A STUDY OF FICTION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
ON INDIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS PUBLISHED, 189L-1950
A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF
LIBRARY SERVICE OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF "'ASTER OF SCIENCE
IN LIBRARY SERVICE
BY
LOUISE GREEN GRAY
SCHOOL OF LIBRARY SERVICE
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
AUGUST, 19$k TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page LIST OF TABLES iii
Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1
Purpose and Scope Significance Definition of Terms Methodology
II. AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS OF FICTION BOOKS ON INDIA FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE PUBLISHED, 189^-1950 7
III. BACKGROUND OF INDIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS AND CHARACTERISTICS PORTRAYED IN THE FICTION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE 26
IV. SUMMARY 72
APPENDIX I. FICTION BOOKS ON INDIA FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECOMMENDED READING LEVEL OF EACH .... 80
APPENDIX II. DESCRIPTIVE ANNOTATIONS OF FICTION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT INDIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS, PUBLISHED 189U-1950 82
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 85
ii LIST OF TA.HT.ES
Table Page 1. Authors and Illustrators of Children's Books About India According to Nationality, Place of Birth, Tjjne Spent in India, and Number of Books on India 2h
2. Features of Indian Life and Customs and Frequency with Which Each Occurs in the Fiction Books on India for Children and Xoung People Published, 189U-1950 .... 71
3. A Comparison of the Authors' Place of Birth and the Number of Times the Characteristic Features Appear in the Fiction Books About India for Children and Young People 76
h. Publishers and Number of Fiction Books for Children and Young Peoole on Indian Life anc Customs Published, 1891I-19£> 77
5. Analysis of the Contents of Fiction Books on India for Children and Young People According to,Crade Levels 78
6. Grade Levels of Fiction Books for Children and Young Peoole on Indian Life and Customs Published from 1891-1950 . .79
iii CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
India is often thought of as a storybook land, a land of rich nrinces and great wealth and beauty. But it is more than just a story¬ book land, it is a land of growing economic importance with hugh reserves of natural resources that have hardly been touched. Since the Middle
Ages, the very name India has meant mystery and romance to the people of the Western World. Early travelers to India returned with tales of wealth and beauty, bringing back with them silks and spices, jewels and tapes¬ tries. Early adventurers of Spain, Portugal, and England dreamed of sailing to India.
The name India is an English form of the word Hindustan, which means land of Hind. Hindustan came from the Greek pronunciation of the
Persian word Sindhu, which itself was a pronunciation of the old Sanskrit name of the river Indus of India.l
India offers a variety of features. There you will find the highest mountains in the world, the hot lowland plains, cool highlands and thick jungles. This great country may also be considered a melting pot of Oriental peoples and civilizations. During its history of several thousand years, many different peonies have settled in the country. From over the mountains, through one of the few passes of the mighty Himalayas,
Chinese and Turkish invaders and Mohammedan conquerors have come into
l"India,M The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. IX, p. 368h.
1 2
India. As a result, there are many different languages spoken in India, as well as many dialects. The lack of a universal language hinders oro- gress that might be made otherwise. Because of the lack of educational facilities and because of poor economic conditions many of the people are illiterate.
In order to learn more about reooles of different countries, and to find out the type of information a child may get from reading fiction books about the various nationalities, a series of studies of fiction books for children and. young people on the social life and customs of various nationality groups is being made to find out if accurate informa¬ tion is being presented. 1 This stiidy deals with books on India, a country that is becoming increasingly important in world affairs. It has great ootentialities that need only to be developed in order to help raise the standard of living in India. In the early 1900’s the average income per nerson in India was about twenty dollars a year. That average increased during World War II, but at the same time the cost of living rose at an even higher rate. There was a famine in many marts of India in 19l*2 and
191*3 and the cost of food more than doubled. The low average income and the high cost of living result in a noor diet, bad housing, ill health, and little education for the average Indian.2
1Francine L. Jackson, "A Study of Juvenile Fiction on Chinese Life and Customs Published, 191*0-191*9" (Unpublished Master’s thesis, School of Library Service, Atlanta University, 19£l). Al toise Chenault, "A Study of Juvenile Fiction on Mexican Life and Customs Published, 1936-191*9" (Unpublished Master’s thesis, School of Library Service, Atlanta University, 1952). Gladys M. Greene, "An Analysis of the Social Life and Customs of Africa Found in African Fiction Written for Young Adults Published, 1925- 1951" (Unpublished Master's thesis, School of Library Service, Atlanta University, 1953)»
EWorld Book, op. cit., p. 3688. 3
Books can be a means of learning more about this country, and in fiction books for children and young people, it is very important that the information should ore sent a true picture of the people and their customs. It lias been stated that "books can be a means of sensitizing young people to differences between people, differences of opportunity, cultural values, and expectations. Books may provide some imaginative exneriences -which help broaden our appreciation of other people, widen our awareness of their needs, and deepen our sympathies with their joys and deprivations."! Since it is possible that books read in childhood have a stronger formative effect than all the books read in later years, care should be taken to make sure that the information found in the books is accurate.
Purpose and Scope
The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of
Indian life and customs as portrayed in fiction books for children and young people written on India and the Indian people. The publications used in this study are limited to stories and fiction works listed in the Children's Catalog,2 the Standard Catalog for High School Libraries,3
A Basic Book Collection for Elementary Grades,b A Basic Book Collection
lAmerican Council on Education, Reading Ladders for Human Rela¬ tions (Washington: American Council on Education, 191l7), p. 1.
2R. Giles and D. Cook (comps.), Children's Catalog (8th ed., New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1951 )•
3üorothy West (compO, Standard Catalog for High School Libraries (6th ed., New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1952).
kJoint Committee of the American Library Association, National Education Association, Association for Childhood Education and National Council of Teachers of English, A Basic Book Collection for Elementary Grades (5th ed., Chicago: American Library Association, 195l)* for Junior High Schools,! and A Basic Book Collection for High Schools.2
Biograohical sketches of authors and illustrators of the selected books will be nresented to show who they are and in v;hat ways their lives and their personal and professional pursuits influenced their writing and illustrating books on India for children and young people.
Significance
It seems significant to analyze tho juvenile and adolescent books written on India for children and young people to ascertain what charac¬ teristics are portrayed and what concepts of other racial groups are made for children and young people in this country. A knowledge of the authors ' and illustrators’ qualifications should be helpful in determining which authors by experience and background might tend to be best qualified to write about India. The study should be of practical value to teachers and librarians who are interested in knowing the contents of the fiction books in tenus of accuracy and authenticity. This information should be of special interest to librarians who are helping to develop intercuttural understanding by enabling them to offer the reader books that will pro¬ mote better understanding of different cultures and customs.
Definition of Terms3
Indian - A member of one of the native races of India (Hindustan) or of Farther India (Indo-China), whether Hindu or Moslem.
* lElsa R. Berner (ed.), A Basic Book Collection for Junior High Schools (Chicago: American Library Association, 1950)»
2«Joint Committee of the American Library Association, National Education Association and National Council of Teachers of English, A Basic Book Collection for High Schools (5th ed., Chicago: American~ Library Association, 19^0).
3Webster's Collegiate Dictionaiy,(Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam Co., 19^1)• 5
Life - Way, manner, or phase of living with respect to conditions, circumstances, character, conduct, occupations, et cetera.
Customs - The whole body of usages, practices, or conventions which regulate social life, usual manner of living and doing.
Methodology
A list of fiction titles on India -was compiled from the Children’s
Catalog,! the Standard Catalog for High School Libraries,2 A Basic Book
Collection for Elementary Grades,3 A Basic Look Collection for Junior High
Schools,^ and A Basic Book Collection for High Schools.5
For the background information articles on India were read in The
World Book Encyclopedia,6 Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia,7 and Gosbal’s
The People of India.° From these articles categories representing the culture of the people were set up as a basis for determining the extent to T-shich the fiction books on India included specific information about
Indian life and customs. These categories will bo fully discussed in
Chapter III of tliis study. They are:
iQiles, op. cit.
2West, op. cit.
3Joint Committee of the American Library Association, National Education Association, Association for Childhood Education and National Council of Teachers of English, or. cit.
^Berner, OP. cit.
hJoint Committee of the American Library Association, National Education Association, and National Council of Teachers of English, on. cit.
&The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. IX. Article, "India."
(’Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia. Vol. VII. Article, "India."
3Kumar Goshal, The People .of India. (New York: Sheridan House, 19UJ) 6
Physical Features and Climate Natural Resources Dress Homes Food Occupations Religions Animals Transportation Schools Celebrations «ferriage Customs
The fiction titles listed in Aprenrîix I were read and their contents checked against the categories set up from the factual inf or na¬ tion. The 23 titles were published during the years l89U-195>0, and con¬ sist of fiction books suitable for children ranging from the first grade through high school.
The biograohical data for the authors and illustrators were secured
from various biographical dictionaries, magazine articles, letters re¬ ceived from publishers and two personal letters from illustrators. CHAPTER II
AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS OF FICTION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
AND YOUNG PEOPLE ON INDIAN LIFE’. AND CUSTOMS
An author’s background and environment may have a great influence
on the books he writes and havr -well he is able to develop his subject.
Therefore, in order to judge what effect this background has on making
Indian fiction more realistic and authentic, brief biographical sketches
of the authors and illustrators are presented.
The most prolific voûter of the fiction books on India for
children and young people is Jean Bothwell, who has written six books.
Rudyard Kipling and Dhan Gopal Hukerji have written four books each.
All of the other authors have one book to their credit.
Among the illustrators of the fiction books on India, Margaret
Ayer leads the group with six books. Kurt Wiese Iras illustrated three,
and Boris Artzybasheff two. The others have illustrated one book each.
There is only one author-illustrator in the group, Raymond Creekmore.
Authors
Jean Bothwell.—Jean Bothwell was born and reared in Nebraska,
studied to be a history teacher and taught high-school history for one
year. She then changed to business and was experienced in management
when she went to India for a period of fourteen years in which she worked
with the Methodist Church Board. 7 8
From childhood Jean Bothwell has always wanted to be a writer, but was sidetracked by a number of circumstances. But in India there was always an opportunity for one to use every skill from trimming hats and comforting children’s hurts to playing wedding marches and writing plays when necessary.l
While on furlough in 1729, she consulted a literary agent in New
York City, who told her to write for children. However, it was not until
1936 when she returned to the United States permanently that she began to consider this advice.
Little Boat Boy (3),2 published in 19U5, ‘iras the first of six books for children all written- with the Indian scene as background. That story grew out of her own experiences in a houseboat in Srinagar, a large city in the Himalayan province of Kashmir. A second book, The Thirteenth
Stone (7), appeared in 19l|6, and was awarded the Herald Tribune's Chil¬ dren's Book Festival Award for a book for children in the middle age- group. It was said about this book: "the fascinating background of India is richly portrayed with deep feeling for the country and its people."3
According to the Chicago Sun's Boole Week, "the color, the sound, the very odors of India are to be found in these pages, so that the reader closes the book richer for experiencing life in a distant land."^
A sequel to Little Boat Boy (3), entitled River Boy of Kashmir (l)
191*6, continues the story of Hafiz, now at school. "Well-sustained story
3-Letter from Harcourt, Erace and Co., Inc., undated.
2The numbers in the parenthesis are used throughout the study to refer to the books listed in Appendix I.
•3Anne Rothe (ed.), Current Biography, 191*6 (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 19l*7), p. 65-66:
Ulbid. 9 interest, combined with picturesque details of school-boy life in India,”
commented Mary L. Becker in the Mew York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Re¬
view, "brings that country close to an American school-boy by the very differences between this River School and that in which he spends his days at eight years of age."1 There is much information on the life and ideals of the Indian people skillfully woven into the narrative.
Miss Bothwell now lives in a New York City apartment, after having lived many years in Nebraska and India. Among the other books on India
for children by Miss Bothwell are! Little flute Player (U), The Empty
Tower (2), and Star of India (6).
Rudyard Kipling.—Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, in
1865 and died in England in 1936.2 Until he was six he spent most of his
time with ayahs, (native nursemaids) from whom he learned the native lan¬
guage and native stories and habits. He was sent to England to be educated
but, owing to poor health, did not go to school until he was eleven. Up¬
on Ms graduation at seventeen, tie went back to India instead of going to
college.
He served on the Civil and Military Gazette, an Indian newspaper
in Lahore, four years before he went to the Allahabad Pioneer, and he
traveled from the Himalayas to the ocean, living with the army on the
frontier and covering special assignments for Ms paper. In 1890 he left
India for England, byway of CMna, Japan and the United States.3
He began writing verse and tales while in India, and continued
in England. While living in Battleboro, Vermont, he wrote the jungle
IIbid.
^Webster’s BiograpMcal Dictionary (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam Co., 19li3), p. 823. 3Stanley J. KuMtz, Living Authors (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1931), p. 210-11. 10 books. He -was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 and the
Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature in 1926.1
Of the 38 books written by Kipling are: All the Mowgli Stories (12),
The Jungle Book (13)* The Second Jungle Book (Li?), and Kim (lb), which
■were read for this study. There are eight other books by Kipling with
Indian settings.
Phan Gopal Mukerji.—Dhan Gopal Mukerji was bom of Brahmin parentage, the priest caste in India, in a small village near Calcutta, on July 6, 1890, and died in 1936.2 As a lad he often had the duty of tending the village temple and before he was eleven he was taking charge of its rituals, such as performing marriage ceremonies and burning the dead.
The Mukerji home stood at the edge of the jungle and in the evening after tlie lights were out Dhan used to sit by the open window and gaze out at the tremendous masses of dark trees with the emptiness gleaïïiing around them. The holy men used to take him into the jungle from midnight until dawn, teaching him that the animals were his brothers and he should learn to understand them. In that way he gained a knowledge of the jungle, which in later years, he wove into stories for children.
At fourteen years of age he was initated into the priesthood, the vocation of his family. For two years he made a pilgrimage through vast
India, begging his way from village to village, searching for the truth which lies beneath all things. Later he went to the University of
Calcutta and then to Japan where he studied industrial machinery and
iKunitz, op. cit., p. 210-11.
^Webster's Biographical Dictionary, op. cit., p. 1028. 11
Western methods of production. Twelve years later, he went back to his
native India and wrote My Brother's Face, 1924, the story of his visit
to modern India.
He moved to America and took up residence at New Milford, Connec¬
ticut, where lie lived with his wife and son, Ehan Gonal II. In 1927
Mukerji was awarded the John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished
children’s book of the year, entitled Gay-Neck (16). Among his other
stories on India are: Kari, the Elephant (19), Jungle Beasts and Men,
Hari, the Jungle Lad (l8), Ghond, the Hunter (17) and Rama, the Hero of
India. He has written seven books for adults, but he is best known for
his children's books.
Julie Forsyth Batchelor.—Julie Forsyth Batchelor was born in Bay
City, Michigan. She lived there and in Detroit until age thirteen, then
in Tonawanda, New York, and later, in New York City. After she was
graduated from Teacher's College, Buffalo, she taught in a grade school
for twelve years. She began writing children's stories for the various
grades when she found it difficult to secure enough supplementary books
that children between the ages of seven and eleven could read by them¬
selves .
For several years she acted as adviser to teen-age girls' clubs.
A few years ago she wrote a weekly teen-age column "Just Between Us" for
six weekly newspapers. In 1914*, after having sold some articles and
stories, she went to New York to secure a writing position. For nearly
four years she was assistant editor of School Management, a subsidiary
of Parent's Magazine. She lias traveled some in this country and abroad
and to the West Indies. Mrs. Batchelor's two hobbies are collecting old
^Kunitz, op. cit., p. 28$-86. 12 glassware and fishing. In 1950 she wrote A Cap for Mul Chand (l), a story of hoy/ an eleven-year-old boy of India earned a beautiful red cap.l
Violet Elizabeth Cadell.—In 1903 Violet Elizabeth Cadell was born. She is somewhat of a yrriting dynamo out of the East by way of
England and the Channel Islands. Since she began writing in 19UU, she has had nine books published. Wien asked what work is in hand at the moment, she is quoted as saying, "an endless succession of novels, I hope."
She was born and reared in Calcutta, India. Her own comment about her life in Calcutta is, "I think the American term is 'raised' but my parents couldn’t have known it as they raised me to a mere five feet and left it at that." Part of her education was secured in England.
In Calcutta she was sent to a girls finishing school in the hill station of Darjeeling, not far away.
Her first story for youth was Sun in the Morning (8) published in 1950. The scene is Calcutta and the information is probably more than a little autobiographical. This book was a selection of the Catholic
Children's Book Club.2 This is the only book she has written with an
Indian background.
Edward Morgan Forster.—-Edward Morgan Forster, bom in 1879, is an English novelist who lives in retirement and writes when he pleases.
He lives with his mother in a Surry village, not far from London, and on rare occasions, appears in the big city with a newly completed manuscript.
He received a gentlemen's education at Tonebridge public school as a day boy, and later attended King's College, Cambridge. Between 1905 and 1910
lLetter from Harcourt, Brace and Co., inc., undated.
^Anne Rothe, (ed.), Current Biography, 1951 (New Yorkî H. W. Wilson Co., 1952), p. 8I4.-85, reprinted from the Wilson Library Bulletin, May, 1951* 13
he wrote four novels and then stopped. These pre-war novels reflect the
quarter century preceding 19lii and give a full picture of the upper middle class.
Ten years later some college friendships with Indian students led
him to make a trip to India. île wrote two books containing sketches of
Alexandria and its history. Later Mr. Forster returned to India for two years, and wrote A Passage to India (10), his best-known novel. It is about the British and the Indians who came in contact with them.l This
book was awarded the Prix Pemina Vie Heureuse and the James Tait Black
Prize in 1925-2
Burner Godden.—Rumer Godden was born in Sussex, England, but lived
as a child in a small town on the banks of India’s greatest river. She was very happy playing out of doors or writing poems and stories on her mother's notepaper. She was sent back to England but could never settle
down to school and returned to India as a young girl.
After training in London she started a children's dancing school
in Calcutta. This school became large and successful and later, she was
glad to sell it and spend all her time writing. Now she has lived half
her life in India and half in England and is always a little homesick for
one country or the other.
3-Kunitz, op. cit., p. 130-31.
2The Prix Femina Vie Heurese Anglais is a prize awarded each year to a young English author. Twenty-five English women writers select titles which in their judgment best represent English life and customs, and which are suitable for translation into French. These three titles are then sub¬ mitted to the French Femina committee who select one from the three to receive the prize and to be translated into French. The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes were established in 1919 by Mrs. Janet C. Black in memory of her husband who was a partner in the house of A. & C. Black. The prizes of 2^0 pounds each are for the best novel of the year and the best biography or literary work of that nature for each year. Ill
In private life she is Mrs. Lawrence S. Foster and lives in
Calcutta with her husband and two little girls. Here she works hard, runs a sxaall day school after her own ideas for her daughters, is not at all interested in games or in a social life, but lias a beautiful garden, a great many books and a piano, and breeds white Pekinese.1 In addition to The River (ll), published in 19l*6, Miss Godden has written Black
Narcissus, Breakfast with the Nikolides, and Kingfishers Catch Fire, all with Indian subjects.
Louise S. Rankin.—Louise S. Rankin was born in Baltimore, Mary¬ land. Her father was a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Her sum¬ mers were either spent in Maryland on a farm or in San Francisco, her mother's home. From there her family usually went to Nevada for ranching and camping at Lake Tahoe.
She was educated in Baltimore and Groucher College, although she says that her father's large library, and her trins to the west coast played an equally important part in her education.
After college, Mrs. Rankin taught English in secondary schools.
But her urge for writing held over from her school days prompted ter to go to New York to try for work in a publishing house. Instead, she went to Europe as an assistant to a professor and his wife who were engaged in research.
After this trip she held a position on the editorial staff of
Reader's Digest, when she met and married her husband, a Standard Oil man, on leave from India. Then for nine years she lived in India. She said that it was all too short a time to study and see and enjoy that wonderful
^•Stanley J. Kunitz, Twentieth Century Authors (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 19U2), P? 5hk-kf. 15 land. They lived in Calcutta, but Mrs. Rankin often traveled with her husband throughout India, Burma and Ceylon. On local holidays they used to go on treks into the Himalayas. Daughter of the Mountains (20) grew out of one of those t re les into Tibet. It won a prize in the Hew York
Herald Tribune Children's Spring Book Festival, 19ÙÛ, and was a runner- up for the John Newbery Medal.
Mrs. Rankin's second book was published in 1950. She died after a short but serious illness several years ago. At that time she had half finished a third book.l
Reginald. Lai Singh and Kloise Lownsbery.—Reginald Lai Singh and
Eloi3e Lownsbery are the joint authors of Gift of the Forest (21), a book on India. Mr. Singh was bora in the jungle village of Marawhanna in the
Northwest District of British Guiana, in 1900, of parents who vrere trans¬ ported from India as indentured laborers. He was educated by two Jesuits.
In 1921 he came to this country and went to high school in Syracuse, New
York.
fie prepared himself for a medical career, but when the India movement became strong, he gave up his work and went back to that, country as a sailor in an effort to join the Gandhi party. Since 192k he has been a worker for the movement both in and out of India. He has traveled and lectured all over the world. The story of Gift of the Forest (21 ) was told to the author by his mother.2
Miss Lownsbery, a native of Alexandria, Virginia, attended
Wellesley College in Massachusetts and did graduate v;ork at Columbia
ll.etter from the Viking Press, undated.
^Letter from Longmans, Green and Co., undated. 16
University, New York. During the first World War she served with the
Quakers in France. In 1920 she began to write for children and young people and has several fine books to her credit, but this is the first with an Indian setting.I
Hilda Wemhcr.—Hilda Wemher is the pen name of the daughter of a European statesman, who left her own country for England twenty years ago. She also lived in India for a number of years. She was bom in
Vienna in 189U, and left Austria in 1922. She studied comparative religion and folk psychology, lecturing and writing on these and kindred topics in four languages in many parts of the world. Her book, My Indian
Family (22), deals with the author's experiences in India, but she says that eighty-five per cent of the material is fiction. She now lives in this country.2
Christine Weston.—Christine Weston was born in Unao, in the
United Province of India, in 190l.i. Her parents had also been bom in
India; her father's neople were French indigo-planters, her mother was the daughter of an English Army officer. For many years her father, who had become a naturalised Englishman, was an officer in the Indian Imperial
Police. Later he went to London, vrhere he retired from the Police and studied for the bar. He returned to India and practiced as a barrister until his death in 1921.
Except for brief visits to England as a child, Mrs. Weston lived in India until her marriage in 1923* The war of 19lii prevented her from having the customary English education. Instead, her parents sent her to
llbid.
2Letter from The John Day Co., Inc., undated. 17 a convent school in the hills of India. It was not a success. She kept running away until her parents withdrew her.
She learned to read at the age of four and was writing stories and poems at four and a half. She used her father's library and as she grew up, helped her fatter in his law work and gained her acquaintance with native life which was later reflected in her books.
Mrs. Weston contributes stories to various magazines, and iras awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 19U0. ter first book was Be Thou the
Bride, published in 19U0, followed by The Devil's Foot in 19U2. Indigo, published in 19UI4, i3 considered by many the best book on India since
E. M. Forster's A Passage to India (10). Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear (23), appeared in 19U£, and The Dark Wood in 19U6. Her most recent bock, a second novel of India, The World is a Bridge, was published in 19?0.1
Illustrators
Margaret Ayer.—Margaret Ayer was born in New York, but since her father was a doctor in government service, much of her life was spent away from the United States. Later her father settled in Philadelphia and she won a scholarship to the School of Industrial Art there. After her graduation her father moved to Siam as adviser in public health to the Siamese Government. In Bangkok a great deal of her time was spent in the markets and temples, sketching and painting in water-colors, and vacation sidetrips were made to Java, Sumatra, Indo-China, Burma, and
India. The population in Bangkok is about half Chinese, with a large
Indian colony, whose ways she observed before she finally got a chance to visit India.
iLetter from Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers, undated 18
She has illustrated more than one hundred books, ten of which were on Indian subjects. The best known book illustrated by her was
Anna and the King of Siam. She says that she has lost count of the number of magazine pieces for which she made the -pictures. Miss Ayer has specialized in Oriental subjects, but has also done many peices about modern American life and historical stories involving research, and some books about animals. Last year she had published her first book for which she supplied both the text and the pictures, A Wish is a Wild Horse.
She is a member of the Society of Illustrators, the National
Women’s Book Association, and 'Vice-President of the Artists Guild. Be¬ sides Jean Bothwell’s books on India, noted previously, she has illus¬ trated the following books on Indian subjects: The Lost Kingdom and
Fig Tree Village by Grace 7J. McGovran, Totarara by Irene Mott Bose, and
Chan of the Pearl Country by Phyllis Ayer Sowers.^
Kurt Wiese.—Kurt Wiese was bom in Minden, Germany. He grew up, he says, under a remarkable collection of paintings of the Dusseldorf
School. After leaving school he tx’aveled in China, Russia, Siberia, the
Gobi Desert and Manchuria. During the first World War, he spent four years in Australia as a prisoner of war. It was during this time that he became deeply impressed by the landscape and the animal wo rid of
Australia and began to take up writing and drawing. In 191? he went back to Germany, where for three years he illustrated and wrote books
for children.
During the three years he lived in Brazil he traveled in the
lLetter from Margaret Ayer, August 1S>, 19?3. 19 mountaineous coastal region back of Rio de Janeiro, and in the .jungles of
Parana. At the present tine he lives on a farm in Frenchtown, New Jersey, near the Delaware River. Mr. Wiese has illustrated more than a hundred books.1 The books illustrated on Indian subjects are: The Jungle Book (13), and All the Mowgli Stories (12) by Rudyard Kipling, and Daughter of the
Mountains (20) by Louisa Rankin.
Boris M. Artzybasheff.—Boris M. Artzybasheff ms bom in Kharkov,
Central Ukraine in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. His father,
Mikhail P. Artsybashev, was the famous Russian novelist and editor, author of Sanine, who died in 1927- Much of his boyhood was spent in the country, where he observed the peasant types and customs, watched the processions at the nearby monastiy, and drew a great many pictures of animals.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Artzybasheff shipped as a sailor on a boat bound for Ceylon and India, but at the last minute the boat sailed for America instead. When he finally reached New York, he had only lU cents in Turkish money. He found work in an engraver's shop, but disliked it so much that he went back to sea, but later returned to
New York, determined to mate his way as an artist. He began to discover other Russians in New York, and within six years he was illustrating dis¬ tinguished books. In Ms work, a masterly sense of design, imagination and an assured technique bring the meaning of book illustrating to new life.2
lStanley J. Kunitz, The Junior Book of Authors (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1951), p. 298-99.
2üertha Mahoney, Illustrators of Children's Books, 17Ui-19U5 (Boston: Horn Book, 191+7), P. 2?0. 20
He is one of the best known of contemporary artists. Besides illustrating a multitude of other authors' books for young people, he illustrates his own stories for children.1 The two books on India illustrated by Mr. Artzybasheff, Gay-Neck (l6) and Ghond, the Hunter (17), by Mukerji, were selected by the Institute of Graphic Arts as among the best of their respective years, 1927 and 1928.2
Corinne V. Dillon.—Corinne V. Dillon says that illustrating children's books is a field which has only onened UP for her during the last five years. Before that she did some magazine illustrations and a lot of advertising material. Then her agent began getting children's textbooks, which still keep her busy. The book that she has had the best sale of is Kentucky Derby Winner, published in I9ii9*
Since starting to illustrate books, she has averaged at least one a year. Her last was the Story of Florence Nightingale and she is to begin work soon on the Story of Martha Washington. Her years of portrait study'- in Paris help her in the character delineation necessary for those books. She enjoys illustrating stories about people, rather than illus¬ trating textbooks for schools.3 She illustrated A Cap for Mul Chand (l) by Julie F. Batchelor, a story about an Indian boy. This is the only book that she has illustrated with an Indian background.
Roger Antoine Duvoisin.— Roger- A. Duvoisin was born in 1901; in
Geneva, Switzerland. His childhood was spent in Switzerland and France.
His parents sent him to the Ecole des Arts et Metier where he specialized in painting murals and making stage scenery.
lStanley J. Kunitz, Junior Book of Authors, op. cit., p. 11.
2stanley J. Kunitz, Living Authors, op. cit., p. 285-86.
3Letter from Corinne V. Dillon, undated. 21
When he got out of school, he began to paint murals and stage
scenery as well as posters and other types of illustrations. He also
did work with ceramics and became manager of an old French pottery plant
Later he left that to design textiles in Lyons and Paris. This work led
him to America because an Aaerican textile firm offered to bring him to
America, if he would promise to stay for four years. When the textile
firm went bankrupt about five years later he had decided to remain in
America.
Then, realizing an old dream to create illustrated stories for
children, he published a book he had written for his young son. Since
then he has been writing and illustrating books for children and also
drawing illustrations for adult books and magazines. île illustrated
Christine Weston's book on India, Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear (23), 19U3*
In 1933 Mr. Duvoisin became an American citizen, and now he resides in
Gladstone, New Jersey. 3-
John Lockwood Kipling.—John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard
Kipling,was born in 1837 and died in 1911* He was educated at Woodhouse
Grove, in England, and was an architectural sculptor at the Bombay
School of Art for ten years. He also served as principal of the Mayo
School of Art, and was Curator of the Central Museum of Lahore from 1873
to 1893* He wrote Beast and Man in India, 1891.2 He was an artist of
considerable ability, who drew excellent illustrations for two of his
son's books, Kim (lii) and The Junlc Book (13) by Rudyard Kipling, both
with settings in India.
lliahoney, op. cit., p. 303-
2who Was Who, 1897-1916 (London: A. & C. Black, Ltd., 1920), p. I4OO 22
Mildred Coughlin McNutt..—Mildred C. McNutt became so interested in her art classes in grade school that it was arranged for her to take art along with the high-school students. After high school she went to
Wellesley College in Massachusetts and took courses in art. While work¬ ing as a substitute teacher in her home of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, she earned enough money to go to New lork City and join the Art Students
League. There, she studied, illustrated for small publications, designed
Christmas cards, and painted flowers and birds on straw hats. One of the first children's books she illustrated was called Chicken Little Jane.
She became interested in the medium of black and white and went to L'Ecole des beaux Arts where she studied etching and engraving. She now keeps busy with book illustrations and. wall decorations .1 She has illustrated one book on India for children and young neople, Sun in the Morning (8) by Elizabeth Cadell. Except for educational background, she has had no snacial préparation for illustrating books on India.
Anne Vaughan.—Anne Vaughan was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and was educated there. Later she attended Boston Museum of Pine Arts
School and Ecole des Beaux Arts, Fountsinebleau, France.
She began painting at a very early age and has been at it ever since. She comes from an artistic faraily, and is merely carrying on the established tradition. Slie has designed textiles and toys but her book illustrating and lier painting now occupy her time. She taught design at the Worcester Art Museum School.2
Some of her recent books include Moro Boy and Jungle Boy by Lysle
Carveth, On Hampton Street by Alice Williams, Susan and the Butterbees by
^Letter from William Morrow and Co., Inc., undated.
2Letter from Longmans, Green and Co., undated. 23
Ralph Bergengren. She has also completed the Olive Fairy Book in the new
edition of Andrew Lang. This book has many Oriental tales and her illus¬
trations for it have an esnecial delight and humor. In Gift of the Forest
(21 ), Anne Vaughan has caught the spirit of the jungLe animals and the little Indian boy, Bim, in her charming illustrations.!
Autho r-Illus trato r
Raymond Creekmore.—Raymond Creekmore was bom in Portsmouth,
Virginia, May $, 1905» He studied at the Maryland Institute of Fine Art.2
In 19U6, five years after he graduated he took a two-year sketching trip
around the world visiting Japan, China, Mongolia, Malaya, Sima, Indo-
China, Burma, India, Iran, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and
Sweden, drawings from this trip were exhibited in the museums and gal¬
leries along the Eastern Seaboard. The American Artist Magazine was so
impressed they did a feature on Mr. Creekmore's travels. During the war,
he was artist-corresnondent for the official Air Force Magazine. At
present he teaches at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, one of the foremost art
schools in the country.3
Mr. Creekmore has been awarded several prizes and medals for his
works'. Some of the books which he has written and illustrated are Lokoshi,
Little Fu, Little Skipper, Fujio and All's Elephant (9). The last has
an Indian setting.k The beautiful pictures of this book really tell the
story and they give the youngest readers a fine picture of India where
Ali lived.
Ubid.
2Dorothy B. Gilbert, (ed.), Who's Who in American Art (New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 19E>3)» P* 9Ù»
3Letter from the Macmillan Co., undated.
^Gilbert, pp. cit., p. 9k- 2k
SUMMARY
There is a total of 12 authors who have written 23 fiction books on India for children and young people. There are eight illustrators and one author-illustrator in the group.
TABLE 1
AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS ABOUT INDIA ACCORDING TO NATIONALITY, PLACE OF BIRTH, TIME SPENT IN INDIA, AND NUMBER OF BOOKS ON INDIA
Authors Nationality Birth Place Years Spent No. Books in India on India
Julie F. Batchelor American America None 1 Jean Bothwell American America 11; 6 Elizabeth Cadell English India Part of School years 1 Edward Forster English England 2 1 Ruiner Godden English England Half her life 1 Rudyard Kipling English India 25 k Eloise Lownsbeiy American America None 1 Dhan G. Mukerji Indian India 3k u Louise Rankin American America 9 1 Reginald L. Singh Indian British Guiana Visits 1 Hilda Wemher English Austria Visits 1 Christine Weston English India 19 1 Illustrators Margaret Ayer American America Short Trip 6 Boris Artzybasheff Russian Russia None 2 Corinne V. Dillon American America None 1 Roger Duvoisin American Switzerland None 1 John L. Kipling English England 28 2 Mildred C. McNutt American America None 1 Anne Vaughan American America None 1 Kurt Wiese German Germany None 2 Author-Ulus trator Raymond Creekmore American America Short Trip 1
As shown by Table 1, only four of the authors, Dhan Mukerji,
Elizabeth Cadell, Christine Weston and Rudyard Kipling, were bom in
India. However, three of these, although bom in India, were educated in England and grew up under English influence because their parents 25
were English. Their writings are likely to reflect the English viewpoint
rather than that of the real India. The one native Indian who grew up
in India, Dhan Mukerji, moved to America where he spent approximately
twenty-two years here before his death.
Of the four American authors, Jean Bothwell, Louise Rankin,
Julie F. Batchelor and Sloise Lownsbery, the forner two spent some time
in India as shown by Table 1. Jean Bothwell seems to be the best quali¬
fied of the four to give an accurate picture of the country, because of
her close work with the Indians.
Edward M. Forster and Hilda Wernher are Englishmen who lived in
N India for a few years. Mrs. Wernher’s book, My Indian Family (22), is
partly autobiographical while Mr. Forster’s book, A Passage to India (10),
is concerned with the British and the Indians who came in contact with
them. Rumer Godden was also bom in England, but she spent as much time
in India as she has spent in England, therefore, she can be classed as
Anglo-Indian. Reginald Lai Singh, bom of Indian parents, lias snent some
time in India since reaching adulthood.
Of the eight illustrators, John Lockwood Kipling seems to be the
best qualified by education and experience to illustrate books on India.
None of the other illustrators, except Margaret Ayer, have ever been to
India, even on a short trip. Therefore, they have no special qualifications
enabling them to illustrate fiction books on India for children and young
people. They are well prepared scholastically to interpret the works of
authors but they are lacking in first hand knowledge of the subject matter.
Raymond Creekmore, author-illustrator, has practical experience
as well as scholastic training. He has won many medals and prisses for his
work CHAPTER III
BACKGROUND OF INDIAN LIFE AMD CUSTOMS AND THE
CHARACTERISTICS PORTRAYED IN THE FICTION
BOOKS PUBLISHED, 139U-1950
In order to judge the accuracy of the books of fiction written
on India for children and young people, certain categories have been set up as resoresentative of the culture of the neonle. These categories were selected after reading the encyclopedia articles and the book on
India selected for the factual background material. They are: (l) physical features and' climate, (2) natural resources, (3) dress, (1|)
homes, (5) food, (6) occupations, (7) religion, (8) animals, (9) trans¬
portation, (10) schools, (ll) celebrations and (12) marriage customs.
Physical Features and Climate
When one looks at a map of India, it appears to be a hugh triangle, upside down. The peninsula of India points down into the Indian Ocean.
Few countries in the world offer so great a variety of scenery as India.
It lias tall mountains, swift rivers, strange fruits and trees, and dense
tropical forests full of wild animals. Along the border of India runs
the highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas.! These ranges
cut India off from the rest of Asia, but there are a few passes which
cross the mountains, the most important of which is the Khyber Pass.2
1" India, " The Do rid Book Encyclopedia. Yol. IK. p. 368U*
2lMd.
26 27
In addition to being a boundary line, the Himalayas also serve as a barrier. During invasions this has served as an advantage, because the range is impassible, except for the few passes. Other mountain ranges are the Vindhya Hills, Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats and the chief mountain peaks are Lt. Everest, Mt. Godwin-^Austen and Kanchenjunga.l
India is also noted for its rivers, some of which are considered sacred by the people. The most important of these rivers are the Indus,
Ganges and brahma put ra. 2 The Ganges is probably the most famous for its sacred significance. It starts in the Himalayas and flows across India for fifteen hundred miles, providing irrigation water in some places in the plains and electric power in others before it merges with the ocean in the Bay of Bengal. It is also an important trade route. Tie Brahma¬ putra and the Indus, as well as the Ganges are fed by the snows of the
Himalayas mountains and never dry un.3 That is one reason they are so important to a country that has terrible droughts in some seasons, causing smaller, rain-fed rivers to dry up.
India has a avide range of latitude, since it lies in two zones of climate, the temperate and the torrid, but the climate tends to be tropical throughout, because the Himalayas bar the winter winds that would bring cold from the heart-of Asia. November to February is the cool season. The clear brisk air is stimulating to Europeans but the lightly clad Indians find it cold. South of the mountains the river plains get light frost but elsewhere tire weather is warm or hot the
llbid., p. 3681;
2Ibid.
3lbid 28 year round.The climate of most of India is greatly affected by the monsoon winds . The winter monsoon begins in January, hLows from the northeast, and is a dry wind. The summer monsoon, which begins in June and ends in November, comes from the southwest and brings most of India’s
rain.2 The rains are very important and often mean the difference be¬
tween prosperity and famine.
In the books of fiction read on India, a great deal of emphasis
has been placed on physical features and climate. This may have been
done because of the important bearing of the climate on the lives of the
neople. Since a majority of the reople are engaged in farming, the mon¬
soon winds greatly affect their living conditions. If the rains fail to
arrive during the usual rainy season, beginning in June, then the crops wither and die and the people practically starve to death before the next
harvest. If there is a severe draught, there are many deaths unless the
government offers relief.
Hilda Wernher has an accurate description of the monsoons in her
book, ty Indian Fai.iily (22):
From monsoon to monsoon in India there are no rains except small and very rare showers ; so the monsoon is a seasonal wind, blowing over most of India from the south¬ west, it is the wet monsoon in suirmter; from the northeast in winter, it is the dry monsoon, bringing no rain except in the south. Thus the rains fall approximately between June and September only; they are not evenly distributed, for the monsoon, although it pours down in torrents when it strikes the mountains, has little water to spare over the sandy plains like Sind and Rajputana. Some deserts get only a few inches a year; some hill places nearly 500 inches. In those parts of the country in which rains are scarce there is a vicious circle of droughts, famine, disease, migrations of man and beast, govern¬ ment relief, drought and famine. But even in those
1"India," Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia. Vol. VII, p. 5^-55*
2World Book, op. cit., p. 368I4.. 29
districts blessed by rains the uneven distribution brings much tribulation. There may be too much rain, the rice and grain-fields being damaged beyond repair; yet, from October to June the lands are increasingly parched. It is the same -with man. Longing for the rains is of in¬ describable intensity.1
Just before the rains come, the ground is usually dry and parched and dusty. The teat is intense and life itself seems to slow down.
Everything is in a state of waiting for the rains. After the rains, everything seems to change almost overnight. This change is described vividly in Star of India (6):
The thunder came closer and crashed one night over the North India plains. The hiss of the first raindrops in the hot dust of fields and paths in the country, and on the streets of towns, had teen followed by torrents of water. Where all had been bare before, the earth caked and dry, almost overnight the world was green again. Now the ground would soak up much moisture if the season were good. And that would mean fine crops and beautiful gar¬ dens after the monsoon was over at the end of September.2
After the rainy season is over, the children can play outdoors again, and in Daughter of the Mountains (20) Momo and her mother could again visit the temple. Gay-Neck's (l6) £the pigeon} flying lessons were interrupted during the rainy season.
Although the climate of India tends to be tropical throughout, in the mountains there is likely to be a few cold days. In Ghond, the
Hunter (17) Ghond tells of carrying under his. tunic "an earthen pot full of ashes in which burnt charcoal like embers in a brazier." However, this -iras only necessary in the mornings and evenings. In Minapur village, near the Himalayas, there were a few cold eveningsî
1 Hilda Wemhar, My Indian Family (New Yorks The John Day Co., 191*5), P. 67-68.
2Jean Bothwell, Star of India (New Yorks William Morrow Co., 191*7), p. 13. 30
The chill of those crisp cold-weather evenings was sharp beyond the circle of the fire, but that season would not last long. The heat always came with a rush after the drowsy noondays of late Debruary and early March. So the village people endured the cold and wrapped themselves against it in the best ways they knew, and talked about the coming cron.3
Also in the Himalayas it becomes so cold after September that many of the animals from the jungle of the foot hills migrate southward. After the
rains are over, the nights are cold at Memo’s home (20).
In All the Mowgli Stories (12), Kipling vividly describes a
terrible drought that caused the animals to migrate from their local
habitat and seek food and water:
That soring the mohwa tree, that Baloo [.the bear] was so fond of, never flowered. The greeny, cream-coloured, waxy blossoms were heat-killed before they were born, and only a few bad-smelling petals came down when he stood on his hind legs and shook the tree. Then inch by inch, the untempered heat crept into the heart of the Jungle, turn¬ ing it yellow, brown, and at last black. The green growths in the sides of ravines burned up to broken wires and curled films of dead stuff; the hidden pools sank down and caked over, keeping the last least foot-mark on their edges as if it had been cast in iron; the juicy-stemmed creepers fell away from the trees they clung to and died at their feet; the bamboos withered, clanking when the hot winds blew and the moss peeled off the rocks deep in the Jungle, till they were as bare and as hot as the quiver¬ ing blue boulders in the bed of the stream. And the heat went on and on, and sucked up all the moisture, till at last the main channel of the Waingunga was the only stream that carried a trickle of water between its dead banks; and when Hat hi, the Wild Elephant, who lives for a hundred years and more, saw a long, lean blue ridge of rock show dry in the very centre of the stream, he knew that he was looking at the Peace Rock, and then and there he lifted up his trunk and proclaimed the Water Truce, as his father had proclaimed it fifty years ago. The deer, wild pig, and buffalo took up the cry hoarsely; and Chil, the Kite, flew in great circles far and wide whistling and shrieking the warning.2
I Jean Bothwell, Little Flute Player (New York: William Morrow & Co., 191*9), p. 93.
2Rudyard Kipling, All the Mowgli Stories (New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co.), p. 77-78. 31
Too much rain is just as harmful as the droughts. Homes, usually made of mud, are washed array and the family may lose everything they own.
In Hari, the Jungle Lad (l8) the river overflowed its banks because of excessive rain. While Hafiz (5) was visiting Ms teacher during one of the school holidays, there was much talk among the villagers about a flood. Many of them began moving their families to higher ground in case there was a flood.
The Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world, are re¬ ferred to, either directly or indirectly, in almost all of the fiction books read on India. In Gay-Meek (l6) the story of a pigeon, Gay-Neck's young master, whose name was not given, went with his family to the mountains in order to escape the heat. The mountains are described in detail, in all their beauty and splendor:
Further on rose the dark evergreen-clad nrecioices over which reared thousands of feet of pure white ranges, trie Kanchin.jinga, the peak Uakalu, and the Everest ranges. ■In the first flush of dawn they looked white; but as the light grew in brightness and the sun rose higher, peak after oeak defined itself, not far off in the horizon, but piercing the very middle of the sky whence poured a flood of crimson light like the very blood of benediction. Can there be a better setting to prayers than those mountains most of whose peaks yet remain unexplored and untrodden by man? Their inviolate sanctity is sometMng precious, which remains a perpetural symbol of divinity. Heights like that of the Everest are symbols of the highest reality—God. They are as I have said, shrouded with clouds all day. In July those early morning views of the Everest are not vouchsafed us every day, for it is the month of rain. All the ranges lie in the grip of the most.devastating blizzards. Once in a while above the battle of storms and driven snow the peaks arpear—a can- pact mass of hard, ice and whit© fire.l
Gopala, the owner of Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear (23), was boro in a little village "amongst the biggest mountains in the world." Purun Bhagat (1Ç),
iDhan Gopal Mukerji, Gay-Neck (New York: E. P. Dutton Co., 1927), p. 2^-26. 32 who decided to give up his home, wealth and riches and seek after the meaning behind all things, chose the Himalayas for his meditations.
Kari, the Elephant (19) was bom near tlie foothills of the Himalayas.
Mono (20), a small Tibetan girl, crossed one of the lesser mountains,
Jelep La, on her search for her lost puppy. Kim (lit) and his lama friend
journeyed over the mountains while the lama was seeking for his river of
healing.
The Ganges river, considered sacred by the Hindus, is another
feature widely treated in the fiction hooka on India. Chandrar.ore, the
city that is the setting for A Passage to India (10) although located on
the Ganges, the river at that point is not considered sacred. The River
(ll) is a story about the Ganges, although not. mentioned by name in the
book. It pictures the life of an English family who lives on its banks.
After Momo (20) found her puppy in Calcutta, the carriage driver who took
her to the train station en route home, showed her the mighty Ganges:
'0 daughter of the hills !• he said. 'Look now, and it may be for the last time in your life, upon our Mother Ganges. Whoever bathes in her holy waters washes away all sinj but even those who look will gain merit. See ! Is there anything, even in the land of the high hills and the snow peaks, so marvelous I
Ghond, the Hunter (l?) lived on the banks op the Ganges, when he was
assigned to find the man-eating tigers which had been killing the
villagers’ cattle. Kim's (lU) lama friend, on the train to Umballa,
seeking for a river o'? healing, asked about the rivers near Benares and
was told that the "Gunga" is the only one ant? whoever bathes in her is
made clean and goes to the gods. Some of the other rivers mentioned are
the Jheluro in River Boy of Kashmir (5>), the Brahmaputra in hari, the
3-Louise Pankin, Daughter of the Mountains (Hew York: The Viking Press, 191:9), p. 139. 33
Jungle Lad (18), and the Avati in Ghond, the Hunter (17). The Indus, an important river in India, was not mentioned in the fiction books on
India.
The physical features, i.e., the rivers and mountains, and the climate of India are treated in the 23 fiction books on India a total of
81 times. However, most of the emnhasis is placed on the Himalaya
Mountains and the Ganges River. The other two important rivers in India,
the Indus and the Brahmaputra, received little treatment. The Indus was
not mentioned at all. In order for a child to gain an accurate knowledge
of that country, rather than leave him with the feeling that the Ganges
is the only river in India, future stories written on India might be
developed around some of the other rivers there.
Natural Resources
The greatest natural resource of India is its fertile soil. A majority of the people are engaged in farming but they still use the most
primitive methods. However, some experiments in improved methods of
farming have been conducted, which have shoirn that the Indian soil is
/ capable of producing much more than it does now. India abounds in
natural riches of all kinds. Few cf the mineral resources have been
touched. There are vast coal reserves, hugh deposits of high grade iron
ore, in addition to bauxite, chromite, magnesite, tungsten, mica, gold,
silver and copper
Enormous quantities of timber are produced by the great forests
of India and they are capable of producing much more without causing too
much thining out. Another great resource is cattle. India produces a
third of all the cattle in the world hut they are used only for milk and
lv/orld Book, op. eit., p. 3685- 3k
farm labor since the Hindus regard them as sacred and will not kill them.
Consequently they are able to maintain such large numbers of them. Wild animals of every description are to be found in the jungles. Elephants are tamed and used as work animals. Zoos all over the world are supplied with animals from the jungles of India. 1
With one exception, the natural resources of India were not men¬
tioned. In All the Mqwgli Stories (12) Kipling wrote one chanter on what was being done to preserve the forests :
Of the wheels of public service that turn under the Indian Government, there is none more important than the Department of Woods and Forests. The reboisement of all India is in its hands; or will be when the Government has the money to spend. Its servants wrestle with the wander¬ ing sand-torrents and shifting dunes; wattling them at the sides, damming them in front, and peg ing them down atop with coarse grass and spindling pine after the rules of Nancy. They are responsible for all the timber in the State forests of the Himalayas, as well as for the denuded hillsides that the monsoons wash into dry gullies and aching ravines; each cut a mouth crying aloud what carelessness can do. They experiment with battalions of foreign trees, and coax the blue gum to take root and, nerhaps, dry up the canal fever. In the plains the chief part of their duty is to see that the belt fire-lines in the forest reserves are kept clean, so that when droughts co»ae and the cattle starve, they may throw the reserve oven to the villagers’ herds and allow the man himself to gather sticks. They poll and lop for the stacked railway-fuel along: the lines that burn no coal; they calculate the profit of their plantations to five points of decimals; they are the doctors and midwives of the hugh teak forests of Upper Burma, the rubber of the Eastern Jungles, and the .railnuts of the South; and they are always hampered by lack of funds.2
However, the wild animals of India, considered a natural resource, were
mentioned in 20 of the 23 fiction hooks on India a total of 137 times.
They will be discussed under that heading. Natural resources is an
area that could be developed in fiction books for children and young
people, since India is a country rich in minerals.
Ubid. 2Kioling, or. cit«, p. 261-62- 35 Dress
Many kinds of clothing are seen on the city streets. Although many of the city men have adopted Western attire, most of the women cling to the graceful sari. It is a straight piece of cloth •wrapped around the body to form a long dress, with the loose end thrown over the head. The well-to-do may wear exquisite sheer fabrics bordered in richly worked gold thread, and brightly colored. Even the coarse cotton sari of the peasant women is becoming and graceful. A bodice, called a choli, may be worn underneath. Some of the women of northern India wear full trousers, called. selwar, topped with a long blouse and a veil. Indian women are also fond of jewelry, especially earrings and bracelets. The bracelets may be made of thin glass, and tinkle as the wearer moves. Qrthrodox Moslem women cover themselves with a tent-like garment, called a burka. It has a crocheted "-window" over the eyes.l
The men wear a dhoti, a simple white garment draped around the body and legs to fom a sort of loose trousers. In northern India, men wear long trousers which are vdde at the top, and tight-fitting coats, called achkans, are worn over them. The churidar, favored in Kashmir and in leajasthan, fits tightly below the knees, not unlike jodhpurs. On cere¬ monial occasions, a long coat, called the sherwani, is worn with the churidar. The finest are made of rich satin or brocade and trimmed in jeweled buttons.2
Headgear varies a great deal according to locality, and to a lesser extent, according to religion. A Moslem may wear a turban, a fez, or a hat similar to the Cossack's. Sometimes they may wear flat embroi-
It'orld book, op. cit., p. 3685-86. 2Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 60-62. 36 dered caps. Some Hindus wear turbans, some go bareheaded. Some of the
•more orthodox Hindus paint caste marks on their foreheads. AH Sikhs wear turbans. Parses wear embroidered caps, which are roughly cone- shaoed. The "Gandhi cap" has now became popular, a sort of overseas cap, boat-shaped .3-
In the fiction books on India the dress of the people is presented in such a manner that one reading the books will get a clear picture of how Indian dress differs from American dress. The sari worn by the women, adorned with bracelets and earrings, and the dhoti worn by the men are'the tiro most common forms of dress. There may be some variations such as the burka wore by Moslem worsen, who still observe purdah, the custom of keeping women in seclusion. How the sari is made is accurately presented in A Cap for Mul Chand (l):
Each dress was a piece of cloth about five yards long, which she piul Cnand’s mother^ wrapped round and round her, throwing the last end over her head. Their mother had told them that the Indian sari was probably the easiest dress in the world to make.2
Mul Chand’s (l) mother wore her bracelets while doing her housework.
Premi Singh (2), a student at Charity Abide school, noticed that even the smallest girls wore bracelets, and she was thrilled by the beautiful sari worn by one of the town's ladies who invited the school girls to watch the festival of lights from her roof top:
The woman wore a sari, sheer pale blue silk over darker soft silk petticoats of the same tone, so that the whole looked like water rippling when she moved. The scarf end of it was embroidered in a pattern of lotus flowers, which looked as if they had just been lately plucked from a pool and fastened there.3
3-World Book, op. cit., p. 3686. 2Julie F. Batchelor, A Can for Mul Chand (New York: Harcourt, Brace St Co., 1950), p. 17* 3Jean Bothwell, The Empty Tower (New York: Valliara Morrow & Co., 191*3), p. 28. 37
VJ hile Prend was attending the school, in The Empty Tower (2), a Moslem gentleman visited the school. He wore the conventional fez, red with a black tassel. Because of his headdress, he was immediately identifiable by Prend.. The children’s dress may differ slightly from the grownups, or it may be exactly the same, in a smaller edition. Hafiz, in River hoy of Kashmir (5) was quite proud of his turban, a sign that he was growing up. He also wore the long cotton trousers and shirt, but in some of the wanner sections of the country, as described in Bhimsa, the Dancing
Sear (23), "Indian boys rear very few clothes, usually no more than a piece of cloth wound round their waists, sometimes a shirt, or cotton rants, and they seldom wear shoes."1 The little girls in school wanted to wear saris like the larger girls, but most of them wore a simple frock. Bittu's friend, Prend Singh, in Star of India (6) begged her older sister to make her two frocks, so that she would not have to wear the old-fashioned long skirt and tight little vaist.
Dr. Jamna Das partly adopted the Western style of dress but at
certain times he wore the Indian costumes. In the Star of India (6) he attended Bittu's father who was beaten almost to death while he was
searching for tho Star of India at the Bais' house:
In warm weather at that hour he wore Indian dress. Over a loose white dhoti a thin cool shirt fell almost to Ids knees. The clothes were fresh and crisp every morning and limp with perspiration when he went in afterward for another pour bath and change. His tailored linen and silk suits of Euronean cut were kaot for hos¬ pital rounds and house visits to patients.2
In contrast to the dress of the average cerson, the rulers and the well-
^Christine Weston, Bhim3a, the Dancing Bear (New York: Charles Scribner's Son3, 19U£), p* 7.
2Jean bothwell, Star of India, op. cit., p. 85>. 38 to-do dress elaborately. While Gopala and his friend "David were on their journey to Gopala's home with Bhimsa (23), they met a prince :
The boys stared at the young Prince in wonder. He was dressed in the same fashion as the others, but in even greater splendor. Jewels glittered on the breast of Iris yellow satin jacket and in the folds of his silver turban. He wore a short gold sword in his belt, and his shoes were of scarlet leather worked in gold and silver thread.!
Hari, the Jungle Lad (l8) was assigned as a guide on a hunting trio with the Rajah Parakram. He wore a "blue turban with a great jewel in the center...."2
The various religious groups in India are characterized by their dross. After Momo in Daughter of the Mountains (20) found her lost puppy and was waiting in the train station to return to her home, she observed the various groups :
The platform all about her was crowded thick with poor Indians, traveling singly or in families. They sat everywhere in little groups, each man with his possessions tied up in a cloth. Here were many dif¬ ferent peoples. There wore proud men in the tight- fitting jodhpurs of the warlike Rajputs, burly bearded Sikhs in swaggering turbans, Mohammedan women svarthed in the burkah in which purdah women must travel, hidden from sight in a shapeless white garment with a meshed cloth over the face, or holes cut for vision. It was a never-ending kaleidoscope of form and color.3
Jivan (7) was on his way to a village fair when he encountered a religious
devotee: "Almost opposite Jivan, on the far side of the road, was a Sadhu, walking more slowly than the crowd's pace. He was a tall man, dressed in
the full saffron robes of his order, "h
Ib'eston, op. cit., p. .39.
2Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Hari, the Jungle Lad (New York: E. P. Dutton Co., 192U), p. 1^2.
3Rankin, OP. cit., p* liil.
kjean Bothwell, The Thirteenth Stone (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 19i*6), p. U. 39
Customs of dress of the people of India have been adequately
treated in 19 of the 23 fiction books on India. The information is authentic and accurate and i.y Indian Family (22) is especially good in its descriptions of the dress of both Hindus and Moslems.
Homes
Nearly nine out of 10 Indians live in small towns and villages.
Many of these settlements are not even on a highway, but are reached by a path or ratted cart- road through farmland. These settlements are usually collections of dirt and straw huts, crowded together in the midst
of surrounding fields. Here houses for 100 to 500 families cluster
tightly together along narrow, twisting alleys. Occasional open spaces afford room for a Hindu temple, a Moslem mosque, a well, or a threshing
floor, for the entire community. The walls of the houses are mostly built from layer after layer of mud, rising to thatched roofs. In the •
south, straw matting or loosely woven bamboos make walls and partitions
that let in breezes. In the Punjab and farther north, houses are often
built of cement and brick. These houses are usually occupied by wealthy money lenders, landlords, and shopkeepers. The average person cannot
afford them. Beyond the houses a "tank," or shallow pond is used for washing clothes and vegetables, for watering stock, or even for refuse.1
In many large cities of India, there are prosperous sections where both Indian and foreign businessmen and their families live. They
have splendid homes, but there are sections of the city which are usually
crowded with dirty, narrow streets.2
iCompton’s Encyclopedia,, op. cit., p. 58.
2y,'orid Book, op. cit., p. 3688. 10
Tlie mud hut with the thatched roof appears to he tlie most common type of home found in India. It is the type of home most frequently occurring in the fiction books on India for children and young œople. Mul Chand's (l) home was a one—room. mud hut. The cots for sleeping were in one corner, in another comer was the small clay cooking stove and a third coiner housed the corn bin. Momo (20) noticed that the homes in the plains were similar to her home in the hill3. This was typical of most of the Indian homes: In no time she £Momq] had reached the first house of the village, and stood peeping in the open door. It was a house like her own—one room, with a connecting store¬ room, the walls and roof gleaming black from the oil and smoke of many years. As it had neither windows nor chimney, the place was full of billowing smoke .1 Soma of the houses were made of wood and some of stone. Gay-heck's (l6) master lived in a house made of stone and mud. In Ghond, the Hunter (17) the houses are described as being built of stone and mud. However, the description of the house in which Ghond lived does not agree with the factual data on Indian homes :
Our house was one of the few situated at the northern end of the village. It was built of stone and mud and its colour through a hundred years of rain and sun had become russet. The beams and rafters were of teak wood. The ceilings were very high. Almost all the houses in India are built to withstand heat; high ceilings and spacious rooms are what is needed to give comfort to a people who have to endure steady tropical heat six months every year, and so winter which lasted about four months was most un¬ comfortable. We had no fire save outside in the centre of the walled compound, and we had to depend on shawls and woolen wrappers to give us warmth whether in or out of doors. You can judge of our hardship by the fact that every night of the winter was intense enough to freeze water. However, during the day wherever the sun shone it was comfortable, but if you steeped out of the sun into the shade, the cold pierced you like the claw of a panther.2
1 Rankin, op. cit., p. 60. 2Dhan Copal Mukerji, Ghond, the Hunter (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1928), p. 28-29. Ill
The average Indian cannot afford to build such a high-ceilinged home of stone and mud. Most of them live in the one-room hut of mud, -with a thatched roof. There is another type of Indian home that is not mentioned in the background information but seems to be a common type of home among the people '.vho live on the river banks. That is the doonga, a houseboat.
In River Boy of Kashmir (5) Hafiz* family lived in a houseboat: "In one of the quiet channels of the lake, a houseboat shaded by willow trees faced the sunrise. Behind it was the doonga, its cookboat, with a mat- covered shelter where the owner and his family lived."1 Boathouses were used by Ghond (17) as a means of transportation. After his family reached
Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, they "rented boathouses and set out on
Lake Bal. Boathouses are strange things. Imagine yourself in a house floating up and down the lake, rowed hither and thither by eight boatmen bare to the waist, their muscles strained in statue-like g race." 2 Some of the people make their living by renting the houseboats to tourists for a season. This is brought out in Little Boat Boy (3 ) :
But many Kashmiris never know' any other home than a mat house on a freight barge—that, or the doonga trailing be¬ hind a houseboat. Those who live in the town make beautiful things with their hands, in wool and wood and silk and silver. Tourists come from far away, and again and again, to live in the houseboats on lake and river, eat the cherries, paint the snows, and buy the famous carvings and embroi¬ deries .3
For the most part the information presented in the fiction books gives one a picture of the types of homes in which a majority of the
lJean Bothwell, River Boy Kashmir (New York: William Morrow &. Co., 191*6), p. 2
2l)han G. Mukerji, Ghond the Hunter, op. sit., p. 13l*.
3Joan Bothwell, Little Boat Boy (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 19W), p. 11. h2
Indians live. The mud huts with thatched roofs are the predominant type, although in some areas the stone house is popular. Houseboats, although not mentioned in the factual material, are treated in three of the books.
Homes are discussed in 19 of the 23 fiction books on India a total of Uli times.
Food
The farmers grow a great variety of foodstuffs, but idee is the most important, since it is the main food of the people of India. In addition to rice, other grains and cereals, such as wheat, beans, corn, maize, barley and sesamum are also grown. Fruits are also bountiful, the most popular of which is the mango.1
The women usually cook in the courtyard, where they build a fire under a sheet of iron resting on clay supports. The main meal, and some¬ times the only meal, cones at noon. This meal may consist of gruel made of rare bed grain or other lentils, eaten with pancakes of unleavened bread, called chappatis. On special occasions vegetables and such cereals as grain sorghums, seasoned with curry mixtures, may be served. In some sections, there may be rice or fish. Meat is seldom eaten, for religious and economic reasons. The women serve the food on brass trays set on the
floor. The men, who always dine first, squat about the tray, taking the
food in the right hand. After the men finish, the women and girls dine.2
The usual Indian meal is a si mole affair, and as observed from
reading the fiction books on India, consists of chapnatis, described in the factual material above. Only on special occasions is there anything
1Kumar Goshal, The People of India (Hew York: Sheridan House, 19UU, P- 22.
2Coapton,s Encyclopedia, op. cit., e. 53. 1*3
different. In 13. ver Boy of Kashmir (£), when Hafiz smelled the freshly
baked bread, he knew it was time to go inside for his morning meal. In
Teka Ram’s home, however, the first "chapattie" of the day was given to
the cow, which is considered sacred in India: "At one side of the stove, warm in the a3hes, was a round of fresh bread. The mother handed it to
Teka, but it Yias not for him to eat, he knew. It vras the first chapattia
she had baked and that was reserved always for the COY;, giver of food."--
Mul Chand’s (l) mother cooked com cakes for the evening meal, and Mono
(20) noticed the women making "great flat cakes" to bake while she was
on her search for her lost dog. Ghond (17) described his dinner and the
ritual observed by Hindus while eating:
Our dinner began with lentil soup. After that Kuri and I had rice cooked in water and seasoned with butter, and curried potatoes and egg plants fried in ghee (clari¬ fied butter). For dessert we had curd and sugar. To the Hindu eating is something in the nature of a sacrament. In hotels we eat alone in our rooms; at home we eat one or two at a time, and talk very little.2
The spices that are used for making the curry are grown on the fanas and
stored for the coming year. Bim and his cousins who were visiting him
examined the various spices in Gift of the Forest (2l):
They began tasting them from the baskets; queer little seeds, round or oblong or three-cornered. On Jal's fingers he counted them: cloves and red and black nenners, yell or; saffron and mustard, cardamon, ginger root and mace, cinnamon and turmeric and bay leaves, with plenty of coarse white salt, of course.3
Interspersed throughout the books are brie f sentences about the various
fruits, such as oranges, bananas and mangoes. It would seem that with
lJean Bothwell, Little Flute Flayer, op. cit., p. 30-
2l)han G. Mukerji, Ghond, the Hunter, op. cit., p. 61*.
3Reginald L. Singh and Kloise Lownsbery, Gift of the Forest (Hew York: Longmans, Green & Co., 19l*2), o. 81*. the great abundance of fruits grown in India that they would be used more often in the meals. However, in only a few of the books was there any mention of fruits being used as a part of the menu. In most of the in¬ stances in which fruit was mentioned, the English were the ones who ate it. Before eating it, they would sterilize it in permanganate of potash.
Whenever there were celebrations or any special occasion there was always plenty of food and sweets. The sweets made up a great part
of the feast. When Hafiz' mother went to a friend’s home in honor of the
birth of a baby, she brought home many sweets for Hafiz:
Hafiz carried his sweets to the willow root. They were in a small basket made by pinning green leaves together with bits of their own steins. The re were two squares of cooked sugar, cocoanut, and milk; there was a large, cream-colored ball that had white crumbly cheese inside; and there were two delicate crisscrossed rings that would be full of syrup when he ate them. He looked at his riches and noted the top ones aside to see the next layer. Flump walnut meats and raisins 1 It must have been a very good party indeed.I
After Bim, in Gift of the Forest (21) helped his pet tiger to escape so
the villagers could not sell him into captivity, Bim's parents prepared a feast for the villagers to get their minds off the tiger. The banana- leaf plates were heaped with mounds of rice, with good vegetables and
spiced curry sauce, with spiced mangoes and crisp round chapatis, and
sweetmeats, best of all* While Premi Singh was attending Charity Abide
school, she, along with some of her classmates, was invited to a party
at the doctor’s home. Various kinds of sweets were served:
The house man was carrying two trays of food and he went back for more. That cook had kept his word. There were teconas, little three-cornered nastries that had been friecl in deep fat. They were still wann. Some of their, were filled with curry so hot that it took two drinks of sherbert to cool one’s mouth. Others had
lJean Bothwell, Little Boat Boy, or. cit., p. 20. mixed chopped vegetables inside. One tray had sweetmeats, some partly covered with silver caper which showed they had come from the bazaar. And there were large sticky dark brown gulab jhamans, made of sour milk curd and cocoanut. And there were salty biscuits, very thin, to go with lemon and oil pickles. And a pudding made of rice, colored with saffron and full of raisins .1
Kim (lU) was especially fond of sweets. Vibe never he begged for food, either for himself or his lama friend, he always stressed the desire for sweets. Kim gave a cultivator's child who was suffering from hunger more than from fever, some meat lozenges and quinine wills which revived the child. In return he as Iced that the cultivator bring him foods
"curry, pulse, cakes fried in fat and sweetmeats—especially sweetmeats."2
Tea is the main beverage of India. It is grown there in India and is one of the chief exports.3 Many of the natives drink green tea.
Ghond tells of drinking green tea with the Laraas when he visited their monastery in the mountains. Ghond carried Gay-heck (l6) there to be cured of his fears, hr. Jamna bas like having his first meal of the day by himself on the veranda of his house. Before making his hospital rounds in Star of India (6) he liked to sip cup after cun of strong plain tea.
In 22 of the 23 fiction books written about India, food has been discussed a total of 96 times. In comparison with the factual information the material presented in the books is accurate and detailed and as a result, a person reading the books would get a clear idea of what is being served in India at the meal hour.
Uean Bothwell, The Empty Tower, op. clt., p. 77.
2Rudyard Kipling, Kim (New York: Boubleday, Doran & Co., 1901), p. 25>U.
3boild Book, op. cit., p. 3688. Occupations
About two out of three Indians are farmers. Most of these also must do some work for wages, in order to be able to support their families.
The farms are small, and average only about seven acres. The Hindu laws of inheritance tend to make the farms owned by the farmers smaller and smaller each generation. According to the law, a man’s farm must be divided equally among Ms sons unon his death, even though the share of each is too small to give him a living. The income of the average farmer is so small that he cannot hope to buy more land or better tools; there¬ fore, he is seldom able to grow enough to eat-. '-
Many Indians are skilled in weaving fine fabrics by hand. They make rugs and carpets, and spin fine laces of gold and silver thread.
Indians are also noted for handmade jewelry, silver-ware and brassware.
Many are skillful wood carvers.2 Each village usually lias its own potter, who turns out on his wheel the simple utensils needed by the peasants; a carpenter who builds and repairs the ploughs; a blacksmith who makes axes and other necessary tools; a fisherman, butcher and. scavenger; a priest and teacher, although the priest is usually the teacher also. There is a clerk who attends to legal documents, a town herdsman who looks after the cattle and returns them at night to their various owners; and. the ever-present astrologer, who advises as to the days and even hours, aus¬ picious for planting and harvesting, the celebration of marriages and other festive occasions.3 In the cities one will find barbers, food
lWorld IBook, op. cit., p. 3686.
2Ibid.
3üoshal, OP. cit., p. 21. U7 sellers, letter writers, and merchants of all kinds carrying on their trades in the streets or on the sidewalks
The predominant occupation in India is farming. Evident in practically all of the fiction books on India is the work of the farmer.
Teka Kara (1») helped his father in the fields. The planting was done in the rainy season;
It was the first day of harvest and the cutting was to begin in the rine grain fields. The farmers of Minapur had worked hard. Now they were to see the end of it, begun in the rainy season when the rice was first sown.2
After the harvest was over the grain was sold to the grain dealers, as
Teka Ram’s (I4) father did:
The grain dealers had their shops together in one part, of the main bazaar, on both sides of a whole street. And behind the shops, the father said, were the big storehouses where the merchants kept what they bought until they could sell it and make their own profit.3
Then the farmers enjoy a brief respite until time to begin the next plant¬ ing. In that brief period between reaping and sowing the carpenters are kept busy repairing the farming implements. This is clearly brought out in Little Flute rlayer (h):
The farmers of Minapur and their bull oc les had a brief rest between the reaping and the new sowing. It was the carpenters who toiled the full day through now, repair¬ ing all the gear used in the fields. The heavy yokes which kept the bullocks together when drawing a cart or leading a clow v/ere smoothed and tightened. Cart wheels were mended, and even greased a little if the owner could afford it. New iron points were fitted on the wooden plows. ^
fyorld Book, on. cit., p. 3688.
2 Jean Bothwell, Little Flute Player, op. cit., D. 6I-62.
3Ibid., P. 72. klbid., p. 88. Mul Chand's (l) father was a faxvter, so was Prend Singh'3 (2). In Little
Boat Boy (3) some of the people around Srinagar City were farmers who grew vegetables on the many floating garden islands in Dal I.ake. The other businesses in the village depended upon the farmer’s success, since grain served as the medium of exchange :
It was only when everyone's harvest was very little that the amount of it could make any difference. That would mean a bad time for the whole village. The car- center who expected a portion of grain at the end of the year from each fanner for his care of the plows and carts, and the barber and the priest and the village watchman were all dependent on the crop, though they did no work in the fields. So many tilings were paid for in measures of grain. It was the custom, as every village child knew.l
Seth Charan was the water carrier for the village in which Mul C-hand (l) lived. His father and grandfather and great-grandfather before him also went from house to house selling water. Momo's (20) father was a mail carrier and her mother kept a tea shop as a service to persons going over the mountains. Homo (20) was fascinated by the Indian bankers and the goldsmiths who fashioned the precious metal into jewelry. Along the roads and esnecially in the train stations there are sweetmeat-sellers and tea- venders who are anxious to sell their wares.
Ghond (17) sneaks of the two moans of livelihood open to the pea¬ sants before the coming of the machine-run industries:
In the old days before machine-run industries had out their tentacles into the vitals of our country, the pea¬ sants had two means of livelihood: agriculture and weaving. Each community had its own special art. Bengal wove muslins. Madras wove and printed calico. Ramour spun chuddars that were as flexible as water and as comfortable as our mother's hands. And Kashmere wove its shawls. Though other pro¬ vinces are no longer producing their woven fabrics, Kashmere
1-Jean Bothwell, Little Boat Boy, on. cit., p. l£ still frets the locxns in order to embroider Dosalas (double shawls) and Zanewars (embroidered shawls).1
After Kim (lU) and the lana reached tiie hills near the Himalayas, he noted that the men who were not farmers were wood-cutters. In the cities there are policemen, sweepers and the ever-present money lender. In River Boy of Kashmir (5) the money lender fireared prominently in that story because
Hafiz* father had borrowed money from him in order to send Abdullah,
Hafiz’ older brother, to school. It seemed that the father would never finish, paying the debt, until Abdullah learned to read and count and found out that the money lender was asking for more money than the father owed him. In many of the books the money lender was pictured as an un¬ trustworthy person, who took advantage of the poor illiterate farmers.
Inarming, the most Important means of livelihood in India, has been accurately treated in the fiction books. The other occupations dis¬ cussed in the factual material, are also noted in most of the books. Of the 23 fiction books on India, occupations are treated in 22 of the books
58 times, as shown by Table 2.
Religion
The chief religions are the Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, Sikh,
Jain, Buddhist, and Parsee. Hinduism is sometimes called Brahmanism. It is the oldest form of worsldp of the hill people of India. The followers of this religion believe that at death the soul casses into another body, either human or animal. Because of this belief Hindus avoid killing any living creature. Cows are held in particular reverence and it is a sin to kill them.2 Islam or Mohai:imedanxsm did not originate in India, but was brought in from. Persia and the Middle East.
Ibhan G. Mukerji, Ghond, the Hunter, op. cit., p. 138-39.
^Compton’s Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 57-58. Tiie vrhole scheme of life of the Hindus and the Moslems is
governed by their religious roles. The caste system is one of the most
important features of Hinduism. This system divides the Hindus into
separate classes, or castes. Members of different castes do not inter-
üiarry, they cannot eat together, and they are limited to occupations
that belong to their particular caste. However, caste rules are begin¬
ning to break down. "Untouchability'' wa3 outlawed by the Indian Assembly
in 19U7.1
Two other religious groups, Jainism and Sikhism, are reformist
grours of Hindus but they differ in many rosnects. Jalnists are very
strict in their way of living. They eat no meat, and many even wear a
cloth over their mouths to keep from breathing In an insect and killing
it accidentally. The Sikhs revolted against the caste system. They are
a warlike people, and many Sikhs are found in the Indian Army. They are
very large and strong, therefoz-e, they are often used as policemen
throughout India.2
Gautama Buddha, an Indian prince born around 600 E.C., introduced
Buddhism in India. At one time almost all India was Buddhist, but the
religion now ranks sixth in the number of belie vers. 3
While Ghond (17), a Hindu, was still just a boy, the village
priest explained to him the meaning of the various castes:
You know that you are from the warrior-caste, Kshatryia. The hipjiest caste in India is the Brahmin, that of the priests. The second is yours, that of the soldier. The third is of the tradesmen and farmers who are called Vaisyas.
3-World Book, op. cit., p. 3692.
2lbid., p. 369U.
3lbid Si
The fourth is the day labourer, the Sudra. This caste system is an accretion of our religion, but it is not coeval with our central belief, and already it is break¬ ing down in the cities. In fifty years it Yri.ll break down in the country, but in the meantime, as usual, you, a country lad, must undergo the initiation of your caste. Instead of waiting till you are fourteen, you should be initiated before you are ten, for your character is ripe.l
The people live and work and eat by their religion. As poor as most of
the Indians are, they manage to have an altar in the home where each member of the family can worship before beginning the day’s work. They worship Krishna, who propounded the Hindu Bible, the Gita. Teka Ram, the
Little Elute Player (U), and his family vrere very religious. In the main
room of the house, "a small niche, smoothed out squarely in the mud wall
opposite the stove and higher, held an image of Krishna, the household
god of the Ram family."2 Each morning, the grandmother, as the oldest
member of the household, prepared the family offering to place before
the shrine. Everything in it had to be fresh and as good as they could
afford ï
On a tray she set out five small shining brass bowls. One held the fire of purification, a live coal lifted from the stove with the tongs. Another was for food, a bit of cooked rice, some butter fat, or a little grain, to sustain life. There was the incense of ? At a certain hour during the day, the priest blows a trumphet, calling the people to pray. Whatever the person nay be doing, he stops and prays. However, any time during the day, it is not an uncommon sight to see a person kneeling in prayer. This vas brought out in Kari, the Elephant (19): lDhan G. Mukerji, Ghond, the Hunter, op. cit., p. 30. 2Jean Bothwell, Little Flute Player, op. cit., p. 25>. 3Ibid., p. 1*2. £2 In India every hour has its prayer and every prayer can be said unconsciously anywhere. Nobody notices you if you kneel down on the road to say your prayer, in spite of the fact that you are blocking the traffic. Religion runs like singing waters by the shores of every human life in India.I Cows, considered sacred by the Hindus, are treated with a great deal of respect. Teka Ram's (1+) mother always gave the first "chapattie" of the day to the cow. When a bull stuck his head into the door of the school that Liul Chand (l) was attending, the teacher sent Mul Chand. to shoo him away but warned him to be gentle because cows and bulls are sacred and may not be harmed. One of Bim's (21 ) cousins coked the cow but after Bira explained that Sri Kristina might punish him because Kristina loved cows, both the cousins bowed down to her. The Hindus are very particular about what they eat and who pre¬ pares it. A Hindu will not eat food prepared by a non-Hindu. At the railway stations there are separate facilities provided for drinking water. A vivid description of this situation'is presented by Hilda Wernher in her book, My Indian Family (22): There are two water huts, at each small railway station within a few yards of each other: one bears the inscription '•For Hindus 1" the other "For Muslims." When during our visit we asked where Europeans or Parses came in, we were told that they could drink the "Muslim water." No non-Hindu can be allowed near the water a Hindu is to drink lest it be polluted. Meticulous care is taken even among Hindus to keep the water undefiled by individual human touch. There is a man attached to the hut, whose duty it is to keep the jars clean and re¬ plenished. I dare say he is a Brahman. On arrival of a train he fills a medium-sized gleaming brass vessel from the big jar. Most travelers who approach him outside the hut—they are not allowed in—present their own equally gleaming small vessels into which he pours water. Others drink from their cupped hands which he has to replenish time and again. But before a man drinks or even holds UP the vessel which is to contain his drinking water, he washes his hands under the iDhan G. Mukerji, Kari, the Elephant (New Yorks E. F. Dutton 4 Co., 1922), p. la- 53 running water the warden pours for this purpose? with clean cupiîed hands lie then receives two or three times enough water to rinse his mouth. Only then does a Hindu consider himself clean enough to quench his thirst.1 This elaborate ritual may be observed before eating to guard against pollution. Even while eating, the left hand is never used because it is considered unclean. Wien Mrs. Wemher (22) dined with Seth Chandralal, the food was strictly vegetarian because he was a Jain, and the Jains eat no meat. 'When Kim (lii) was separated from his lama friend during the time he CKiirJ was in school, the lama lived at a Jainist temnle and scent his time in meditation there. Before Kim went to school, he encountered a Sikh along the Great Poad. He was recognizable from his dress, blue- checked clothes and blue cone-shaped turban. The Hindu religion has received more treatment in the fiction books on India than any of the other religions, host of the families are Hindus and in observing modes of dross, c’istoras in eating and the type of work in which they are engaged, their religious beliefs can be seen. Mohammedanism and Hinduism are portrayed in My Indian Family (22) and in almost all of the fiction books there is at least mention of the other religions, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Parsee. The Christian religion was not treated in any of the fiction books on India. As shown by Table 1, religion appears in lU of the 23 fiction books a total of 37 times. Animals Thu vast swamps, forests and jungles of India shelter a wide variety of wild animals. The animal most feared by Indian villagers is the tiger. They prey upon the livestock, and may even become man-killers. TWemher, or. cit. , p. 3* The leopard is found in all parts of India. The chettah, an animal similar to the tiger, is sometimes trained to hunt the antelope in the Deccan. The Kathiawar peninsula contains peri laps the last wild lions in Asia. The Himalayan sun bear roams the mountains, and the common black bear makes its home there and in other hilly areas. Sheep raisers are troubled by wolves on the plateau and drier carts of the plains. Other beasts of prey are the jackal, the wild dog, or dhole, and. the striped hyena.I ■Wild elephants, which are caught in southern jungles and in the Assam rain forest, are tamed for work. Rhinoceroses roam in the Assam forests. Among the grazing animals are antelopes, .jours (wild cattle) wild goats, and numerous species of deer. Monkeys, wild pigs, deer, and such rodents as the bandicoot rob the fields and rat3 do an estimated one million dollars’ worth of damage to storod food. Insects and nests injure peonle and crops.2 Reptiles are numerous in India. Crocodiles swim in the rivers, and snakes, such as the hooded cobra, the krait, and Russell’s viper, are dangerous land snakes. 3alt water snakes are poisonous. The most colorful birds are the parrots. Peacocks are considered sacred by the Hindus. There are both wild and tame peacocks of gorgeous plumage. Eagles, hawks, vultures and water fowl are abundant.3 Wild animals, for which India is famous, have not bean neglected in the fiction books written on India for children and young people. Rudyard Kipling, in his well-known books on India, The Jungle Book (13) The Second Jungle Book (ip) and All the Mowgli Stories (12), has animated ^Compton's Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 55» gIbid. 31bid., p. 56. î>5 the animal characters in his books and given them names. In this manner the jungle inhabitants are brought to life for the reader and this adds color and interest to the books. In The Jungle Book (13) the first chapter introduces the various animals and tells how bowgLi, the baby, raised by the wolf family, came to be accepted by the aniiuals as a member of the jungle family. Father Wolf took Mowgli, the man-cub, to the council rock where it was agreed that he would become a member of the wolf pack for the price of a bull. The characters in this story are bother Wolf, Father Wolf, and their four cubs5 Tabaqui, the Dish-bicker, a jackal despised by the wolves; Shore Khan, the tiger; Baloo, the brown bear who taught the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle, and Bagherra, the Black Panther. Bim's mother, in Gift of the Forest (21 ) found a baby tiger in the jungle. Since it was on Bim’s birthday, he felt that it was a gift of the forest to him. While Dim was in the jungle, he saw a cobra, puff¬ ing out its hood, a troup of monkeys, and a red fox. Since Bim’s compound was near the edge of the jungle, it was easy for the animals to plunder the village: In other years, the re iiad been attacks by old, man- eating tigers. Each year, fruit trees were stripped by wild deer; vines and gardens by jackals. 'Wolves howled too close for comfort as they snatched away a yellow dog, or a sheep. Wild hogs grubbed up the sugarcane brakes. Little red foxes came slinking out to gobble up a stray chicken.1 The monkeys also liked to come into the villages and steal grain. In Little Flute Player (Ii) Teka Ram’s village, there was usually a row of them perched on the top of the village wall or the roofs, waiting for a chance to swoop down and grab a handful of sweet new grain, homo (20) lSingh and Lownsbery, op. cit., p. 18. 56 noticed the monkeys on her trip to Calcutta* seeking for her Lhasa terrier puppy. ^hile Gopala and David -sere traveling through the jungle with Bhimsa (23)* the bear* they encountered a tiger. Both boys were terrified but Bhimsa was able to prevent the tiger from harming the boys. In Hari* the Jungle Lad (l8) and Ghond* the Hunter (17) are de¬ scriptions of practically every kind of animal, reptile and bird to be found in the jungle. Karl* the Elephant (19), in addition to being about the elenhant, includes other animals such as monkeys* tigers* bears, rhinoceros* deer and antelopes. Animals are quicker than men to sense some approaching disaster or calamity. Just before a terrible flood occurred in Hari* the Jungle Lad (18) the animals were already on the move: Just at this moment we heard moanings in the distance* and when we opened the doors of the compound and went out* we saw jackals and antelopes walking about outside. Be¬ yond TO could see wild animals going down the river. There were monkeys who from the tree tops had seen a warning* and also their fellow tree-dwellers, the squirrels* then a troop of wild buffalo who had received their signal as they grazed, and the sensitive Mushik tfava, the musk-bearing deer. These last are solitaries and wander alone, and to see them crowded together was a sign to us of pressing disaster* swift and certain. Birds came in flocks and flew across the sky.l Likewise, just before the drought in the jungle, described in All the Llowgli Stories (12)* there was an exodus of the animals from the jungle.2 Also, in Ghond* the Hunter (17) there are vivid scenes of animals passing the village in which Ghond lived during a drought. Such animals as the deer, elephant* and wild buffaloes come near the villages and eat up the growing grain. Ghond and the village priest stationed themselves where lDhan G. Mukerji, Hari* the Jungle Lad* oo. cit.* p. 23-2i*. 2;iupra* see "Physical Features and Climate," p. 30. they could watch the animals passing by on their way to find food and water: ....Like a scene in a theatre stood before us a mammoth tusker....Swiftly, the creature, as massive as a temple, moved and vanished. And just where it had emerged into sight a few moments before stood a big female elephant. She walked on followed by a young tusker. Thus they massed, one after the other—an entire herd. Hours seemed to have passed when an enormous sambur (a deer as big as a bull) stalked out of the west and stood before us....Deer after deer followed him eastward, quiet and calm without any fear in them at all. An utterly eventless half hour passed and then came a quick snap, snap, snap from the west, and lo, a tiger and tigress were draw¬ ing their sinuous path on the shore. The moon had already risen towards its meridian when half a dozen boars and then buffaloes passed. Following them came a small herd of elephants.1 Of the reptiles, the cobra has been the most popular subject treated in the fiction books. It is a dangerous snake, yet in same villages it is considered sacred and the people may place a saucer of milk for it. But when a small English boy, Bogey, in The River (ll) tried to do the same thing, that is, he wanted to feed the cobras, he was bitten by one and killed instantly. When the yard was searched, two cobras were found. Ghond (17) sa?j- a cobra that had entered the assembly during meditation, gave a Taming and thereby kept anyone from being bitten by the snake. In My Indian Family (22) Mrs. L'emher tells of the cobra and Russel's viper, and the deadly icrait, against whose bite no serum is available. Birds are numerous and brilliantly colored. In the jungles many varieties are seen. Hari (18) became acquainted vdth the many species while hunting with his father: Iphan G. Hukerji, Ghond, the Hunter, op. cit., p. 72-73 58 In the jungle there are more birds than one can begin to tell about. There are the parakeets, brilliantly colored fellows cross the sky every now and then, the kites, who live by feeding on carrion, and the night birds that sing all day and sometimes at night and there are in the jungle a variety of birds as well as flowers for which there are no names in English. There is a queer class of blackbirds who do not sing but make a terrible, screech¬ ing noise in the daytime whenever they see a tiger or a leoeard or a panther, so these members of the cat family have to go very stealthily through the jungle.1 In addition to those birds mentioned above, there are parrots and crows, and many water birds as described in The Second Jungle Spok (13) as goese—barrel-headed and black-backed, teal, widgeon, mallard, and shel¬ drake, curlews, and here and there a flamingo, with a lumbering crane bringing up the rear. Peacocks, considered sacred by the Hindus, eat snakes, therefore they are not killed by hunters. Bim’s father, in Gift of the Forest (2l) told him that the peafowl are the sacred birds of Lakshmi, whan their call is heard, it is usually the sign of some danger to come. There is the Tosa bird whose feathers the Kashmiris use for weaving shawls. It is a little white bird small as a swallow. The eagle usually rakes its home in the mountains. The grey eagle was seen by Kim (lli) and the lata when they traveled over the mountains. In Gay-Heck (l6) the Himalayan eagle is brown with a soft golden glow, and though very beautiful to look at, yet it is a fierce beast of prey. Sometimes a white eagle is seen. Animals were the most popular of all the subjects treated in the fiction books on India. Ten of the 23 books are centered aroxmd animals as the main theme. Animals were treated in 10 of the remaining 13 titles, and as shown by Table 1, there are 137 references to animals. The iDhan G. Mukerji, Hari, the Jungle Lad, or. cit., r. 199. $9 material in the fiction books compares very favorably with the factual information and is presented in such a manner that it will appeal to the young reader, and picture to him the many kinds of animals to be found in that country. Transportation In order to promote trade, the British Government built a large railroad network, and as a result, India has a better transportation system than any other country in Asia. Important Indian cities are linked by air service. There are good roads and highways, but in spite of all this, the villagers, who are about 90 per cent of the population, still use bullock carts on the rough and dusty country roads. In the cities the bicycle is used as a means of transportation. The large rivers, especially the Ganges, are used a great deal in trade. Coastal shipping in sailing dhows is large, but it is handicapped by a shortage of harbors. Canals connect some of the smaller rivers and there is steamer service between the large ports and between India and Ceylon.l Since the villagers still use the bullock carts on the rough country roads, it is only natural that they are frequently discussed in the fiction books on India for children and young people. The farmers use them for taking their produce to inarket. They hitch the bullocks which are used to pull the plow onto the carts, and although they are slow, clumsy animals, they eventually get to their destination because they do not tire easily. Teka Ram (li) rode in his father’s bullock cart, one of a long line on the way to the village. And Bittu and her father, on their .journey to recover the lost Star of India (6) owned a bullock cart, drawn by two bullocks. Bim’s parents also used a bullock cart, and in Gift of lWorld Book, op. cit., p. 3697-90. 60 the Forest (21 ) tells hot; it Y.-as constructed! Indeed, they £Bln and his cousins} were just in time to see the nan leading Ueta, the work buffalo, how they could help with the important process of harnessing him to the high, two-wheeled cart, made of )»avy teak v<-ood, hand-herwn.1 Bread. Singh (2) on lier way to school with her father, passed a bullock cart piled with sacks of grain. Tî'ie tonga, although not discussed in the factual material as a means of transportation, is widely used throughout India. Mrs. Wemher (22) describes it as a "diminutive gaily painted Victorian brake."2 The people going to Puahkar to the village fair went in various types of vehicles. Jivan (7) observed that they "came in slow-moving, double¬ decked camel carts. They came on foot and in bullock carts. Tisey carne in topas from the town, with belled, skinny horses. A few no tor cars cliugged slowly at intervals -through the traffic."3 The students arriving for sc!tool in Tlie i-apty Tower (2) also caaa in tongas, as well as bullock carts. The train, referred to as the "te-rain" in many of the fiction books on India, is becoming increasingly popular as a means of transpor- tation for the masses, although still regarded with awe and wonder. The r'eoole have not quite learned to trust it-. The cultivator whose son Kim (lit) "cured" vas anxious to take tie child back to its mother in Pelhi, and felt that the train Yîas the quickest way: Then in the name of the Cods, let us take the fire- carriage. My son is best in his mother's arms. The Government lias brought on us aszqr taxes, but it gives ISingh and Lownsbory, op. cit., p. 17. 2We miter, op. cit., p« 11-12. 3Jean Bothwell, The Thirteenth Stohe, op. cit., p. U 6l us one good tiling—the te-rain that joins friends and unites the anxious. A wonderful natter is the te-rain. 1 Kim (lU) and his lama friend traveled by train to Umballa, and Mono (20) rode the train for fart of the distance on her way to Calcutta, searching for her pet dog. After she reached Calcutta, there was an endless stream of traffic going in both directions: All the middle section of this bridge was a wide road chocked with vehicles. Streetcars running on tracks and clanging their bells j basses lacquered gold or silver, with people looking out of all the windows; motor cars; closed carriages like square boxes, drawn by little horses and shutting away the face of some Indian lady from the world; rickshaws pulled by sweating coolies; bullock carts laden with rice or jute; four and five abreast, coming or going, they streamed in contrary currents. On each side were broad paths for foot passengers—-men walking, coolies swaying as they jog-trotted along, cleverly balancing their sacks of rice upon their heads. It was a moving bridge of men, most marvelous to see.2 Some of the well-to-do persons can afford cars, referred to as motor cars. Dr. Jamna Das owned a car, and when Motibai, Premi Singh's father's housekeeper, ea>ne to the sehool for a visit, he sent his car to bring her to the school, in The Empty Tower (2). Hafiz (5) had never seen a motor car, but he got a chance to ride in the doctor's car when he fell and broke his arm. Freight barges are common sights on the rivers and streams. In Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, boats and barges are used because half the streets are water-ways: All men know that half of the streets in the capital of Kashmir are but water-ways whose chariots are boats and barges. From the edge of the Lake Dal into the very middle of the city the streams run in and out like silver paths losing themselves between wooden huts and stone mansions. It is 1Rudyard Kipling, Kira, op. cit., p. 257 2Rankin, op. cit., p. 152. 62 very startling to arrive at a house by a boat and go out of it on an elephant from its other door.l Elephants are frequently used as a means of transportation, al¬ though not given as such in the factual material- It has been noted that they are trained as work animals, but they are also ridden by ra.jas and maharajas.2 In Karl, the Elephant (19) there is an explanation of the hoYfdah, used by persons who ride elephants: ’'We ^Karl's master] never put a howdah on the back of Kari. Vein' few Hindus put howdahs on elephants.... It is a box with high insides of which there arcs chair3 for travelers."3 Hard (l8) tells of the hunters who came on elenhants and hunted tigers: Most of these hunters were Maharajas and their people, who came on elephants and hunted tigers. They would pour up the river from the east, with splendid outfits, the troups of elephants gorgeously painted on ears and trunks and heads, while the elepliants that bore the rajahs were gold-caparisoned and ornamented with pearls. On their necks sat the mahouts, clad in pure white, and behind the mahouts perched the gold houdahs in which the pilnces rode, magnificently dressed with jewelled turban3.U The students at Charity Abide school in The Empty Tower (2) got a chance to ride an elephant during a fair sponsored by the students. One of the ’wealthy men in the town brought him out to the school as a surprise for the students. The elephant wore a ’’holiday trapping of purple velvet embroidered in gold, and on its back was a small carved wood seat with a low railing and soft cushions.The maharajah of the village in which Bim (23.) lived rode an elephant whenever he visited the villagers. When lBhan Mukerji, Uhonri, the Hunter, OP. cit., p. 11*8. 2Supra, see "Animals, " p. £1*. 3Dhan Mukerji, Kari, the Elephant, op. cit., p. 20. UDhan Mukerji, Hari, the Jungle Lad, op. cit., p. 127» hJean Bothvrell, The Empty Tower, on. cit., p. li*0. 63 Dr. Aziz accompanied Miss Quested and Mrs. Moore to see the Marabar Caves, in A Passage to India (10), after leaving the train they finished the trip on an elephant. Gopala and David got the opportunity to ride on an elenhant which belonged to Maan Shah, a prince living in exile, in Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear (23). Transportation lias been accurately and adequately treated in lfj of the 23 fiction books on India for ciiildren and young people. The bullock cart, still used by the masses of people, has been described simply and. clearly so that even the youngest reader can understand. The train, a relatively new method of travel, is being used more and more by the peas¬ ants, when they can afford it. They are beginning to lose their fright of the loud noises and the speed at which it travels. Elechants are also frequently used for transportation. There was no mention of air service in any of the fiction books. As shown by Table 2, transportation is pre¬ sented 63 times. Schools Many of the schools are conducted outdoors. The practice probably was continued from the custom of the teachers in ancient times who used to retire to a grove to teach and to practice religious meditation in peace and quiet. Later these groves were transformed into great monasteries and universities, however, only a few* of the people are educated, and that may be attributed to the lack of compulsory free education and to the lack of a universal language* Generally, education in India is a luxury that only the well-to-do can afford. Missionaries have set up schools for the poor, but these reach only a few. Only about fifteen out of every hundred persons can read and write.1 India's culture, however, iWorld Book, on. cit., n. 3639. has always been passed on by word of mouth. Many uneducated basants can recite long passages from Indian classics by memory. Education is the function of the state government, but is carried out haphazardly. Trained teachers are scarce and money is limited. Most of the schools that are maintained are grade schools and very few students go to high school or college. Ville primary education is poorly developed, the universities in India graduate an ample number of young men. The wealthy, upper-class Hindus send their sons to English universities for advanced training. But the education of women has lagged behind because of religious and financial reasons. There are nine federal universities, a Hindu university, a Moslem university, and universities in the states of Mysore, Hyderabad, and Travancore. These schools teach in English and in the various languages of India.1 Educational conditions are improving gradually, however. By 1950 there were more than 200,000 primary schools and one-tenth as many middle high schools. There is a program of education for adults called "social education," which offers classes in hygiene, home economics, agriculture, and cottage industries, as well as reading.2 Since the educational system is so poorly developed in India, there is not very much information on schools found in the fiction books on that country. Mul Chand (l) attended school in a one-room schoolhouse that had mud walls almost two feet thick. The boys seated themselves cross-legged on the clay floor, on woven mats. Premi Singh attended an all girls' school. She wanted to get "Missa" the teacher, a bell for The Empty Tower (2). Be¬ fore Hafiz (3) was old enough to go to school, he passed a Moslem school llbid., n. 3689. 2Comptonls Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 65* where the boys were learning to read the Koran. They all read aloud at the top of their voices. Bim (21 ) did not attend school but he learned to read and write at home. Prend, in the Star of India (it2) reached Charity Abide the day before school onened. This is her first plimpse of the school: It was late afternoon when they came through the town to the school gates, swung wide today because the new term would begin tomorrow. Tall cork trees grew on either aide of the driveway that the gates guarded. Prend leaned far out of the cart to get a first glimpse of the big white pillared house. One more curve and there it was, way ahead, set in its rose garden and lawns In Sun in the Morning (8) the De Souza girls want to the convent school and tiie boys went to St. Xavier’s College. Mr. Fielding, an Englishman, was principal of a little college in Chandrarore, in A Passage to India (10). Abdullah, who had attended River School and learned to read and count, went with his little brother Hafiz to the school on his first day to introduce him to the teachers. Yusuf, one of the teachers, showed Hafiz around the school, mess hall, the sleeping quarters and finally the classroom: ’Here we are, ’ said Yusuf, and they went into the second room. There was not much furniture. But Hafiz had never before seen a schoolroom, and Abdullah had never said what one was like. There was a chair and a table for Teacherji. There were smaller tables and at each was a little narrow bench with a back. No, it was not a bench. It 'was a chair 1 In the doonga they always sat on the floor around the cooking place to eat, or on the deck. He had never sat in a chair.2 Kim (lU) was induced to attend St. Xavier’s school against his will. His lama friend provided the money for Kim's schooling so that lie would not lJean Bothwell, Star of India, op. cit., o. 1+2. 2Jean Bothwell, River Boy of KashEiir, op. cit., p. 16-17. 66 have to attend the array barracks’ school. Ghond (l?) received his education from the villas Driest, Purohit. In the books by Jean Eothwell, school life for children at the boarding schools has been presented in an appealing mariner. There is not very much information on schools because the development of education has been slow. However, in 15 of the 23 fiction books, education or schools are mentioned 27 times. Celebrations Village life in India, as elsewhere, follows a monotonous pattern, relieved by occasional festivities. Hindus have many religious holidays which they celebrate, and the Moslems have a few holidays which they have developed. The two most popular festivals among the Hindus are Holi and Diwali. Holi is in honor of the most popular incarnation of God in Hindu mythology-—the Lord Krishna, god of love and wisdom. It is a spring festival similar to the Easter festival of the Greeks. During the cele¬ bration all the villagers out on garlands of flowers, light hugh bonfires, dance and sing love songs, and scatter red powder and squirt colored water at one another, symbolic of Krishna’s escapades with the milkmaids of Mathura.1 Diwali, or the festival of lights, is somewhat comparable to our Hallowe’en, and is celebrated in the autumn to give a cheerful welcome to the spirits of the sainted dead who are permitted to visit their earthly homes and familiar surroundings once a year- To guide the spirits on the right paths, the villagers arrange a series of earthenware lamps on their verandahs, window sills and doorsteps. Then the village at night looks as though lit up by hundreds of glowworms. There are also ^-Goahal, oT. cit., p. 29-30. 67 exhibitions of fireworks which add to the beauty and festivity of the occasion.1 The Moslems also have their seasonal festivals, the Nau-roz in the spring and the Shab Barat in the autumn. Nau-roz is celebrated in large gardens and riverside parks with urusic and flowers. During the Shab Barat the Moslems use fireworks and illuminate their homes and mosques.2 From the factual material on holidays and celebrations observed in India it would seem that the subject would have been treated in more of the books. But in only three of the fiction books is there a detailed description of the festivals. Premi Singh in The Empty Tower (2) was in¬ vited, along with some of her schoolmates, to witness the Diwali festival from the roof of one of the village homes. The Diwali is described along with the meaning of the celebration: In the middle of that month of renewal and refreshing after the long rains, came the festival of Diwali to cele¬ brate the coming of Lakshmi, the Great Mother, froir. her summer absence in the hills. Many believed she blessed the new season and made the fields fruitful. All the people, wiierever they %vere, took part in the festival. There was much work to do in preparation, but afterward there was also much joy when the work was done. For some it meant clean houses, fresh whitewash on the walls, and new hard clay floors. For a few there v/ere new clothes, feasting, and visits. The children everywhere looked forward to Diwali all year long. To them it meant sweets and a holiday, and the illuminations on the great night of the festival. Then all the people who could afford it set small oil lamps, chiraghs, in rows round the tops of their houses and on window ledges and balcony railings. And on the last night of the feast they ?rere lighted, at dusk when the sun had quite gone, to guide the goddess back to the plains.3 llbid., p. 30. 2lbid. 3Jean Bothwell, The Empty Tower, op. cit., p. 23-2U. 68 The Diwali festival is also described in The River (ll) as it was ob¬ served by the Hindus employed in a European household. The people in Ghond's (17) village also observed the "Hinavali" festival. In Momo's (20) village tiiere was a festival called the Red Hat festival which lasted three days. It was a play by the Buddhist lamas to teach the people not to fear evil spirits. Mrs. Wemher, in My Indian Family (22), tells of the Dasera: Basera is the greatest Rajput festival, in remembrance of Rama's victory over Havana in the battle of Lanka (Cey¬ lon) and his subsequent journey to Ayodhya. It is a festival observed all over India, but on the most magnificent scale by maharajas and princes, who all belong to the warrior caste—today called Rajputs.I None of the fiction books described the Holi celebration, nor was there any information on the Moslem holidays. The Diwali celebration was presented in the fiction books accurately as comnared with the factual material. Only seven of the 23 books presented information about cele¬ brations for a total of 12 times. Marriage Customs It has long been the custom for parents to arrange the marriage of their children. Child marriages in India were made illegal in 1929. But high caste Brahmans may ignore the lav? because they believe a girl should marry at puberty. Usually the child bride re nains with her family until she is If? or 16 years old. The husband is the ruler of his house¬ hold, but the women of modem India have more lights and privileges than Indian women used to have. Marriage celebrations are very elaborate. Relatives come from near ant! far for the feasting. The ministrel, or piper, entertains the crowd. The expense of the affair of the bride's dowry frequently drives the fatter to the money lender. The custom of 1-Wemher, op. cit., p. lUf?. 69 purdah, or keeping women in seclusion, mis brought to India by the Moslems. It is now rapidly fallin;;; into disuse. 1 When a husband dies, the widow is not permitted to remarry. She remains in the husband’s home to work at disagreeable chores. Before the practice of suttee was made illegal, a widow might throw herself in the flames o" her dead husband's funereal pyre.2 For the most part, there are only indirect references to the marriage customs of India in the fiction books for children and young people. Hafiz (5) knew that his sister îlafia would not be able to get married until their fatter could afford the dower. He was already in debt to the money lender for Abdullah’s school fees. The only detailed account of a marriage is presented in My Indian Family (22). After Mrs. Wemher’s daughter, who was married to a Moslem, dies, she is then faced with the Indian custom of finding a suit ablet match for her son-in-law. It is a difficult task for her, since her daughter had only been dead a short time, but finally she finds the right girl and all the arrangements are made. The marriage ceremony for the bridegroom vias read in the men's quarters and the ceremony for the bride was read in the women's quarters. Future books written on India might very well develop this subject in fiction books for children and young people since there is very little material given. In only four of the fiction books for children and young people is the subject touched on 10 times. A knowledge of the details of marriage customs in India would be interesting for young people. 3-World Book, op. cit., p. 369k. ^Compton's Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 59. 70 Summary Generally, the information presented in the fiction books on India for children and young people is accurate and authentic and portrays the life and customs of that country to its readers vividly and clearly. How¬ ever, in some of the areas chosen for comparison, natural resources, schools, celebrations and marriage customs, very little material has been given. India is rich in natural resources such as coal, iron ore, gold, silver, copper and many other metals and minerals, and they might very well be brought to the attention of the reader, since they are important to the country of India. Jean Bothwell is one of the authors who tried to picture school life in some parts of India through her books, The Empty Tower (2) and River Boy of Kashmir (5), as well as Star of India (6). The gaiety and color of celebrations in India could be made a fruitful source of information which could be woven into stories for children. These celebrations are numerous and sometimes they are the only kind of entertainment to break the monotony of everyday living. Tlie very fact that marriage customs in India are different from the customs observed in tills country should prove to be of interest, to young adults who are nearing maturity. My Indian Family (22) relates the details and complications involved in arranging a marriage of upper class Moslems, as seen through the eyes of an outsider. This book is especially good in presenting Hindu-Moslem relationships. Descriptions of the life and customs of India are presented a total of 6I4I times in the 23 fiction books. Alxmt half of the books are written about animals, a subject popular with children. 71 TABLE 2 FEATURES OF INDIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS AND FREQUENCY WITH WHICH EACH OCCURS IN THE FICTION BOOKS ON INDIA FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE, PUBLISHED 1891-1950 » £ jÿ o ■P 0) -p n$ -P £ 1 OS Books •H i-l H O re b t-.-JC o «J •H 'g fO C Tî F.Î 0$ ÎH Total rC aJ Food Religion Homes Occupations Trans DO rtation Schools Celebrations Natural Resources jj Dress PM Animais ÏA Cap for Bui Chand i 2 1 U 3 1 2 3 1 18 The Empty Tower 2 U 1 8 1 2 5 1 1 25 Little Boat Boy 6 li li < 5 1 2li Little Flute Player 2 2 1 ii 5 il 1 l 20 Hiver Boy of Kashmir 7 5 3 5 1 6 6 3 36 Star of India 2 $ 2 3 1 1 5 3 22 The Thirteenth Stone 2 6 2 5 2 1 2 3 1 1 25 Sun in the Morning 1 < 1 9 1 5 2 2li All’s Elephant 1 1 1 il 1 1 9 A Passage to India U 3 3 3 il 3 7 2 1 30 The River 2 2 ii ii 3 1 2 l 1 20 All the Mowgli Stories u 1 1 1 1 20 28 The Jungle Book 1 2 2 1 1 25 32 Kira h il 3 6 6 3 2 6 2 1 37 Tire Second Jungle Book 6 1 1 2 5 1 1 17 Gay-Neck 5 2 h 3 3 17 Ghondj the Hunter 12 il ii li 8 il 17 2 1 6 62 Hari, the Jungle Lad 3 3 il 1 1 21 1 1 35 Kara, the Elephant 3 2 1 1 2 9 2 20 Daughter of the Mountains 6 7 U 10 7 il 3 5 1 Ii7 Gift of the Forest 3 3 2 8 h il 10 1 1 36 My Indian Family 1 LI 1 6 2 2 1 ii 3 il 35 Shinsa, the Dancing Bear h 2 1 3 1 7 2 2 22 Total 81 1 76 Wl 96 58 37 137 53 27 L2 10 6iil CHAPTER IV SUMMARY The purpose of this study has been to examine fiction books for children and young people on Indian life and customs to de terrine whether factual information was being presented. The selected books were read and their contents compared rath the factual material about India. But in order to judge the competency of the authors to write the books, bio¬ graphical sketches of their lives were presented to show their qualifi¬ cations and interest in India and her people. As shown in Table 3, of the four authors who were born in India, Elizabeth Cadell, Rudyard Kipling, Dhan Mukerji and Christine Weston, the one native Indian, Mukerji, has written four books about India, depicting her life and customs a total of 13b times. Rudyard Kipling has also written four books about India, with llii references to Indian life and customs. Elizabeth Cadell and Christine Weston, with one book each, have portrayed Indian life and customs 2h and 22 times respectively. Of the American authors writing about India, Jean Bothwell, with six books, has nictured Indian life and customs a total of 152 tines. In comparison with the Indian-born authors, Mukerji and Kipling, she has em- nhasized a greater number of areas, while Kipling and Mukerji have, for the most part, centered their books around animals and the physical features of India, as shown by Table 3* The other American authors, Julie F. Batchelor, Louise Rankin and Raymond Creekmore, have written one book each 72 73 on Indian life and customs. Of the three, Louise Lankin lias referred to the customs of India U7 times, as compared with 18 for Batchelor and nine for Creekmore. This may be attributed to the fact that Louise Rankin lived in India for nine years (see Table l). Edward Forster and Ramer Godden, although bom in England, have snent sane time in India. Tliey have depicted Indian life and customs a total of 30 times each, as shown by Table 3* Hilda 7femher and Reginald Singh have also lived in India for a few years and they have described Indian life and customs a total of 36 and 35 times respectively. From the foregoing, it can be seen that the four American authors with nine books have treated Indian life and customs 226 times as compared with the four Indian-born authors who have written 10 books, setting forth the life and customs 29h times. The Indian-bom authors concentrated on animals, physical features and climate of India while the American authors covered a wider range of subjects. The physical features of India were treated in all of the fiction books except one. Most of the emphasis was placed on the Himalayan mountains and the Ganges river, while the other mountain ranges and the two other important rivers in India received little or no treatment. In future books on India for children and young peoole, information on the other rivers and mountains in India could be incorporated into fiction books. Except for the animals found in India's jungles, only one book mentioned the natural resources of India. These resources need to be developed in fiction books about India and their importance brought to the attention of the reader. Customs of dress, Indian homes, food and occupations have been adequately treated in the fiction books about India. All of the major 7k religions of India mere treated except the Christian religion. Most of the emphasis was placed on Hinduism and Mohammedanism, the two largest religious groups in India. Animals were described a total of 137 times, the greatest coverage of any of the subjects chosen for comparison. They were the subject of almost half of tie fiction books written on India for children and young people. Since animals are a subject popular with children and young people, these books can be expected to appeal to the reader and at the same time he will gain a knowledge of various other customs and habits of the Indian people. Transportation in India was adequately treated, although travel for the masses is still confined to the old-fashioned bullock cart. How¬ ever, with the improvements in transportation facilities and the growth of railway travel, the new trend in transportation should be reflected in future books about India. There are few schools in India on the elementary and high school level; therefore, very little information has been presented in the fiction books. Recently, there has been an effort to improve educational conditions, and with the increase in the number of schools, this should also be reflected in fiction books about India. Celebrations and marriage customs, integral features of Indian life and customs, have not been adequately treated in the fiction books. These two areas need to be developed in fiction books for children and young people. Celebrations and festivals are sometimes the only diversions enjoyed by the villagers, and since a majority of the people in India live in villages, this should be brought out in the fiction books about that country 75 Ghond, the Hunter (17) by Mukerji lias presented more characteristic features of Indian life and customs than any other book, giving a total of 62, and Alt’s Elephant (9) by Creekmore, has the least number, with nine. However, the beautiful pictures of this book really tell the story, which was written for the youngest reader. Of the 23 books about India read for this study, five of them were published by William Morrow and Company, as shown by Table It. Harcourt, Brace and Company and Doubleday, Doran and Company published four books each, while the E. P. Dutton Company published three. The other publishers are credited with one book each on India. The 23 books were published between the years l89ii and 1990 with more than half the books being published from 19U5 to 1950» It appears that since World War II, there has been an increase in the number of books written about India for children and young people. In order to make the study more useful to teachers and librarians, the ciiaracteristic features of Indian life and customs have been compiled according to grade levels to show which grade levels have the greatest coverage. There are seven books written suitable for grades five through seven with 219 descriptive features. All of the 12 areas chosen for com¬ parison have been discussed in the seven books, although the information on natural resources, celebrations and marriage customs has been very in¬ adequate, as shown by Table 9* The grade levels between three and eight have the greatest coverage, therefore, there is a need for more picture books for grades one through three and books for the high school reader, grades nine through 12 (see Table 6). 76 TABLE 3 A COMPARISON OF THE AUTHORS ' PLACE OF BIRTH ANT THE NUMBER OF TIMES THE CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES APPEAR IN TIE FICTION BOOKS ABOUT INDIA FOR CHILDREN ANT- YOUNG PEOPLE Characteristic Features Born in Bom in Bora in Others in the Fiction Books on India America England India for Children and £ Young People 0 1 Phi's!cal Features and Climate 1 15 23 h 1 21 6 il 2 3 1 81 Natural Resources l 1 Dress 5 6 9 2 2 26 7 3 2 3 Ll 76 Homes 1 6 11 1 1 13 it it 2 1 lilt Food 9 9 9 3 il 30 10 1 -/ il 8 6 96 -\ Occupations 1 8 10 1 3 15 7 1 3 it. 2 53 Religion 6 9 1 5 ii 1 ii 1 ii 2 37 Animals £2 U7 7 2 6 2 ii 3 2 10 i : .37 Transportation .7 8 2 3 20 5 7 1 1 il 63 Schools 2 3 2 1 12 l 2 1 3 27 Celebrations 6 2 1 l 1 1 12 Marriage Customs 1 h 1 ii 10 03 Total Illi L3li 22 H 152 ii7 9 30 30 36 35 SIil TABLE U PUBLISHERS AMD NUMBER OF FICTION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ON INDIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS PUBLISHED, Publisher Years of Publication 1W w Ï9ÜÏ 19è2 T9SIT i tel T92K -msnxr 19ÏÏT Ï* iwr TOT w Ï5ST “Total Day X 1 Doubleday X X X X h Dutton X X X 3 Hale X 1 Harcourt, Brace X X X X U Little, Brown X l Longmans, Green X l Macmillan X l Morrow X X X X X Scribner X l Viking X l Total 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 3 2 23 78 TABLE 5 ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS OF FICTION BOOKS ON INDIA FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ACCORDING TO GRADE LEVELS Grade Level Number of c Boo les o •THtz ■rl and Climate r-t« Total Physical Features Food Natural Resources Homes Schools Transporta tion Celebrations Dress Occupations « Animals Marriage Customs 1-3 1 1 1 1 h 1 1 9 3-ii 1 1 2 1 h 3 1 2 3 1 18 3-5 3 15 11 8 lU 11 h 1 7 7 3 80 h-6 3 8 11 h lii 3 10 12 h 3 69 5-7 7 31 1 17 lh 13 111 10 99 9 h 6 1 219 5-0 2 9 10 6 18 11 8 13 6 1 1 83 5-9 1 5 2 h 3 3 17 7-9 1 1 5 1 9 1 5 2 2h 8-9 1 k h 3 6 6 3 2 6 2 1 37 9-11 1 2 2 h h 3 1 2 1 1 20 10-12 2 5 lh 1 9 5 6 h 11 5 5 65 Total 23 81 1 76 hh 96 58 37 137 63 27 12 LO sia 7'-’ TABLE 6 GRADE LEVELS OF FICTION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ON INDIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS PUBLISHED FR® 189U-1950 Number of Number of Grade Level Books Characte ris tic Features 1-3 1 9 3-U 1 18 3-5 3 80 h—6 3 69 5-7 7 219 5-8 2 83 5-9 1 17 7-9 1 2 h 8-9 1 37 9-11 1 20 10-12 2 65 Total 23 6ia APPENDIX I FICTION BOOKS ON INDIA FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECOMMENDED READING LEVEL OF EACH (1) Batchelor, Julie F. A Cap for Mul Chand. Ulus, by Corinne V. Dillon. New York! Harcourt, ferace and Co., 1950. (3-1+) (2) Bothwell, Jean. The Empty Tower. Illus. by Margaret Ayer. New York: William Morrow and Co., 19L8. (h-6) (3) . Little Boat Boy. Illus. by Margaret Ayer. New York: iiarcourt, feraee and Co., 19h$* (3-5) (h) • Little Flute Flayer. Illus. by Margaret Ayer. New York: William Morrow and Co., 19L9. (3-5) (5) « River Boy of Kashmir. Illus. by Margaret Ayer. New York: William Morrow and Co., 191*6. (3-5) (6) . Star of India. Ulus, by Margaret Ayer. New York: William Morrow and Co., \9bl• (U-6) (7) . The Thirteenth Stone. Illus. by Margaret Ayer. New York: Harcourt, ferace and Co., 19U6. (5-7) (8) Cadell, Elizabeth. Sun in the Morning. Illus. by Mildred Coughlin McNutt. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1950* (7-9) (9) Creekmore, Raymond. All’s Elephant. Illus. by author. New York: Macmillan Co., 19ÏÏ^I (l-3) (10) Forster, Edward M. A Passage to India. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1921:. (10-12) (11) Godden, Rumer. The River. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 19ii6. (9-ll) (12) Kipling, Rudyard. All the Mqwgli Stories. Illus. bv Kurt Wiese. New York: Doubleday, Doran and do., 1936. (5-7) (13) . pie Juntje Book. Illus. by John Lockwood Kipling. New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 189U- (5-7) (lit) . Kim. Illus. by John Lockwood Kipling. New York: Double¬ day, Doran and Co., 1901. (8-9) (l5) . The Second Jungle Book. New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 13^1 (5-7) 80 81 (16) Mukerji, Dhan Qopal. Gay-Neck. Ulus, by Boris Artzybasheif. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1927» (5-9) (17) • Ghond, the Hunter. Ulus, by Boris Artzybasheff. New ¥Zrki E. P. Dutton and C0., 1928. (5-7) (18) . Hari, the Jungle Lad. Ulus, by Morgan Stineraetz. Eau Glair, Yus cousin: E. M. Hale and Co., 1921:. (5-7) (19) • Kari, the EleDhant. Ulus, by J. E. Allen. Ne-w York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1922. (5-7) (20) Rankin, Louise. Daughter of the Mountains. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. New York: The Viking Press, 19U9. C5-8) (21) Singh, Reginald Lai and Eloise Lownsbery. Gift of the Forest. Illus. by Anne Vaughan. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 19U2. (5-8) (22) Wemher, Hilda. My Indian Family. New York: The John Day Co., 191:5* (10-12) (23) Weston, Christine. Bhimsa. the Dancing Lear. Illus. by Roger Duvoisin. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950. (Ü-6) APPENDIX II DESCRIPTIVE ANNOTATIONS OF FICTION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT INDIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS, PUBLISHED 189U-19?0 Batchelor, Julie F. A Cap for Mul Chand How this small boy of eleven received a cap so that he could visit his uncle in Bombay. Bothwell, Jean The Empty Tower Premi Singh and members of second class at Charity Abide School earn money for a bell for the empty tower. Little Boat Boy Eight-year-old Hafiz owns a fleet of toy boats but somehow they fail to keep him out, of mischief. Little Flute Player Teka Ram is faced with a man-sized job of look¬ ing after the family when the crops failed and the father had to seek work in the city. River Boy of Kashmir Hafiz saved the money lender's life and re¬ ceived a reward which helped pay back the debt for the school fees. Star of India Bittu helps her father recover the Star of India, a medal that has been in the family for several generations. The Thirteenth Stone Around Jivan Singh's thirteenth birthday he learns that he is a prince, moved from his home when just a baby so that he would not be killed. 82 83 Cadell, Elizabeth Sun in the Morning Three teen-age English girls become very good friends while living in Calcutta. Creekmore, Raymond Ali's Elephant A beautifully illus¬ trated story of Ali and his pet elephant. Forster, Edward M. A Passage to India The relationships of Moslems and Hindus who came in contact with the British in India. Godden, Rumer The Fiver Pictures the life of Harriet, an English girl who lives on the banks of India's greatest river. Kipling, Rudyard All the Mqwgll Stories A collection of the Mowgli stories from The Jungle Book and The " Second Jungle Book. The Jungle Book A collection of short stories with settings in the jungles of India. Kim Kim, an English boy brought up as a low-caste Hindu, finds that being mistaken for a native is definitely to his advantage. The Second Jungle Book A continuation of the stories found in The Jungle Book. Mukerji, Dhan dopai Gay-Meek The story of a pigeon which served during World War I as a carrier pigeon. Ghond, the Hunter Ghond, a boy of the warrior caste, is trained in the ways of the jungle by a priest. Hari, the Jungle Lad Hari's adventures in the jungle as he and his father hunted for a living. Kari, the Elephant A fascinating tale of a boy who owner! an elephant for a ?et. ïïankln, Louise S. Laughter of the Mountains Mono traveled all the way from her house in Tibet to Calcutta, searching for ter red- gold Lhasa terrier oup. Reginald L. Singh and Eloise Lownsbery Gift of the Forest Bis felt sure that the baby tiger found by his mother was a gift of the forest to him on his birthday. Wemher, Hilda. My Indian Fanily $hen tîie author’s daughter married an Indian, she went to India to live with then. This is the story of her experiences in India. Beaton, Christine Bhinaa, the Lancing tear David, a snail English boy, joins Cocala who owns a dancing bear, and their adventures while walking through India. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books American Council on Education. Reading Ladders for Human Relations. Washington: American Council on Éducation,” 1$U'7. Berner, Elsa R. (ed.). A Basic Book Collection for Junior High Schools. Chicago: American Library Association, 1950. Gilbert, Dorothy B. (ed.). Who1 s Who in American Art. New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1953» Giles, Ruth and Dorothy Cook (comns.). Children's Catalog. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1952. Goshal, Kumar. The People ox India. New York: Sheridan House, 19lUi. Joint Committee of the American Library Association, National Education Association, Association for Childhood Education and National Council of Teachers of English. A Basic Book Collection for Elementary Grades. Chicago: American Library Association, 195i- Joint Committee of the American Library Association, National Education Association and National Council of Teachers of English. A Basic Book Collection for High Schools. Chicago: American Library Associ¬ ation, 19!?0. Kunitz, Stanley J. Authors Today and Yesterday. New York: H. W. ??ilson Co., 1933* . Living Authors. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1931» . The Junior Book of Authors. Mew York: K. W. Wilson Co., 1951* . Twentieth Century Authors. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 19h2. Mahoney, Bertha E. Illustrators of Children's Books, 17HU-19li5* Boston: Horn Book, 19ii7- Rothe, Anne (ed.). Current Biography, 19U6. New York: H. W. Wilson Co. 19U7. - Current Biography, 1951* New York: H. W. TJilson Co., 1952. Webster's Biographical Dictionary. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam Co., 19L3 « 85 86 West, Dorothy (comp.). Standard. Catalog for High School Libraries. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1952. Who Was Who, 1897-1916. London: A. & C. Black, Ltd., 1920. Articles Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia. Vol. VII. Article, "India." The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. IX. Article, "India." Unpublished Material "Margaret Ayer." Unmblished letter from Margaret Ayer, Westport, Conn., August l8, 1953» "Julie Forsyth Batchelor." Unpublished letter, Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, undated. "Jean Bothwell." Unpublished letter, Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, undated. Chenault, Altoise. "A Study of Juvenile Fiction on Mexican Life and Customs Published, 1936-19U9." Unpublished Master's thesis, School of Library Service, Atlanta University, 1932. "Raymond Creekmore." Unpublished letter, The Macmillan Co., New York, undated. "Corinne V. Dillon." Unpublished letter from Corinne V. Dillon, New York, undated. Greene, Gladys M. "An Analysis of the Social Life and Customs of Africa Found in African Fiction Written for Young Adults Published, 1925- 1931." Unpublished master's thesis, School of Library Service, Atlanta University, 1953» Jackson, Francine Lauretto. "A Study of Juvenile Fiction on Chinese Life and Customs Published, 19liO-19U9." Unpublished Master's thesis, School of Library Service, Atlanta University, 1951- “Mildred Coughlin McNutt." Unpublished letter, William Morrow and Co., New York, undated. "Louise Rankin." Unpublished letter, The Viking Press, undated. "Reginald Lai Singh and Eloise Lownsbery." Unpublished letter, Longmans, Green and Co., New York, undated. "Anne Vaughan." 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