By R.J. Pate
In a collaborative effort to bring the voices of women of colour to the forefront of the graphic novel industry, Toronto-based publisher Ad Astra Comix and Zubaan Books of India have come together to publish Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back!, an anthology that is willing to challenge the typical gender roles and pressures placed on Indian women.
The North American edition contains 14 stories that recount the experiences of Indian women, ranging in theme from gender, harassment, sexuality, marriage, family, racism, classism to political systems. Together, these stories help to give a voice to those who are commonly unheard in an industry that is dominated by men.
All of these stories are given life through their unique hand-drawn styles. While still in its drafting stages, Drawing The Line had a sturdy artistic base to latch onto. The co-editors of Spring, a German all-women art magazine, offered their support to form the backbone of the project. The publication also worked closely with “Drawing Attention” a workshop for female Indian artists who focus on gender issues.
Using illustration as the choice of expression, this graphic novel adopts a medium that is accessible to a wide variety of readers. This decision seems to be influenced by the stigma and lack of conversation surrounding rape victims in India. Perhaps a graphic novel makes these important topics more accessible to a wider audience, topics that would otherwise be absent from the conversation.
Nisha Susan, one of the founding editors of the Indian feminist magazine The Ladies Finger, explains the impact of this broadening of scope in Drawing the Line’s introduction; “[Indian feminists] have used this momentum [of an opening discourse] to broaden the conversations beyond the terror of stranger rape to talk about work, pay, love, marriage, disability, caste, sex, and everyday sexism.” All of these topics, as Susan explains, are intended to spark heated conversations across the world.
The stories in this collection attempt to encourage discourse in a number of different ways. There is one story about a Delhi woman who finds sisterhood within a group of Mumbai locals during her daily commute, despite how discouraging and frightening this group of strangers seem when seen from the outside. Another Delhi local recounts the story of a mother, her daughter and the prospect of marriage. The mother in this story explains to her child that she herself had other options outside of marriage, but chose to accept this household role over her educational and creative pursuits. Her daughter acknowledges the strength it took to make this decision, but laments how much bitterness her mother endured while losing these sources of happiness.
Many of these stories are about self-empowerment, depicting strong women who are battling a society that has systematically made their fight more difficult (for the sole fact that they are women).
This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 8 No. 3 (Nov/Dec 2015).
