International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences

Vol-7, Issue-2; Mar-Apr, 2022

Journal Home Page Available: https://ijels.com/

Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijels

Towards a Visual Literacy: Bhimayana and the Caste

Problem of India
Priyanka Pal

Department of English, The University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India

Email: [email protected]

Received: 19 Feb 2022; Received in revised from: 18 Mar 2022; Accepted: 28 Mar 2022; Available online: 05 Apr 2022
©2022 The Author(s). Published by Infogain Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Abstract— Words tell stories that are readable. When a book is written in words it is available only to those
who can read. Caste problem in India has earlier been dealt in verbal mode which appeals only to those who
have verbal literacy. Bhimayana is an attempt to deal the caste problem in visual medium which approaches
even to those who lack verbal literacy. This article argues how with the use of colours, metaphors and
subversive pattern, Bhimayana has successfully depicted the caste problem in a unique way which has added
a greater number of readers. It appeals to the visual literacy to which more people have access. Bhimayana’s
innovative use of gond painting and its wide range of colours with their extensive metaphorization serve to
tell the story from the ground level, from the perspective of the oppressed class. In this paper I have tried to
show how the political connotation of the colours help in visual representation of caste and how it demanded
for a critical visual literacy in the readers of the novel.
Keywords— Bhimayana, caste problem, colours, verbal literacy, visual literacy.

I. INTRODUCTION The trend is set; and a bunch of artists started telling their
In 1988 Hayden White, who coined the term ‘Historiphoty’, narratives of history in graphic style --- Joe Sacco’s
persuasively argued the idea that visual narratives are as Palestine(1993), Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis(2000), Orijit
much historical truths as historiography. This was echoed Sen’s River of Stories(1994), Vishwajyoti Ghosh’s Delhi
by Joseph Witek’s influential Comics Books as History Calm(2010)are a few to be named. Navayana’s Bhimayana:
(1989). Two years after it, Art Spiegelman published his Experiences of Untouchability (2011) is another graphic
breathtaking graphic novel Maus(1991). The book won novel in this tradition. With the help of visual vocabulary
Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and after this watershed moment the depicted through the use of metaphors, patterns and colours
traditional stigma that comics being an inferior medium is Bhimayana helped to represent the caste problem of India
inapt to deal with serious issues were gone; rather, it is seen from a different point of view. Earlier Amar Chitra Katha
as a prominent form to deal with alternative histories. comics has also dealt with the story of Bhim under the title
Spiegelman has chosen the graphic novel form to narrate the “Babasaheb Ambedkar” where Ambedkar is presented as
traumatic experience of his parents who were Jews and acult figure; but Bhimayana tells the story of Bhim as a little
survived the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Spiegelman boy who faces caste problem on a daily basis.
uses animal metaphors to draw attention to the de-
humanization of victims and perpetrators in the genocidal II. THE STORY
state: his Jews were not persons but mice in the eyes of Nazi
The story unfurls with a preface like setting titled “One Day
cats.The graphic dissonance offered by this novel
in the Recent past, a Bus stop in an Indian city” where two
represented the trauma of the people instead of the
persons in an unidentified Indian metropolis are seen
conventional mode of representing the trauma of the nation.

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Priyanka Pal Towards a Visual Literacy: Bhimayana and the Caste Problem of India

waiting for the bus and begin talking about reservations and resembles Satrapi’s Persepolis) the book depicts the
Dalits. One of them (who is of course a representative of struggle of Jotirao Govindrao Phule and his wife Savitribai
Upper Caste society)blames the ‘quota’ system (the policy Phule who declared war against a religious system that
through which seats in educational institutions and sanctified one class of people trampling over others deemed
employment are ‘reserved’ for particular castes and to be inferior.In the first chapter of the book, we see how a
communities identified as historically depressed and group of Dalit boys been verbally abused while playing by
marginalized) that ‘favours’ the Backward and Scheduled a person of upper caste. The book corporealizes an alternate
Castes. The other one then highlights the historical history of India through the different interpretation of
inequalities and information about continued caste-based Aryan-centric mythological stories to understand the caste
oppression in India and the nature of this oppression (denial problem better. Stories of oppression is told by Vishwajyoti
of equality, violence directed at particular castes). Then she Ghosh in This Side That Side; Restorying Partition (2010).
embarks on Ambedkar’s story. This is a collection of 40 stories told by the survivors of
Bhimayana is divided into three parts. Book One, partition whose voices are marginalized. In Sarnath
“Water”, describes Bhim’s childhood and experiences of Banerjee’s The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers(2007) the
caste-based discriminations. Being an ‘untouchable’, he is historical tales are silently narrated by fringe characters like
insulted in school, made to sit apart from other children, servants and maids of the British officials whom Banerjee
denied water to drink and also lack access to the barber. The acknowledges as the unsung heroes of history who
narrative also focuses upon the sub-human existence of contributed in their own way for the proper functioning of
Dalit life where animals have better rights than them. News the society.
reports about violence against ‘untouchables’ in
contemporary India are set beside Ambedkar’s story, his IV. FORM AND PATTERN
arrests and campaigns reported. Book Two, “Shelter”,
Bhimayana is another story of oppression told not just in
opens with the accounts of an adult Ambedkar. He is now
words; the form, the style, the pattern all give space for
posted as a probationer in the Accountant General’s Office
alternative historiography. It is written in graphic form, that
in Baroda state, but despite his job and his erudition he is
is an amalgamation of images and texts. Graphic form, as
denied shelter in the city of Baroda. He encountered
described by Scott McCloud in his Understanding
hostility from Brahmins and Parsis as a ‘lower caste’ and
Comics(1993),is “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in
was forced to spend hours in a public garden. His
deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or
experiences are situated alongside that of several thousand
produce an aesthetic response in the viewer”. But unlike the
Dalits being beaten, killed and denied basic rights. Book
conventional panel drawing Bhimayana breaks the routine
Three, “Travel”, is set in Aurangabad in 1934, at a time
linearity of the graphic novel forms. The book maintains no
when Ambedkar is a well-established leader of the so called
proportion between texts and images. Images are privileged
‘untouchables’. The situation of the ‘untouchables ‘is not
over texts thus subverting the hegemony of words in a page.
much changed. They are still abandoned by the Hindu
Even the speech balloons themselves provide a
cartmen and are regarded as ‘untouchable’ in the eyes of
metaphorical understanding of the text and often text boxes
other religion. It also details the Ambedkar–Gandhi
are scattered throughout pages instead of being ghettoed in
differences over equal rights and separate electorates ---
speech bubbles. Bhimayana uses ‘khulla’ art where there is
Ambedkar wanted equality for all sections in society,
space for all to breathe. It does not maintain left to right
Gandhi, on the other hand was more concerned with the
reading pattern rather invents its own pattern of reading up
freedom struggle. While the former hoped citizens at par,
and down. It uses pointing fingers to let the reader
the latter promoted only cosmetic changes to the caste
understand the flow of narration. Often the reading goes
system so that ‘untouchables’ could also be accommodated
zigzagged and the reader is left with the possibility of
within the fourfold structure of Hindu caste system. Tired
reading many texts at once.
of the regressive caste system within Hinduism, he
eventually embraced Buddhism in 1956. The artists Durgabai and Subhas Vyam use Digna
pattern as a guideline to create structures. One advantage of
using Digna pattern is it does not cut the pages in neat,
III. REPRESENTATION OF CASTE IN compartmentalized, square boxes rather crisscross the
COMICS boxes. Here the boxes take various shapes and often the
Caste been presented through graphics earlier by Srividya events in one box overflows to the events in another box. In
Natarajan in A Gardener in The Wasteland (2011). With the page 28, the page is divided in 6 unequal boxes and in the
bold black and white artwork of Aparajita Ninan (which next page the whole page becomes a box (Figure 1 and 2).

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Priyanka Pal Towards a Visual Literacy: Bhimayana and the Caste Problem of India

Thus, the artists instead of focusing on the process of dissonance, the book also employs the newspaper extracts
storytelling gives importance to the fluidity of the narrative from recent journalism. This unique use of paratexts stiches
structure and the pattern of the text. Ambedkar’s experience of discrimination with the present-
day caste prejudice where Dalits are bullied and even killed
when they try to assert their right to life. All these elements
come together to arrive at a comprehensive understanding
of Dalit existence, their challenges and their resolve to fight
back.

V. METAPHORS
The metaphors and symbolisms used in the text also take
part in understanding the problems of Dalit lives in this
visual narrative. The book is written with the use of Pardhan
Gond art which is rich in symbolism and imagery. In the
book, animal imageries are used in abundance to depict the
experiences of Dalits. The fish metaphors are especially
used to signify the thirst of Dalits for water which they are
barred from quenching.
The book opens with two persons sitting on a
bench in a public space. The bench is depicted as a smiling
person whose legs are stretched out and arms spread out as
Fig 1: Vyam 28 if inviting the weary to sit and its long extending hair serves
as the roof of the shelter. This opening in a public sphere
with an inviting smiling face sets the tone of the book. As
Joseph Witek says:
A public sphere is a story space that not
only enables but also shapes and
constrains narrative; moreover, it is not
simply a clearinghouse for the publication
of personal narrative truth but a kind of
story factory in which the norms of public
discourse become legible both in the
social interactivity of storytelling and in
the story forms that it disseminates,
conventionalizes, and canonizes.
The recurring fish metaphor is present from the title page of
Book One, where Bhim is seen as climbing a yellow fish to
reach a blue tube well to quench his inner thirst. Little
Ambedkar is seen as taking the shape of a fish in various
scenes when he implores for water. Later in the chapter, a
water tank whose construction young Bhim’s father is
supervising in Goregaon appears like a fish containing
Fig 2: Vyam 29 water, while Bhim is seen contemplating by couching in a
fish, which is significantly without water (Figure 3). The
The texts itself is referential in nature which other water tanks of Satara are also drawn as fish carrying
functions in both a connotative as well as a denotative water in its body. The aquatic representation of events is
manner. The meaning does not really emerge only through seen in abundance in the text. In Ambedkar’s revolutionary
the characters but takes shape in accordance to the Mahad speech the root of his microphone is dipped within a
placement of humans, birds, trains, buses, sky, lathi, and water body while his voice reaches the audience through
even pointed fingers or staring eyes. Beyond this structural loudspeakers which look like lotus seeds and act as
sprinklers (Figure 4). In the next page we see Dalit people

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Priyanka Pal Towards a Visual Literacy: Bhimayana and the Caste Problem of India

has got access to water protected by a fish; in one palm of a

hand there is little blue pond where a fish swims freely and
in other hand the sea of Dalit people being inspired by
Ambedkar’s speech now organizing themselves --- this
image justifies the historical significance of the Mahad
speech which has been compared with the French revolution
(Figure 5).

Fig 4: Vyam 48

Fig 3: Vyam 25 Later also, the artists took shelter in the fish
metaphor to embark on the Chakwara story. The page
The most engaging fish metaphor is drawn in page contains a big fish containing water in its body with
50 where a massive, ornate fish which bifurcated the panel Ambedkar’s face becoming the eye of the fish. In the left
into the respective domains of the Dalits and the Brahmins. side are the Brahmins and on the right side stands the Dalits
The fish is facing a pond and a bunch of fishes are coming accessing the water alongside the Brahmins. The fish
out from the reservoir to the Dalits while a bunch of fishes carrying water in its body is also significatory. In the page
from the Brahmins are going in the pond. The different 17, the fish is yellow, that is, it is out of water or has no
direction of movement of the fishes’ points to the different access in water and Ambedkar climbing it to quench his
narratives of the Dalits and Brahmins. The text in the page thirst. But here, Ambedkar has become the eye of the fish--
refers to the rumors spread by the orthodox Hindus which - his vision to eradicate untouchability has alleviated the
led to riots. It is important to note that a roaring lion position of the Dalits who now has access to public water.
furnished with a menacing set of dentures is used as the The fish is no longer thirsty yellow, rather it has turned to
symbol of Brahmins while the oppressed position of the satisfied blue (Figure 7). The fish metaphor is also used in
Dalits symbolized by a meek cow (Figure 6). the very font style of the book designed by artist Roshni
Vyam. This font style has been named after Ambedkar and
is called Bhim font. This fish style has ingenuously
connected the fish metaphor with Dalit existence.

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Fig 5: Vyam 49

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Fig 6: Vyam 50

Fig 7: Vyam 54

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Along with the fish imagery, other imageries are museum turned to a lucrative business by Hasegawa, the
used in the text to tell the caste history of India. The flow of founder of the Mithila Museum. Thus goes the humiliation
water, the turning of wheels and the clocks in the pages are and exploitation that Ambedkar faced in his day.
symbolic of the timelessness of caste system. The pointing
figures used to accuse the oppressors, the tube well turns to
VI. COLOUR AND CASTE
angry elephant when its water is denied to Bhim, people not
friendly to Dalits become roaring animals, sticks become The critical literacy of Bhimayana as a post-modern and
the bodies of the violence-makers, crawling snakes the post-colonial text has been much more enhanced by the use
railways and above all these is the depiction of Ambedkar’s of vibrant colours in this graphic novel. Colours help us to
Kamathi Baug experience. The ingenuity of the artists look at the text from the artists’ viewpoint who are adivasis
draws people playing, sitting, reading, exercising in and experienced a historical disadvantage comparable to the
Ambedkar’s face which has turned to a public garden. The ‘untouchable’ lower castes. In the book four “The Art of
ecological affinity of the Pardhan Gond Art humanizes the Bhimayana” we are told how the artists themselves faced
objects--- here, the train becomes a snake, the feet of Dalits discrimination in the production of the very book. They
turn to birds, the intimidating fort becomes a lion. The were called yokels by an urban woman who paid no
happiness of the people of Chalisgaon who receive Bhim attention to the international recognition of the artists when
Ambedkar is not conveyed through smiling faces but a mentioned by the editor S.Anand. This incident reminds us
dancing peacock. An earthmover used by a Dalit, who is of Ambedkar’s Baroda days where despite his education he
killed for digging a well, sheds tear as two cows bear was denied the civil citizenship in the city.
witness. Even the speech balloons are designed to function In this last chapter the artists Subhas and Durgabai
as metaphors. Unlike the disengaged textboxes of comics tells us how gond art is produced. The gond people believes
here the speech balloons become an integral part of the that every element in nature, be it hills, sky or trees are
graphic medium. Following the intricate gond style bird sacred and has close connection to each other. In the time of
speech balloons are used for characters who belong to the festival, the artists would draw on the walls of their home.
Dalit community and whose “speech is soft”. Scorpion’s They mostly draw birds, animals and mythic beasts. In
sting like speech balloons used for characters who love every ritual, their paintings try to depict the relation between
caste, whose words contain poison, “whose touch is man and nature. The colour palette of gond art is also a boon
poisonous”. The thought balloons instead of using the of nature. For white colour they use white soil available in
conventional cloud style are represented through mind’s the month of January in the Barendra Jungle. The yellow
eye. The artists explain “thinking happens in mind’s eye. soil of Amarkantaka hill serves as yellow colour. They
[These balloons therefore] contain words that cannot be preserve dark black soil of their ‘Ghar ka Matta’ and for
heard but can be perceived”. colour red they go to nearby Dhooti jungle to collect its soil.
All these font style, metaphors etc. are inspired by Throughout season they extract these colours from nature.
gond art style whose first worldly recognized artist been The ecological circle thus becomes a full when they use
Jangarh Singh Shyam. The book begins with a tribute to this natural colours to paint the nature around them.
legendary figure. He started the Pardhan Gond Art Bhimayana however is painted in acrylic colours
Movement in the mid-1990s. He was originally from a which stand as supplementary to the natural colours found
remote village of Madhya Pradesh, from where he in the environment. Each colour, along with their
journeyed to Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, and later to significance in gond art also used as meaningful metaphors
Pompidou in Paris and the Mithila Museum in Nilgata, rural in the text. E.g.,colour orange is used for courage, ochre and
Japan. Pardhan Gond is a clan belongs to the larger Gond brown to signify arid earth, green for fertile land and blue
tribal community in central India. Through their singular art signifies life-giving water. Although colour black and white
practice, they preserve the tradition and heritage of the vary throughout, they are well balanced in general, such that
Gond community. After Jangarh’s death his art became every colour page includes some black and white while
more influential and more artists came to seek a livelihood simultaneously causing readers to recognize the importance
as professional visual artists, including Durgabai and of particular story elements, such as climactic moments
Subhash Vyam. The exploitation of the artists is sure to be where Ambedkar’s words build upon the narrative. The use
noted. E.g. When Jangarh did suicide in the age of 40 he of dots and dashes enhances the details and the uniqueness
was working in an alienated space for Rs. 12,000 only. The of their art.
Mithila Museum of Japan is itself a statue of exploitation --
The book opens with the portrait of Jangarh Singh
-- the Madhubani painters whose animated paintings
Shyam who is painted in abundance of colours and animals.
inspired the building of the museum were neglected and the
Fishes are seen in the red land, troubling out of water along

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Priyanka Pal Towards a Visual Literacy: Bhimayana and the Caste Problem of India

with other animals like cows, crocodiles and birds. A man

is seen floating in the blue water and other man seen tilling
the ground, thus making the barren land a fertile field. A
green path fallowed to the water signifying a link between
the water and the tilled land. It signifies as if only a few
people have access in the water and the farming field while
other humans are not even regarded as human but turned to
animals and are caged in the red-orange droughty land---
who are denied water and also habitable green field. The
painting brushes in the hands of the artist are his weapons
which he uses to fight against this discrimination, and
creates a blue pool to quench his thirst through his
revolutionary act of painting. The epitaph under the image
of Jangarh Singh Shyam reads; “The sky that sheltered us”
--- this has aligned the artist with Ambedkar. He is shown
as the revolutionary figure who has brought a change in the
life of Gond artists like Ambedkar had brought a change in
the life of outcaste people. The body of Jangarh Singh
Shyam is the body of a community where alternate histories
are written. This is the graphic dissonance that is used to
subvert and diffuse the histories written in interest of the
nation (Figure 8).
The colours convey atrocities and segregation that Fig 8: Vyam 5
the Dalits have to face throughout their life. In page 22, the
page is divided in two colour pattern --- orange and green.
In the green section there is a blue bodied water (again
strengthening the relation between water and the well-
developed green land) where animals are drinking, but a
Dalit boy is seen sitting in the desert-like orange field. The
text reads, “…beasts at the trough, may drink till they burst.
But the village turns to desert when I try to quench my
thirst.” In the previous page the Dalit boy is seen travelling
in the green field which suggests a Dalit can live in the
society as long as he abides by the rule of uppercaste people
and allows himself to be oppressed by them but as soon as
he claims for his rights he is debarred from society (Figure
9). Thus, colour is used to remark at the caste-based
discrimination of society.

Fig 9: Vyam 23

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Priyanka Pal Towards a Visual Literacy: Bhimayana and the Caste Problem of India

soft voices are doomed under the pressure of stiff sting of

scorpions.

VII. COLOUR POLITICS

The political connotations of the colours should also be
analyzed. E.g., colour blue is associated with the Dalit
resistance. Ambedkar is known to have introduced blue flag
for his party flag for the independent labor party. It is
representative of identifying with Dalit consciousness that
is non-discriminatory. Blue is also the colour of the sky – a
representation of non-discrimination and also of water that
signifies freshness, energy, positivity and power. In the text
blue color is used in respect to Dalit’s thirst. In the title page
of the chapter “Water” little Bhim dressed in blue struggles
to rich a blue tubewell to quench the thirst of his inner fish.
Blue, that stands for water has long been denied to the
Dalits. The Dalits are first seen accessing the blue water
after the enlivening Mahad speech of Ambedkar which been
described with abundant use of colour blue and orange.
Thus, access to blue water is a significant victory of the
Dalits.
Saffron colour long stands for Hinduism. In the
text this colour is used to suggest a claustrophobic place.
Fig 10: Vyam 63 This place marginalizes the Dalits and the Dalits need
courage to stand against the discrimination they face
everyday in the name of sacred Hindu religion. In the book,
That the Dalits are always ghettoed even in an open space is the articles of Manu Smriti are written in saffron box. The
depicted in page 27, where people of various castes are pointing fingers points to the futility of the antidotes of
walking in the land but the Dalits are caged in the orange Manu Smriti. The events of Brahmins purifying water and
field while others travel in a less harsh field. The ultimate the Ambedkaraites burning the Manu Smriti are also
thirst of the Dalits for a better and greener land is never described within the same box. That these two events taking
missed--- even when they choose a drink, they ask for the place within the same box suggests that Dalits are becoming
green ones knowing that it will be expensive for them. well-equipped to stand against the injustice of Hindus.
Such segregations in the name of caste are present Significantly in page 82 the anecdote Ambedkar shares with
throughout the text. In page 32 the otherwise green forest his fellow travelers about Dalit oppression is also in the
turns to intimidating orange when Dalit boys travel in train. saffron box. Thus, colour saffron remain in the book as a
The ultimate segregation portrayed in the train journey of mark of Dalit oppression. This political appropriation of
Ambedkar from Bombay to Baroda in 1917. The train colours adds yet another texture to the visual literacy of the
coaches are painted with various colours which foregrounds text which helps to see Bhimayana from another standpoint.
multiple histories and perspectives of India and shows how
Dalit perspectives are always enclaved in the archive of
VIII. CONCLUSION
national history. The Brahmin and Ambedkar is in the same
coach but the engulfing and unmitigable distance between The ingenuity of Bhimayana is its use of folk paintings to
them is strikingly visible.(Figure 10). tell the story of Ambedkar’s life and struggle for freedom of
the Dalits. Instead of depending on the verbal literacy the
This rhetoric of colour continues in Book 3
book represents the caste conflict in Indian society through
“Travel” where an amalgamation of various colours like
visual literacy. With its ‘antique’ art, subversion of form,
green, orange, brown, yellow, blue, pink, purple, ochre
and the visual vocabulary of atrocity and social inequality,
depicts the diversity of Indian society based on caste,
it offers a different voice – the cultural legibility and
religion, culture etc. This caste-ridden society has no place
legitimacy – to the language of oppression and rights. The
for the Dalits who are always marginalized and whose bird-
political connotation of colours, forms and pattern is an

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Priyanka Pal Towards a Visual Literacy: Bhimayana and the Caste Problem of India

important weapon used in the text against the injustice of

Hindu social orders. It helps to start propagating a counter
hegemonic discourse of the Dalits by interrogating the
curriculum and discipline of upper-class system which
cleverly excludes the anti-caste philosophers such as Jotirao
Phule and Ambedkar from its History book. The artists took
shelter in the paratexts of images for they knew words
cannot do everything. They “lack the immediate emotional
charge of pictures, relying instead on a gradual cumulative
effect.” (McCloud, Understanding Comics, 135) The
graphic form demands a critical visual literacy in the readers
which is an anterior moment to a larger reformatting of the
public space through the production, dissemination and
consumption of such stories.

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