By Maya Palit
Last year, Ravindra Velip, a young adivasi panch from Caurem, Goa, was arrested and then assaulted in judicial custody.
A 27-year-old activist against illegal mining, he founded ‘Rainbow Warriors’, a society that aims to protect the interests of people whose livelihoods depend ecological economies in Goa.
He was blindfolded and brutally beaten up in jail, and threatened with ‘dire consequences’ if he informed anyone about it, and academics like Nandita Haksar were part of a fact-finding mission which attempted to find out why an FIR had not been registered about the incident.
Media scrutiny of the case died down eventually, but now Favita Dias and Anjora Norohna, two women creatives from Goa, have brought it back to life with a new 12-page comic that is available for free and circulating online.
The narrative of ‘Trucked’ begins just after the time that mining recommenced in Goa. It focusses on an advisai girl named Favita, who receives a message inviting her to a protest about the assault on Ravindra. Prior to then, the mining issue had vaguely bothered her, but off-late it had started to rankle because she identified in certain ways with Ravindra.
The comic takes you through Favita’s dusty bike ride across Goa to the demonstration, where she meets Yelip and other activists. As she learns about keeping secrets, sustainable mining, the large-scale implications of a mine re-opening and the injustices inflicted by the mining corporations, she discovers what it feels like to be politically involved.