“Does anyone know how people die in sewers?” Comics, Caste, and Manual Scavenging in Samarth’s Suit

Manual scavenging is the practice of physically cleaning toilets, sewers, and public drains. Though illegal in India, hundreds of manual scavengers are still employed, most of whom belong to the Scheduled Castes. Comics, principally anti-caste alternative publications, invite conversations on the complex web of caste and manual scavenging. Historically, Indian graphic biographies have dominated the graphic discourse on caste in India, whereas Samarth shifts the focus of graphic narratives toward the plausible manifestations of caste soon through Suit. In particular, he imagines intergenerational negotiations with caste, the socio-political agendas vis-à-vis caste in the future, and the perpetual existence of caste-based discrimination in manual scavenging. Further, Suit’s realistic art style elicits critical and affective responses from its readers toward the pitiable conditions of manual scavengers. It provides both critical distance and an opportunity for “conscientisation” (Freire 1970) about manual scavenging to its readers. Put boldly, Suit poses a significant question through its visual expansion of caste-based discrimination: What is caste today and how will it be in the future for a technologically equipped suitwala? (“suitguy”)