The Donkey Rider

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In the beginning, the donkey rider was just a man. Until one day, they exiled him, sending him away with all their sins on his back. But he remained in their memory, and over time, the man of flesh became a legend, a figure of mud.

In the gleaming metropolis of Pulse, life is built on dreams, cars, mutual funds, and washing machines. Just beyond it, in the rundown town of Rukawa, survival revolves around the Big Well—a vast, impenetrable prison that looms over the town and its people.

Huma, a young lawyer from Pulse, defends prisoners on death row. Ghurbat, raised in Rukawa, has spent his life navigating poverty and moral compromise. Their paths meet inside the Well, where Ghurbat awaits execution.

As they confront the machinery of the death penalty and the stories we tell about those condemned by it, The Donkey Rider moves between the real and the imagined to ask how guilt is made and who gets to bear it.

Based on groundbreaking research by Project 39A (now The Square Circle), The Donkey Rider is a graphic novel brought to life through Rai’s artwork, blending magic realism and memory into a haunting portrait of India’s justice system, where the line between the condemned and those who condemn them is never quite clear.