River of Stories

River of Stories by Orijit Sen 

Hello Readers, 

I recently completed my another graphic novel, first was Corridor. It you haven't read it, here I am adding the link. 

Corridor

So, let me throw some light upon this graphic novel which is considered to be first Indian Graphic novel. River of Stories is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Indian artist Orijit Sen.Often considered India's first graphic novel, it tells the story of the environmental, social and political issues surrounding the construction of the controversial Narmada Dam. It was published in 1994 with the help of a small grant from Kalpavriksh, an NGO. Two years after it was first published i.e. in 1996 it went out of print. But is being released in a new edition by Blaft Publications in 2022, with a foreword by Arundhati Roy. I read the edition of 2022. 

It is a quick read for me personally because I recently studied postcolonialism. However, back in 1994, the graphic novel was still a very new concept in India. It was not easy for Orijit to go on with his mission of capturing the imagination of the urban reader. The book delves into the idea of encroaching on the land of the people. As Ania Loomba states in her book "Colonialism and Postcolonialism," the new concern of postcolonialism is the idea of tribal displacement. Even P Sainath goes further and states in his book "Then There is the Market" about St. Growth and St. Development.

Parallel thread on Adivasi myth : 

The book also has a parallel thread running through the pages, where Orijit reverts to the Adivasi myth about the river Reva (Narmada), beginning from the story of Kujum Chantu who created the world in her palms and gave it life. The stories are sung by a singer called Malgu Gayan. Orijit says it came from the loads of research he did about the Narmada valley. He has the habit of doing that before starting something, he says, digging into local culture, history, folklore and whatever is relevant to his storytelling. In a strange way, Orijit gets away with presenting this myth as a sort of alternative thinking.

This book is perfect gateaway to understand the postcolonialism. Especially the context of Narmada Bachao Andolan and the importence of the telling story as Chimamda Adichi said. I recommend you to give your time. 

Guess what I have brought for you the archival version of the book. So now you can also read it. 

THE RIVER OF STORIES PART-1 - COMIC - ENGLISH

River of Stories - A Comic by Orijit Sen

That's all from my side. We will meet in next review.

Thank You.