A Gardener in the Wasteland: Jotiba Phule’s Fight for Liberty

Story by Srividya Natarajan; Art by Aparajita Ninan

Navayana,

128 pages, R220

A graphic novel based on Jotirao Govindrao Phule’s Gulamgiri (Slavery, 1873)—an attack on Brahminism and the enslavement of India’s ‘lower’ castes written in the form of a dialogue. Natarajan and Ninan also weave in the story of Savitribai, Jotiba’s wife and partner in his struggles, who started a school for girls in Pune in 1848 despite the threat of ostracism.