Contemporary English-Language Indian Children’s Literature: Representations of Nation, Culture, and the New Indian Girl (review)

[Response]

The field of English-language Indian children’s literature is one that continues to beckon study from the greatest possible array of theoretical lenses, so it was with eager anticipation that I read Michelle Superle’s Contemporary English-Language Indian Children’s Literature: Representations of Nation, Culture, and the New Indian Girl. It is worth noting at the start by “children’s literature”, the author means books published for children “aged eight through eighteen” (2). Furthermore, texts that received greater attention appear to be young adult titles whose characters are teenagers.

The study is divided into seven chapters. The introduction presents the researcher’s approach and the employment of postcolonial theory and feminist theory to guide textual analysis. The author showcases “attitudes towards Indian childhood and socio-political aspirations” (18) by examining how transformative utopian literature objectives surface in texts of two categories: diasporic and non-diasporic.

Chapter One charts the emergence and development of contemporary English language Indian children’s literature. Superle observes that the definitive mark of children’s literature in India “has always been and remains today primarily didactic” with “its focus is on moral instruction” (20). Superle sees non-diasporic texts as having “evolved out of a children’s literature shaped by ancient Sanskrit narrative” (36) in addition to oral traditions and national aspirations, whereas diasporic texts emerged from the didacticism of “western multicultural children’s literature” (19). Chapter Two is concerned with the basic roles girl characters play in the novel. Superle’s views are shaped by liberal feminist value systems. She observes that her sample of children’s literature should be understood within the wider context which includes the “frequent omission or distortion of class and caste struggles” (56) in the service of hegemonic social structures. In down-playing these sources of strife, the novels attempt to portray the “New Indian girl” as one who is able to emancipate herself, advance gender equality, and balance tradition with modernity (57).

Chapter Three further serves theoretical notions of hegemony by focusing on the engineering of unity with diversity through visions of national figures such as Gandhi and Nehru. Superle discusses the portrayal of ‘intercultural friendship as a means to overcome racism” (75). A project that continues into the next chapter where the idea of imagined Indianess is discussed in service of nation-building. Paradoxically, Superle notes that while India is “politically shaped by a secular constitution, it remains in daily practice a deeply religious society… Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism” (91). Oddly, Superle does not appear to track down religious Indian children’s literature; rather, she considers, “The textual absence of religion can be largely explained by the fact that India was constitutionally structured as a secular nation-state after Independence” (90) and “that publishers of Indian children’s literature perpetuate…ideological views…forcing authors to comply with publication guidelines that reinforce hegemonic nationalist values” (92).

Chapter Five continues the idea of an alleged hegemonic project fuelling the production of Indian children’s literature in its discussion of the use of cultural markers within texts to promote the idea of “Indianness.” The author argues that the story’s setting and cultural artefacts help facilitate the portrayal of an Indian identity, a role often unnoticed by westerners unfamiliar with Indian culture. Superle raises the issue of how cultural markers such as food, music and apparel have been criticised by proponents of multicultural literature for being superficial—a view she accepts is true in some texts—but she argues for a deeper understanding of these markers rather than a blanket dismissal of them. All of these chapters serve to present the last two chapters, which introduce the effects of Indian children’s literature upon its readers.

Chapter Six focuses on the imagined identity created by diasporic writers and the concept of a bicultural self, which nearly all characters appear to demonstrate. The procurement of an Indian...