In today’s Intro series, let’s spotlight an anti-caste publishing house from our shelves: Navayana.
Navayana, founded in 2003 by S. Anand and D. Ravikumar, emerged as an independent publishing house rooted in caste issues in an anti-caste perspective. The name comes from B.R. Ambedkar's anti-metaphysical interpretation of Buddhism, Navayana. Focusing on social injustice and caste conflicts, Navayana made a name for itself in Indian publishing by providing a daring, anti-caste viewpoint that is rarely found in the mainstream.
Since its inception, Navayana has published a wide range of titles including general and scholarly non-fictions, translations, poetry and graphic books, with a strong emphasis on Ambedkarite philosophy. Its most acclaimed works include Bhimayana, a graphic biography of Ambedkar illustrated in the Gond art tradition and the annotated edition of Annihilation of Caste, featuring an introduction by Arundhati Roy, among several other seminal titles. These seminal works amplified Ambedkar’s radical critique of caste for a global audience.
Navayana’s logo, two kissing buffaloes by artist Chandru, symbolizes defiance against caste norms, inspired by a story in Aravind Malagatti’s autobiography Government Brahmana, where caste hierarchy dictates even the mating rights of animals.
Over the past two decades, the press has spotlighted voices from the margins, translating works from Dalit writers across languages and bridging regional literature with national and international readers. From 2009 onwards, Navayana broadened its publishing outlook to include social issues beyond caste, guided by the belief that the struggle against caste cannot happen in isolation from other struggles for justice and equality.
There is more to Navayana than just publishing books. It's creating a counter-archive that preserves the often-overlooked histories of Dalit lives. For readers willing to face the uncomfortable realities of caste and for those hungry for more inclusive, honest storytelling, Navayana is a vital space.
Here’s an (official) synopsis of some of the books we currently stock at Mehrab:
Antigod’s Own Country
A.V. Sakthidharan
What is the history of those depicted as asuras in India? What happens when Adivasi, Dravidian, Buddhist and Dalit narratives, with their egalitarian spirituality, confront an invasive brahminism? What is the counter-narrative to the ritually re-enacted murders of Mahishasura, Ravana and Bali? Is the trouble over Sabarimala merely about an unrepentant patriarchy? Antigod’s Own Country reveals the histories that are contested in the South Indian state of Kerala. At the centre of the story that A.V. Sakthidharan charts, is the asura king, Mahabali, whose subjugation—commemorated annually as Onam—became symbolic of the fate of the first peoples of the state in the face of Aryan domination. This book examines the multifarious origins of the myths of non-Aryan deities like Mutthappan, Suyodhana, various mother goddesses, all the way up to the cult of Ayyappan.
Land, Guns, Caste, Woman
Gita Ramaswamy
The epic story of a revolution without a gun.
In her teens, Gita Ramaswamy escapes the brahminical clutches of her family that tried to cure her of Naxalism with shock treatment. She endures the horrors of the Emergency. She is disillusioned. But not without hope. In the 1980s, Gita starts living with agricultural labourers in Telangana. They are landless dalits, caught between a reddy and a hard place. They are in bondage, cheated out of land and all rights. They are in the mood to fight. Together, they take on the tyrannical landlords who brutalized the villages for generations.
Indifference: On the Praxis of Interspecies Being
Naisargi N. Davé
Why is moral attention to the animal so repulsive? What separates the perverse from the permissible, the bestial from the homely? Are animals truly innocent?
Indifference is the opposite of the desire for difference. Naisargi Davé reveals how curiosity does not kill cats alone. The tyranny of consistency demands the death of exceptions. Animals are neither voiceless nor innocent beings. Fueled by the perceived innocence of the silent Mother figure, cow-protectionism drives lynching: of Dalits and Muslims, vulnerable beings caught in the Hindu–Sikh–Jain dominated meat industry. Contrary to Hindutva and liberal belief, animals do speak—in queer tongues. In listening together differently, we hear the silent refusal of the object Other: women, queers, commodities, and other animals.
Indifference is the result of years of research, writing, thinking, reading, and feeling about human–animal relations in India and elsewhere. Davé writes in favor of indifference, not as a lack, but as a stance born of the queer desire and belief in an otherwise way of being.
Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability
Art- Durgabai Vyam, Subhash Vyam
Text- Srividya Natarajan, S. Anand
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), one of India’s foremost revolutionaries, grew up untouchable. Battling against the odds, he gained multiple doctorates, campaigned against social discrimination and the caste system and went on to draft the Constitution of India. Throughout his life Ambedkar faced routine discrimination: in school at the age of 10; in Baroda after his return from Columbia University; and while travelling in later life. The discrimination experienced by Ambedkar continues to haunt a majority of India’s 170 million dalits as many are still denied water, shelter and the basic dignities of life.
In this ground-breaking work, Pardhan-Gond artists Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam interweave historical events with contemporary incidents, infusing fresh energy into the graphic idiom through their magical art.
Durgabai Vyam, who has illustrated a dozen books and won the BolognaRagazzi award in 2008 for The Night Life of Trees, says Bhimayana is her most accomplished work yet. Subhash Vyam began as a sculptor before turning to painting. They live in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Srividya Natarajan is a dancer and novelist; she lives in London, Canada. S. Anand is the publisher of Navayana.
Explore more from Navayana at Mehrab. We'll be back soon with another Intro!