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Gandhi Journal Article - II

Mahatma Gandhi and Children's Literature in Indian English

By Ved Mitra Shukla

In the present century, children's literature has not been a marginalised area in the world of literature. There is a long list of such writers who are constantly writing for children. As far as the beginning of the history of Indian English literature is concerned, writers have knowingly or unknowingly focused on it. Children-centric works can be credited to Rabindranath Tagore, R K Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, etc. However, the genre could not be developed so much in the pre-Independence era, but later on, there followed a number of writers who focused considerably on it. But not many big names except writers like Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, etc. can be cited as far as the development of the genre is concerned. However, the paper will make an attempt to discuss the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on some selected works of Indian English children's literature. No doubt, a number of children's books can be found on Gandhi. Owing to the limited scope of the paper, there will be a focus on the children's books suggested by the Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal / Gandhi Book Centre, Bombay. Works like Pictorial Biography of Mahatma Gandhi by B R Nanda, Inspiring Stories from Gandhiji’s Life by Uma Shankar Joshi, Mahatma Gandhi by Jyoti Solapurkar, Story of Gandhi by Ramanbhai Soni, The Story of Gandhi by Rajkumari Shankar, A Pinch of Salt Rocks by Sarojini Sinha, etc. will be taken for study. Some other works which are without the biographical account of Gandhi will also be taken. All these works will be studied with the purpose of a literary analysis of the writers’ treatment of the technique, tone and content, or length in the respective works. The paper will also try to crutinize the books by age category, keeping in view the divergent interests of children of the age-group 1-18. Over and above, it will concentrate on how children’s literature has gone through considerable changes under the influence of Gandhi over the years. 

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