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A review by vedant
Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar
4.0
I really liked this book! Set in/around 1942, it follows a young girl Anjali, whose mom decides to join Gandhi and the other freedom fighters in the struggle for Independence from the Britishers. In doing so, Anjali is forced to give up a lot of luxuries of her life and change a lot of her perspectives.
In just around 300 pages, the book does talk about quite a lot. From the caste system in India to the Hindu-Muslim communal riots, to gender and other (in)equalities, it covers a lot. And IMO (i don't know enough to say for sure) but i thought it did a pretty decent job of doing so as well.
My favourite part of the book would probably be that it does show a variety of opinions, and the characters do realize how something that is seen as being helpful to someone may actually be harmful.
For example, in a hurry to rid their houses of anything and everything foreign, the mother burns all of their expensive good quality clothes, acting according to what was told and spread around the country. Later on, the father talks about how he used to live in poverty, and how much he hated watching those clothes burn. The symbolism of burning the clothes is powerful and may have gone a long way, but practically speaking, it would have been much better to instead have given them to someone who needed it. The fact that they were burning clothes worth a ton while being surrounded by people who had a thin rag to cover themselves in the cold, just doesn't add up.
On a similar note, a Dalit character speaks of how although Anjali and her family had good intentions at heart, they weren't always particularly helping him. Again, the discussion of good thoughts vs practical actions comes into focus.
"If your neighbours saw me at the fair, they'd recognize me as their toilet cleaner...
... if they are too scared to touch my fingers when they pay me, (do you think they'd buy the necklaces I make?)"
"We'll tell them you're a 'Harijan' (child of God), not an 'untouchable'. Just like Gandhiji said"
"Your Gandhi is wrong. Calling us children of God is talking down to us. It's insulting. And it solves nothing. It's just a word! Everyone will still think of us as dirty and beneath them. Changing what you call someone doesn't fix the problem behind the name"...
..."(Dalit) means oppressed. It means we are born into a life of constant struggle because of this unfair caste system. It means what really has happened to us. I'm not like the others in the basti, grateful to be called "Harijan"... See we aren't Harijans. We arent children of your god. Your god forsook us long ago. Your god is not our god... We are Dalits."
I appreciated the fact that the author showed the other side of the story, a view into the person who was being talked about and directly affected by the conversations. The fact that Gandhiji called Dalit people Harijan has been praised a lot, but it was nice to see another perspective as well."
I guess what I didn't exactly love would be that the book is a little cliched at points. A lot of it is fresh and interesting but there definitely were predictable aspects.
Also, personally i was not the biggest fan of the grandfather's character development. At the beginning of the book, he is a bigoted old man, a staunch believer in the caste system, and just generally 'traditional'. Although i did predict that this would change in some way at the end of the book, i would have preferred if he had been left as is. I just think that would have been a more realistic outcome, showing that you cant change everyone's mind, and at the end of the day, there will be some people who will disagree with you. Since this book is targeted at (I'm guessing) mostly 9-12-year-olds, i do understand the choice of making every character (even the British Captain!) likable and to show them in a positive light. Yet I would have liked for there to be some negative roles as well.
In just around 300 pages, the book does talk about quite a lot. From the caste system in India to the Hindu-Muslim communal riots, to gender and other (in)equalities, it covers a lot. And IMO (i don't know enough to say for sure) but i thought it did a pretty decent job of doing so as well.
My favourite part of the book would probably be that it does show a variety of opinions, and the characters do realize how something that is seen as being helpful to someone may actually be harmful.
For example, in a hurry to rid their houses of anything and everything foreign, the mother burns all of their expensive good quality clothes, acting according to what was told and spread around the country. Later on, the father talks about how he used to live in poverty, and how much he hated watching those clothes burn. The symbolism of burning the clothes is powerful and may have gone a long way, but practically speaking, it would have been much better to instead have given them to someone who needed it. The fact that they were burning clothes worth a ton while being surrounded by people who had a thin rag to cover themselves in the cold, just doesn't add up.
On a similar note, a Dalit character speaks of how although Anjali and her family had good intentions at heart, they weren't always particularly helping him. Again, the discussion of good thoughts vs practical actions comes into focus.
"If your neighbours saw me at the fair, they'd recognize me as their toilet cleaner...
... if they are too scared to touch my fingers when they pay me, (do you think they'd buy the necklaces I make?)"
"We'll tell them you're a 'Harijan' (child of God), not an 'untouchable'. Just like Gandhiji said"
"Your Gandhi is wrong. Calling us children of God is talking down to us. It's insulting. And it solves nothing. It's just a word! Everyone will still think of us as dirty and beneath them. Changing what you call someone doesn't fix the problem behind the name"...
..."(Dalit) means oppressed. It means we are born into a life of constant struggle because of this unfair caste system. It means what really has happened to us. I'm not like the others in the basti, grateful to be called "Harijan"... See we aren't Harijans. We arent children of your god. Your god forsook us long ago. Your god is not our god... We are Dalits."
I appreciated the fact that the author showed the other side of the story, a view into the person who was being talked about and directly affected by the conversations. The fact that Gandhiji called Dalit people Harijan has been praised a lot, but it was nice to see another perspective as well."
I guess what I didn't exactly love would be that the book is a little cliched at points. A lot of it is fresh and interesting but there definitely were predictable aspects.