THE MANY CHAPTERS OF INDIA'S KID-LIT

A spotlight on Children's Books: An Indian Story, with its editors Sandhya Rao and Shailaja Menon, to map the evolution of children's literature in India and the trends that have dominated it in the past four decades

- AKASH CHATTERJEE

From academic circles to middle-class households, children's literature has always been a subject of many discussions. The popularity of magazines like Chandamama, Shuktara, and Champak compelled academics to discuss their influence in shaping young minds. A new book, Children's Books: An Indian Story (Eklavya Foundation), edited by Sandhya Raol and Shailaja Menon, is a valuable addition to the discourse as it tries to focus on the evolution of such literature in the last three to four decades after globalisation.

"Our book focuses on a more recent, post-liberalisation period because several interesting changes happened that continued to the present moment that we felt was worth capturing," says Shailaja. Along with capturing the emerging trends in children's literature, it looks into the evolution of the genres from the colonial era to the early years after independence, the class influence, and the gender biases that such literature has catered to so far.

Organised into four sections, the book begins with the country's rich history of oral storytelling, progresses through the impact of library movements, and explores the development of children's publishing. Furthermore, it critically examines the portrayal of children in literature, questioning the diversity of their representation across socio-economic and cultural landscapes.

The three big influences

The book focuses on littleknown facts such as the School Book Societies established by the British aimed at creating local literature with colonial morality across the presidencies.