Finding Belonging
in Far-Flung Places:
Indian Children’s Literature �in International Schools
International Schools are �Diverse places
Students balancing on seesaw by Nadine Bailey of WAB Middle school students
50-100+
0-60%+
Up to 80
Typical �Intl School Profile
Different nationalities
Local Students
Home languages
Shelfie Photos by Mako Borres of �WAB Middle school students
Post colonial legacy of the English
The Indian Diaspora
Non-resident Indian (NRI) & Overseas Citizen of India (OCI)
“According to a Ministry of External Affairs report, there are 32 million NRIs and OCIs residing outside India and overseas Indians comprise the world's largest overseas diaspora. Every year 2.5 million (25 lakhs) Indians migrate overseas, which is the highest annual number of migrants in the world.”
“Diasporas maintain ‘dual homeness’ securing a collective in its local environment deepened with an external reference of belongingness �(Ben-Rafael 2010).”
Tamil is one of the 4 national languages of Singapore and Indians are 9% of the population.
Indian Heritage Centre opened in Singapore in 2015
Indian literature for adults
has been prominent for years
(but what about Indian literature �for children?)
Annual (free to the public) children’s literature festival held at Neev Academy in Bangalore, India in September - during which the Neev Book Award winners are announced.
Articles re the Indian tribes appealing for help from people like James Cameron, director of “Avatar” (2009) - as their real-life struggles are similar to the film.
Both these novels won the
Young Adult Neev Book Award
with Roopa Pai
Amar Chitra Katha = Immortal Illustrated Stories
Samhita Arni wrote this when she was 12 years old!
2020 Neev Book Award winner for Young Adults
The Prince - by Samhita Arni
Think “Game of Thrones”
set in ancient south Asia
A re-imagined version
of a classic Tamil epic
22 languages
have official status
in India
However…
“according to the Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages.” (Wikipedia)
Winner of the 2018 Neev Book Award
2021 Picture book
2021 Picture book
2019 winner of the Neev Book Award for Early Years
See Maya Thiagarajan’s blog post for a full list of Indian literary canon recommendations
for A-level or IB Diploma level texts
Winner of the Neev Book Award
for Young Adults 2018
Historical fiction trilogy by Devika Rangachari
The Boy Who Asked Why: Bhimrao Ambedkar
by Sowmya Rajendran, illustrated by Satwik Gade (2018)
Shortlisted for the 2018 Neev Book Award for Emerging Readers
A picture book biography of social reformer Bhimrao “Bhim” Ambedkar (1891-1956) who challenged India’s caste system and wrote India’s Constitution in 1947.
Srinivasa Ramanujan: Friend of Numbers
by Priya Narayanan, illustrated by Satwik Gade (2019)
Shortlisted for the 2019 Neev Book Award for Emerging Readers
A picture book biography about Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician and genius who had almost no formal training.
Gita Varadarajan
Mismatched is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age romantic drama web series on Netflix, based on Sandhya Menon's 2017 novel When Dimple Met Rishi.
1947 - Partition
An estimated 200,000 to 1 million people died during migration.. Often described as the largest mass human migration in history.
2017
2020
2019 middle-grade historical adventure novel by Venita Coelho, which features the Koh-i-Noor
“ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thank you, Mr. David Cameron, erstwhile Prime Minister of England. While on a visit to India in 2013, he was asked to return the Koh-i-Noor. He replied, ‘I don’t believe in returnism.’ The sheer colonial arrogance of that reply made me so mad, I sat down to write. Inspiration doesn’t last. Anger does.”
The Homework - by Ashwin Guha and Vaibha Kumaresh
Shortlisted for the 2022 Neev Book Award for Emerging Readers
Anushka Ravishankar
(the “Dr. Seuss” of India)
Captain Coconut & the Case of the Missing Bananas
by Anushka Ravishankar
A humorous mystery for beginning readers (#2 out in 2023?)
hOle Books - by Duckbill / Penguin Books India (like the Aussie Bites series)
2018
Shortlisted for the Neev Book Award
– From a study of the sector commissioned by literary agent and publishing commentator Kanishka Gupta, 2022
Sudha Murty (née Kulkarni; born 19 August 1950) is an Indian educator, author and philanthropist who is chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. She is married to the co-founder of Infosys, N. R. Narayana Murthy and is the mother-in-law of Rishi Sunak, the current British Prime Minister….
THE CHILD
& CHOICE
ACCESSIBLE?
AVAILABLE?
desirability*
feasibility*
viability*
Finding Belonging
in Far-Flung Places:
Indian Children’s Literature �in International Schools