Kokrajhar, Jan. 1: Two budding artists, a Bodo and a Santhali (Adivasi), are on a peace mission through their 'cartoons on wheels'.

Amrit Basumatary of Chirang and Sundar Mohan Murmu from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand are travelling to various places in lower Assam's Kokrajhar district with their 'cartoons on wheels'.

The duo, who are in their late twenties, decorated the car with messages -'Stop rumour, spread humour', 'Tolerance leads to peace', 'Keep clam and peace, follow secularism' and 'United we stand' among others.

Coincidently the two belong to two communities - Bodo and Santhali (Adivasi) who bore the brunt of violence unleashed by militants. 'There cannot be a better message than this. There is no enmity between the Bodos and the Adivasis who have been living together since many years. Let us defeat violence,' said Basumatary.

'Violence will not yield any result. It is only peace that will lake us forward in all aspects, be it development or uplift of society,' said Murmu.

The earlier plan was to draw political cartoons but the recent carnage changed all that.

'This recent violence prompted us to rethink on our earlier plan. So we settled on cartoons on peace,' Basumatary said. 'It is a small effort on our part to send a message of peace and harmony through our cartoons,' he added.

They started from Bongaigaon and travelled through National Highway 31(C) to Kokrajhar via Karigaon and will travel to Gossaigaon-Basugaon.

'We are glad that people are noticing our efforts and we are getting lots of appreciation from people who have had enough of violence,' said Basumatary.

The two have been active members and master trainers of the World Comics India Network, Delhi, which is an organisation that promotes grassroots comics globally.

Murmu is an illustrator and a cartoonist with a media house at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. Basumatary, besides being an illustrator and freelancecartoonist, has also contributed to comics anthology entitled Parallel Lines in 2010. It is a saga of the movement for 'Bodoland' and has received critical acclaim.

The duo have also helped various small and medium publication houses to periodically produce comics and wall posters on pertinent issues of local and social importance.