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![]() ![]() Or was she let go? It’s all very complicated, but one thing is clear to Anjali: her duty lies in fighting injustice, beginning with a little well-intentioned vandalism. After all, the British won’t hang a ten-year-old girl…or will they? Anjali’s mother used to be the officer’s secretary, but then resigned. Young Anjali, fired with patriotism, decides to paint a large Q (short for “Quit India”) on the local British officer’s house. Gandhi asks for peaceful civil disobedience, based on the principle of ahimsa or non-violence - to never hurt anyone. ![]() It’s 1942, and Gandhi, jailed by the British, has urged Indians to strike so the British “Quit India” already. It also acts as a welcome antidote to Empire defenders with their rallying cry of “But the railways!” Nope, dudes. Supriya Kelkar‘s Ahimsa (Tu Books, 2017) provides a lucid, thoughtful explanation of the ethos and evolution of India’s journey to self-governance. ![]() You know what I mean.Īfter many moons of fruitless searching, I found not one but two books that blew past our requirements. The books and graphic novels I’d read were often overtly jingoistic, and not quite suitable for South Asian kids raised outside in the West, often in mixed-race families. And I found I had a condition too - nuance. ![]() No fact-heavy, plot-starved novels, he begged. My 10-year-old son finally wanted to read about the Indian subcontinent’s independence movement, but had a condition set in stone - it had to be a compelling story. ![]()
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