Droughts and Disillusions: On the Life of Godavari Dange
Image courtesy: Maitri Dore
A true Indian tale of agrarian crisis, caste, and gender inequalities, is brought together in the graphic narrative, Raindrop in the Drought—the story of Godavari Dange.
Maitri Dore and Reetika Revathy Subramanian’s unique new work Raindrop in the Drought (2021) adds to the existing genre of graphic novels which blend the personal and the political, bringing a biographical story to life in illustrated form. There is no shortage of inspirations for this subgenre of work; for instance, Persepolis (2000) by Marjane Satrapi captured Satrapi’s life and its outcomes, determined by the Iran Revolution, as the author writes about growing up in a country where women have to abide by strict moral codes. Similarly, in Munnu—A Boy from Kashmir (2015) by Malik Sajad, the turmoil of growing up in a heavily militarised Kashmir is retold through the eyes of Young Munnu.
Image courtesy: Maitri Dore
Raindrop in the Drought: Godavari Dange, illustrated by Dore with text by Subramanian, is an intersectional feminist comic that portrays the story of Godavari Dange. The book is part of Goethe Institut Indonesien's “Movements and Moments” project, which seeks to highlight stories of grassroots feminism from the Global South. In this comic, the life of Godavari Dange is slowly unveiled against the backdrop of a deepening agrarian crisis.
Like the narratives of Satrapi or Munnu, where the larger world expounded on personal tribulations, Dange’s life as illustrated in Raindrop has been shaped by ongoing drought. Her personal story, with its tragedies and triumphs, is a microcosm of the political story of agrarian crisis in Marathwada region in Maharashtra, persisting gender inequalities, and devaluing of women’s labour in farming sector—especially those from marginalised caste backgrounds.
The cover sets the tone for Raindrop, an illustration of women sitting on a barren, non-irrigated land, with an irrigation plan drafted out, and seeds waiting to be sown. Presented in the format of an accessible comic, the book creates an engaging visual tale. Dore and Subramanian are deeply aware of the intersectional nature of the story summarised in the comic. “Conversations on the links between feminism, agriculture, labour, land ownership and the climate crisis, particularly from South Asia, are not adequately documented,” said Subramanian. “Even today, women are not recognised and rewarded as farmers or skilled labourers by families, the State and markets. The climate crisis further exacerbates existing caste, gender, and class inequalities. Godavari Dange’s story encapsulates all of these struggles. What is truly remarkable about her is that she not only came out of her huge personal tragedy, but even continues to back other women farmers grappling with frequent droughts, upper-caste landowners and male-dominated markets.”
The book is part of Goethe Institut Indonesien's “Movements and Moments” project. In this comic, the life of Godavari Dange is slowly unveiled against the backdrop of a deepening agrarian crisis.
Dange was born in 1977, shortly after what is considered to be the worst drought to hit the Marathwada region in 1972 . She dropped out of school in seventh grade. The comic—written in first-person narrative—depicts this decision of dropping out. Dange says, “To make things worse, I was promoted to senior school”. In the context of the drought where money runs out fast, and assets are being sold, the readers witness Dange’s parents deciding to pull her out of school. A young Godavari peeps indoors and overhears this conversation. She can only watch helplessly as a crucial life-altering life decision is made for her.
Eventually married at 16, and widowed at 20, Dange began to participate and mobilise for self-help groups (SHGs) in 1999 for Swayam Shikshan Prayog.
The trajectory of Dange’s life has been shaped by the drought. She stated in a conversation how the droughts persisting since 2012 have adversely impacted the farmers of the region. “In 2014, 2015 and 2016 the drought intensified and there was nothing to farm,” said Dange. “Some farmers didn’t even sow their land. When we used to venture out for women’s meetings, we used to wonder how we would spend these periods and how will people stay alive”.
Maitri Dore, Godavari Dange, and Reetika Revathy Subramanian. Photo courtesy: Maitri Dore
Dange further described the desolate conditions. “There were many other difficulties like in our village no vegetables were being sold for a continuous period of eight days. Basic vegetables like tomato and chillies were not available because the supply wasn’t coming from outside and there was no production from within the village either. This is a problem which really bothered me.”
Adding to these woes, the book also captures the way caste deepens the existing inequalities of the region. For instance, a comic panel on page 8 illustrates a young Dange sitting on a treetop with her childhood friend. The reader sees from the eyes of a young child the view of the lands of upper-caste farmers, which are lush and green; adjacent to which are lands belonging to farmers from marginalised castes, lying fallow due the inequality hindering access to resources. Since her youth, Dange has embodied this two-fold inequality of both caste and gender.
Raindrop also addresses the core issue of women not being designated the status of farmers, despite their own hard labour in the fields. It is this discrimination and devaluing of work that makes the one-acre model revolutionary, because it recognises women as farmers and landowners, and grants them the dignity of labour. Dange, who has the lived experience of this discrimination said, “Generally the practice is that the funds are invested for chemical-based farming, where the cost is high and the income is lower. India despite being a ‘krishipradhan desh’ and 80% of the labourers being women, they are still not granted the status of farmers. I have been going on the fields for the last 22 years, and whenever I go on the fields for self-help group meetings, the women would leave for the field at ten in the morning and stay there till 6 in the evening, even then they are not granted the status of farmers and landowners.”
The comic panel on page 23 presents a moment of triumphant subversion. Here, the women practicing the one-acre model are standing on their lush fields relived that they have food in the middle of the drought while looking upon fields, primarily cultivated by men for commercial cropping. Now, the fields lie barren in the drought.
“Through both writing and illustrations, we tried to paint a nuanced picture of her life,” said Dore. “Though it’s true that her life has been really challenging, it was important to not victimise her; for, that's not how she looks at herself, but actually talk about her bargains and resistances.”
Image courtesy: Maitri Dore
The invisibility of women’s labour in agriculture in India has been a long and ongoing problem. Often, women are not seen as farmers by law and policymakers; hence the gender gap in agriculture continues to persist. The one-acre model shifts the conversation around food security by centring women’s capacity to take decisions about availability of food and ensuring equitable access to resources.
Additionally, in the world’s largest demonstration against the (now repealed) farm laws, many women took the forefront. As privileged individuals accessing this book, it brings in a sharp awareness of the human lives of farmers and decision-makers in the crossfires before the food grains reach our individual plates. Dange’s one story encapsulates so many others; the decision of sowing, reaping, and harvesting—all of it embroiled in the politics of caste, land ownership, and gender.
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Priyanka Chakarabarty is a neuroqueer person and law student based in Bangalore. She aspires to be a human rights lawyer. An avid reader of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, she has been writing in the genre of creative non-fiction. She is a bookstgrammer and regularly documents her reading journey on Instagram: @exisitingquietly.
