In 1994, the graphic novel was formally introduced in India with the publication of Orijit Sen’s River of Stories. Initially, book stores refused to sell it as the graphic novel concept wasn’t recognized. However, with the onset of the internet, digital copies started circulating online and things changed. Eventually, Sen’s novel became a success in print too. 

River of Stories focuses on the Narmada Bachao Andolan (“Save the Narmada River Movement”), a resistance movement that attempted to stop dam projects involving the river Narmada. The novel investigates the large-scale environmental damage and widespread displacement of indigenous communities caused by these ill-planned industrial developments and remains relevant to this day. 

Now, thirty years since Sen’s book, the graphic narrative form is alive and well in India, having permeated the contemporary urban reading sphere. Its ability to intertwine the verbal and visual registers of storytelling has introduced new modes of representation, allowing for immersive literary experiences that speak to today’s readers.

While comic book series have been common since Amar Chitra Kathas (a much-loved children’s comic), graphic narratives have transformed the popular medium that was once associated with mere entertainment and moralism into something far richer. Dealing with sociopolitical concerns like sexuality, caste, gendered violence, capitalism, Partition, riots, and more, graphic novels have become crucial in capturing and commenting on the issues of contemporary Indian society. A simple yet subversive form, it successfully challenges grand narratives by creating space for stories from the margins.

Here are ten celebrated graphic novels that blend prose and gorgeous art to explore Indian cultures and histories.

Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability by Durgabai Vyam, Subhash Vyam, Srividya Natarajan, and S. Anand

A pivotal work of graphic art which has been translated into ten languages, Bhimayana narrates the life of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. A renowned voice against Dalit exploitation and caste-based untouchability in India, Ambedkar himself grew up facing the brutality of discrimination and exclusionary ideology. Represented in the graphic format through the traditional Pardhan Gond art form by Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam, this deliciously crafted book challenges more than the norms of caste. Refusing to place their characters into boxes, the artists entirely do away with conventional panels and instead use traditional Gond design patterns (called digna) to break up the page. Refreshing and subversive, this graphic biography celebrates Ambedkar and informs its reader in a simple, crisp manner of the horrors of discrimination that Dalits continue to face in India.

Kari by Amruta Patil

Kari was first published in 2008, a time when it was illegal to have homosexual relationships of any kind in India. It follows the eponymous lesbian lead after her bond with Ruth, her romantic partner, is broken. Kari’s funny and forlorn musings, as she traverses her smog-filled city, delves into the sewer, and deals with corporate drudgery, are as peculiar as her.

Doing away with and deliberately challenging the suicidal lesbian trope that features prominently in media whenever queer characters are concerned, Patil’s Kari is about the everydayness of resilience. It celebrates a lesbian lead who, albeit heartbroken, decides to live. Ending with the promise “to be continued,” this intricate and layered tale awaits a sister text from Kari’s lover, Ruth’s perspective.

This Side, That Side: Restorying Partition curated by Vishwajyoti Ghosh

Severing the Indian subcontinent into different countries, the Partitions of 1947 and 1971 caused widespread death and displacement. Millions migrated, abandoning not just homes but their entire lives. Capturing the chaos that ensued—reverberations of which continue to plague each side of the border today—Vishwajyoti Ghosh’s This Side, That Side is a poignant graphic anthology that weaves together diverse tales and traumatic memories from a variety of storytellers. 

Delhi Calm by Vishwajyoti Ghosh

Delhi Calm investigates the contortion of democracy India experienced when regulatory and suppressive measures were imposed in the mid-1970s after a national emergency was declared. In this book, Ghosh replicates the intrusive ideology of the state and its overwhelming presence in citizen’s lives. How? By interspersing symbols and signs that fit perfectly within the verbal-visual blend that the graphic novel is all about. Slogans, announcements, placards, and banners which permeated that particular time are all jarringly featured. Capturing how censorship and surveillance encroached on the public realm, Delhi Calm critiques the turmoil that became everyday life in India’s capital city.

Munnu: A Boy From Kashmir by Malik Sajad

Interweaving the personal with the political, seven-year-old Munnu narrates the brutal reality of life in Kashmir. Munnu’s finely crafted graphic tale borrows from the author’s childhood experiences of growing up in conflict-ridden Kashmir and delves into the British involvement in the region’s tumultuous history. Simultaneously a delicate coming-of-age tale sprinkled with the humor and playfulness of childhood as well as a critique of political strife and violence, this graphic novel captures the uncertainties and vulnerabilities of day-to-day life in Kashmir.

The Hotel At The End Of The World by Parismita Singh

Set in the northeast region of India, Parismita Singh’s graphic novel features a fictional hotel. When some travelers halt to take shelter from the pouring rain, their unusual presence stirs a storytelling streak amidst the hotel’s peculiar residents. In five crisp tales, occupants of the hotel share personal memories that are marinated in mystery, magic, and collective histories. Subtle references are spread out in fantasy-filled tales about the traumatic battles of Imphal and Kohima as well as the Sino-Indian war. Simple yet tasteful, this multi-layered story explores the diversity and vibrancy of Northeastern India’s folklore, history, and landscape.

Corridor by Sarnath Banerjee

Snuggled somewhere within the chaotic and confusing lanes of Connaught Place in Delhi, Sarnath Banerjee’s Corridor follows the interactions of tea and book seller, Jehangir Rangoonwalla, and locals who visit his shop for chai and conversation. But Corridor isn’t just a mixture of characters from varied socio-cultural backdrops, it explores diverse visual modes as well—there are photographs, colored illustrations, and traditional black-and-white sketches. Dealing with themes of urbanization and modernity, this graphic novel is an intimate interrogation of metropolitan city life and the challenges that slither its streets. 

A Gardener in the Wasteland: Jotiba Phule’s Fight for Liberty by Srividya Natarajan and Aparajita Ninan

Published in 2011, this graphic novel exposes the deeply entrenched roots of caste-based discrimination in India. Beginning with Jyotirao Govindrao Phule and his partner Savitribai’s revolutionary life story, it goes on to revive his renowned dissection of the hegemonic casteist ideology in Hindu society, Gulamgiri (“Slavery” in English), through graphic art. Self-reflexively inserting their own journey of creating this book, authors Aparajita Ninan and Srividya Natarajan also create space for a contemporary analysis of caste-centered crime and exploitation. Multi-layered and subversive, this crucial graphic novel is a scathing critique of the systemic exclusions that continue in India to this day. 

The Harappa Files by Sarnath Banerjee

This is a rather unconventional text, even for a graphic novel. At the beginning, the reader is duly informed of two things. One, the Greater Harappa Rehabilitation, Reclamation and Redevelopment Commission (a fictional bureaucratic government-regulated establishment) has undertaken a country-wide survey. Two, our author, Sarnath Banerjee, has been ascribed the heavy responsibility of presenting these findings to the public in an appropriate manner. What follows is a set of “files” that, via Banerjee’s choice of the graphic format and his manner of storytelling, become witty stories. Each tale indulges in, comments on, and satirizes contemporary concerns that plague a postcolonial India roiled by cultural shifts and ongoing efforts at modernization.