Bhimayana: A non-realist imagery contributes to develop an anti-caste narrative

PALZOR BHUTIA

“It is not in my hand to born untouchable Hindu, but it is in my hand not to die as one.” – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Bhimayana, which literally means, “A Journey of Bhim” is a graphic novel written by S. Anand and Srividya Nataranjan is an account based on the untouchability and oppression faced by the architect of The Indian Constitution Babasaheb Ambedkar. It also provides a critical insight into the negligence and caste-ridden mind of the Indian psyche towards marginalised communities.

 The novel starts with the conversation between an apparently Dalit woman and an upper caste Hindu man waiting together for the bus at bus stop. They speak about reservation in education and jobs. Then, the woman starts taking the man through different incidents of social oppression to explain the dynamics of casteism in India. As an irony, constant element of the narrative reflects the anti-caste movements and current political climate of India.

The chapters in the book has been named after three basic elements of human life like, ‘Water’, ‘Shelter’ and ‘Travel’. Water highlights the struggle of ten years old Bhim who was denied into equal access to drinking water at school, so it gradually converted into a mass struggle for social equality in India. Shelter, highlights Dalit person’s struggle to get a shelter and how he makes a choice between those two. Travel, highlights how Dalit, who is already an untouchable to Hindu and even to Parsi in second chapter becomes untouchable to Muslims too.

Despite having a degree and a job, Ambedkar’s marginalised identity could never be accepted and become a reason for his potential death instead, the book is filled with Gond artwork by Durgabai Vyam and Subhas Vyam. Originating in an marginalised Adivasi community, Gond art plays a pivotal and powerful role in viewing the stories of oppression and activism in “The Bhimayana”.

Having a woman Prime Minister or President of any nation doesn’t mean that women are not oppressed or societal edifice of that particular nation is not patriarchal in nature, simultaneously, India having Dalit as former President and Tribal President now doesn’t mean that Dalits and other marginalised groups are not oppressed now or they don’t struggle with the atrocities of upper-caste these days. A 2008 report from Tehelka mentioned in this book tells us that nearly 80 years after the Mahad Satyagraha, a pond in Mahad, Maharashtra was turned into a sewer by upper-caste Hindu after the Dalits had won the right to use it, revealing the bitter irony of winning a Dalit resistance. Bhimayana spoke for the pain every Dalit has suffered and suffering through Ambedkar’s eyes. While it narrates emergence of extraordinary anti-caste movement, it doesn’t stop throwing little drops of irony just when the reader stops expecting them.

The present day casteist atrocities in many news reports found in the novel ranges among individuals being beaten up, kicked out by their landlords, sexually harassed and even murdered. Countering a common caste Hindu argument that caste may not exist in urban areas and is a thing of past, the narrative repeatedly and consistently reminds that the caste has never been dead after all. The irony if the narrative becomes even more relevant today when Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student and a Ph.D scholar unresolved culpable homicide in 2016, screams the intensity of the caste prejudice in India and Vemula’s writings, specifically on Facebook alarmingly reminds the same. Rohith often wrote that caste is not a rumour and Bhimayana helps us to unfold both Rohith’s death as well as his anti-caste opinions.

While Gandhi’s struggle was for freeing India from colonial prejudice, Ambedkar aimed at resolving discrimination within the country and transforming the Hindu Society. The discrimination that Gandhi faced in Africa being touchable Hindu is what Ambedkar has faced since initial days of his childhood in India where Gandhi wants to make it free from the oppression of British in one hand and the Dalits get oppressed in another hand and this also intrigues how Dalit and marginalised communities were double marginalised and polarised within the pyramid of Indian society.

Our upper-caste society never seems to get out of its saviour complex, When Ambedkar wanted to represent untouchables, Gandhi derailed the process with the idea of independent electorate as he claimed the untouchables or Harijan weren’t ready to save themselves. Today, almost after ninety years, we still find its glimpses creating many privileged dialogues, one of which is the film “Article 15”. While the movie allegedly aimed at depicting the struggles of marginalised castes, the protagonist remained a privileged Brahmin police officer fighting against anti-caste battles, thus conditioning the viewers that an “untouchable” can never be worthy of leading a movement even if it is made if their own traumatic experiences.

Thus, Bhimayana using an evidence based approach, resonates that the inclusiveness in the Constitution of our country is based on Ambedkar’s experience as a Dalit and if the Constitution was drafted by someone else, particularly an upper caste individual, things would have been different.

Furthermore, I always wondered, if we were introduced to the anti-caste narrative and discourses like Bhimayana in our initial days of schooling then our political views would have been different. We are grown up reading resistance against British and the thirst for equality and nationalism in colonial rule but without truly understanding and acknowledging what equality means in a true sense and how it distinguishes among different communities. Bhimayana, while dealing with anti-caste narrative, highlights a status of Dalits in the past and present through several newspapers articles, unfortunately the scenario remains same and somewhat gruesome too. Bhimayana is the constant reminder of an age-old deeply rooted and flawed casteism enveloping our society. It simplifies Ambedkar’s intention behind politicising untouchables and fighting for anti-caste rights independently without relying on the kindness of upper-caste Hindus and feeling their saviour complex which has given birth to so many anti-caste alliances and movements today. The non-realist visual imagery truly contributes to make this Graphic novel an anti-caste which I don’t think any visual imagery would make it clear and as lucid in a way that this graphic novel stands as an anti-caste narrative.

(Views are personal. Email: palzorbhutia70@gmail.com)