New Delhi, Oct. 16 -- Joe Sacco's latest book, The Once and Future Riot, revisits the communal riots that broke out between Jat and Muslim inhabitants of Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh in 2013. It led to the death of at least 62 people, a majority of whom were Muslims, and made thousands more homeless. In terms of scale and territorial ambit it may have been a hyper-local conflict, caused by a murky mix of local, regional and interpersonal politics. But, as the Malta-born American Sacco shows in this brilliant account, its roots go back to the blood-laced legacy of Partition, when the seeds of generational animosity between Hindus and Muslims was sown in the subcontinent.

Sacco's reputation as a storyteller and truth-seeker is u...