in a way that can be understood by all.
Bhimayana achieves this and a lot more. While it takes the difficult subject of caste and defamiliarises the way we look at the whole problem of untouchability, it also brings the reader a little
more closer to developing an understanding of caste in India, both in the past and the present. It
narrates not only the history of caste but exposes explicitly the horrors of caste. Key aspects of Dalit
oppression are brought to light such as the denial of basic necessities like water, shelter, etc. At the
same time, it reveals how caste is deeply embedded in superstition and orthodoxy and perpetuates
inhuman treatment towards a whole community.
At its root, lies the story of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Again, the graphic narrative deconstructs the image
of a Bhimrao Ambedkar as a socio-political leader as perceived in history books and thick
biographies. Instead, we see a young and helpless Bhim, faced with the conundrum of caste.
Through various visual devices, Bhimayana captures the meaning of what it means to be an
untouchable, an outsider in ones own country. It paints the story of the Dalits, their struggles and
portrays unhesitatingly the sense of alienation and oppression that stifles them.
It links the text and images in a profound way whereby the images create a system of meaning that
expresses the unspoken. For instance, the way it portrays the Dalit characters against the upper
caste hindus; the way it diagrammatically shows hierarchy of the caste system therefore evokes a

strong sense of inequality that persists between the two castes. This kind of pictorial representation
highlights the gap that exists between the two both in an economic as well as in a social sense.
Bhimayana becomes therefore not only a deep meditation on the issue of caste but also a
motivational work that encapsulates the spirit of the Dalit movement in India and depicts B.R
Ambedkar as the driving force behind its success thereby, inspiring people from all walks of life.
Swarnika Ahuja
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