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Colonial India in Children's Literature. By Supriya Goswami. Series: Children's literature and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2012. 197 pages.
Although there is certainly no shortage of literature about the history of British colonisation and imperial rule in India in general, Supriya Goswami's slim but meticulously researched book seems to be the first thorough study to bring together children's literature by British, Anglo-Indian, and Bengali authors with colonial Indian history. Focusing on six authors, Goswami explores the connections between these two fields, and develops her argument that these authors' texts "not only engage in political activism, but also seek to empower children (both real and fictional) by celebrating them as active colonial and anticolonial agents" (3).
In her chronologically arranged research, she devotes one chapter each to The History of Little Henry and His Bearer by Mary Sherwood, The Captives in India by Barbara Hofland, The Story of Sonny Sahib by Sara Jeanette Duncan, The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, and texts by the two Bengali authors, Upendrakishore Ray and Sukumar Ray, respectively. Goswami's book,...