The Gopal-Rakhal Dialectic

Book excerpt: Literature for children is a distinctive achievement of the Bengali language. In it, we get numerous illustrations of primers that are meant to initiate reading and writing among children, poems and nursery rhymes, fables and fairy tales, prose pieces and stories, plays and novels, all of which are unique in their style and content, exceptional in their taste and flavor. Innumerable books have been produced, countless magazines have been printed and the annual Puja compilations have been put together year after year. Even when we assess the nature of ideas and beliefs, Bengali children's literature does not pall. In fact, it is a contentious site of trends and counter-trends that can be charted within inventive writings for children. Its multifarious potential was quite manifest in the colonial era and a few decades post independence. The Gopal-Rakhal Dialectic: Colonialism and Children's Literature in Bengal offers an evaluation of the strengths and possibilities of this very literature.