Different Tales: Stories from Marginal Cultures and Regional Languages
This project aims to collate a series of alternative stories for children that will reflect the plurality of experiences that constitute children’s lives in India. The reading and fieldwork for this project are throwing up a number of interesting questions: How can we find stories that reflect different life worlds and that speak to different childhood experiences? Are there local, regional or trans-national narratives that will disrupt the nationalist framework that is all-pervasive in children’s literature? The project is examining contemporary feminist, Dalit and minority literature in order to find material that can be adapted for children. The project culminated in the publication of a series of eight storybooks in Telugu, Malayalam and English. To see a full report click here.
Currently the project is being extended to translate the stories into Kannada and Urdu. M.A. Moid and K. Sukanya are working on the project.