ABSTRACT
An extensive critical analysis of contemporary, English-language Indian children’s novels is overdue. Although this body of literature has developed only recently and the output is small, according to postcolonial critic Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, contemporary children’s fi ction showcases signifi cant Indian
social trends “worth noting because they signal change, or the desire for change, in the situation of and attitudes towards children” (“Fictions of Difference” 101). As one of the world’s most populous countries, one from which millions emigrate to the English-speaking west, and one which could be poised as a new global superpower, India merits close consideration. As a window into shifting value systems, children’s literature from India and the Indian diaspora is useful for its capacity to provide insight into contemporary Indian social situations, both national and transnational. According to economist Rama Bijapurkar, these social situations are of particular interest because “the child of today’s India has no parallel elsewhere. This child represents a poor country’s Internet generation, its aspirations running riot in a milieu of very scarce opportunities: a situation that has not existed anywhere else, ever before” (9). Despite the scarcity of opportunities in reality, fi ctional Indian children are portrayed as succeeding in shaping their lives, communities, and nations.
