Representational Violence of Colonial River Mapping: Deconstructing the Linear Flows of Waterbodies in River of Stories (2022) and All Quiet in Vikaspuri (2015)

Abstract

A renewed attention on water in postcolonial studies questions the anthropocentric reduction of rivers into inert exploitable entities. Expanding the engagement of postcolonial literatures with water, this article focuses on the representational violence of colonial river mapping in the graphic novels River of Stories and All Quiet in Vikaspuri. Graphic novels’ unique semiotic registers and visual techniques unravel the ongoing influence of colonial cartography and offer alternative spaces to map fluvial riverine ecologies. Graphic novels unearth the interlinkages between abstract cartographic illustrations and extractive hydro-infrastructure projects. The article builds upon Dilip da Cunha’s argument of decolonizing the extractive gaze of resource mapping that naturalizes the depiction of rivers in India as flows of water following a fixed channel. The colonial-extractive gaze of maps is juxtaposed with the experiential view of rivers as depicted in the graphic novels. In emphasizing the graphics of submerged zones and the perspectives of people occupying these areas, the analysis foregrounds the interventionist-activist aim of postcolonial critique. In doing so, the article underscores the socio-political dimensions of water, reflected in its fluvial nature, that are often obscured in colonial cartography. © 2026 South Asian Literary Association.