Blog 2: Children literature during India’s Independence
This will be the 2nd blog on the children’s literature and in this blog, I will focus on the children’s literature during India’s Independence Day. India got independent on 15th August 1947, but the initial seed was planted back in 1857. Numerous national heroes fought against British atrocities and each of them contributed which created an environment that forced British to quit India. This blog would turn into handful books if I start mentioning names of all of them. Some of the notable freedom fighters were Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Rani Lakshmibai and Sardar Patel.
After Independence, India was struggling to create a stable government and on the other hand children were confused when it came to history, especially freedom struggle. So, I started researching into types of books available for the children during and post-Independence. Back in 1930s, Balsakha was published children stories along with the life stories of freedom fighters. Back then India was still under British rule, so the magazine was closed. But in 1957 after the independence, Children Book Trust was created which who started publishing Independence stories every August. Books like Story of Jhansi and The Story of India’s Freedom Movement was the first attempt to teach children life of freedom fighters like Rani Lakshmibai and Jawaharlal Nehru. This created a wave which saw increase in children story books on Independence them showing life of freedom fighters. One freedom fighter, Mahatma Gandhi turned out to be a children’s favorite hero. Many picturebooks, graphic novels and biography books were published for children. Everyone’s Gandhi was so famous that author got 500 responses in mails every week. Target another children’s magazine published a comic books in 1980s. This led to increased grandparent and children interaction where children got to learn memories of an older generation during Independence period.
Works Cited
“Theme of Independence in Children’s Literature in India | Jaya’s Blog.” On Publishing and Literature, www.jayabhattacharjirose.com/theme-of-independence-in-childrens-literature-in-india/.
“Target (Magazine).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Dec. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_(magazine).
“Balsakha.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balsakha.