Rethinking Resilience: Addressing Dalit Childhood in Selected Indian Picturebooks

Abstract

This study explores contemporary Indian picturebooks’ take on Dalit childhood through a critical reading of Bhimrao Ambedkar: The Boy Who Asked Why (2015) by Sowmya Rajendran and Satwik Gade, Rinchin and Sagar Kolwankar’s I Will Save My Land (2017), and CG Salamander and Samidha Gunjal’s Puu (2018). These new-age narratives challenge, resist and replace the hegemonic ideals that have dehumanized Indian Dalits for several generations. The emergence of these picturebooks asserts a powerful call towards and beyond Dalit children in re-conceptualizing and reasserting the collective and individual Dalit identities to claim their rightful position in the Indian social system. This study reveals how the selected picturebooks not only offer insight into the veiled lives of the outcaste before the readers but also sensitize them about the subjects of social justice and inequity. This article examines a critique of representing Dalit childhood while addressing the plurality of oppression behind the monolith of caste inequality and establishing the significance of social inclusivity.