Re-visioning History and Visualising Caste: A Postcolonial Reading of Bhimayana and A Gardener in the Wasteland

Abstract

The early graphic narratives from India, like the Amar Chitra Kata, focus on proliferating the sense of nationhood by representing mythical stories and historical events in the graphic narrative form. These graphic narratives are considered postcolonial in their attempt to counter colonial influence by invoking the nation’s past glory. This paper problematises categorising a graphic narrative as postcolonial solely based on the coloniser and the colonised dichotomy. In his essay Postcolonial Remains, Robert JC Young proposes a shift within postcolonial theory by concerning itself with the subaltern within postcolonial societies. The graphic narratives Bhimayana and A Gardener in the Wasteland demonstrate that shift through the visualisation of caste in history. The idea of nationhood and a glorious past is questioned by constructing history from below. The visualisation of caste is at the centre of reconstructing or re-visioning history in both graphic narratives. In that process of deconstruction and reconstruction (re-vision) of history, a new visual aesthetic is produced, along with a shift in the postcolonial graphic narrative scene.