ABSTRACT
In my discussion of cooperation, friendship, and unity in diversity, I argued that the novels’ aspirational approaches to social relations are well suited to a child audience. Whereas this is true, it is equally true that textual portrayals failing to adequately or accurately represent Indian “diversity” due to oversimplifi cation or omission are problematic. Accordingly, many of the novels in this sample are troubling due to the specifi c, hegemonic version of the Indian nation they portray and their promise that particular national aspirations, both goals set by Nehru historically and the more contemporary ones outlined in Mission India, for example, can be achieved by dutiful children when
they embody nationally valuable character traits. Such dutiful, courageous child characters are represented in the majority of contemporary Englishlanguage children’s novels published in India: because they are characterised heroically, child readers who identify with them may be inspired by and wish to emulate their behaviour.
