We, The Children Of India - Leila Seth - ★★★★.½

AUTHOR: Leila Seth

ILLUSTRATOR: Bindia Thapar

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction.

RATING: 4.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: An interesting and essential book for Indian kids who suffer through boring textbook chapters on ‘Civics’ without understanding much about the Indian Constitution. 😉

‘We the people of India’ – a phrase that reminds us instantly of our Constitution. The very first sentence of the Indian Constitution is a long (really long!) sentence that reminds us of who we are and what we are as Indians. This sentence is called the Preamble to the Constitution, and it is quite a complex line with magniloquent words. Check it out!

(Imagine reading this at age 7-8! Too complicated!)

Not only is the Preamble printed at the beginning of every school textbook, but it is also taught to us in our school within the ‘Social Studies’ subject, comprising history, geography and civics. Sadly, most of us don’t remember it, in part because it was taught in a boring way, and in part because we didn’t then realise the significance of this wondrous sentence. (I still remember how the section of ‘Civics’ was always pushed to the final chapters of my Social Studies textbook, and not a single one of my classmates—myself included—enjoyed that section because of how dryly it had been written. Little did we know that this section was far more important than history and geography combined!)

Today’s children too might be struggling with the Preamble the way we did all those decades ago. However, they are lucky, because here is a wonderful resource to make the task easier.

Author Leila Seth was the first woman judge on the Delhi High Court and the first woman Chief Justice of an Indian state. She wrote this book with the help of her two young grandchildren. As such, it has a simplicity and endearing value to it that only children could have brought about. Seth’s aim through this book was to emphasise on the importance of understanding the preamble if we have to be good citizens of the country and follow the goals of the constitution. After all, the Preamble sets in place the rights of every individual member of this nation.

This book begins with a little background of how India gained independence from the colonial rules in August 1947, then moves into how the constitution came into being and adopted on 26th January 1950, a day we celebrate as Republic Day without realising why it is called ‘Republic’ Day. Once the historical background is established, it takes each and every phrase of the Preamble and explains it in accessible terms, with illustrations to drive the point further. Every difficult word is simplified and presented in child-friendly vocabulary. The book also covers basic details about the Indian parliamentary structure.

There were quite a few interesting facts in the book, many of which were new to me (most probably because I paid no attention during school civics lessons! 😂). For instance, I wasn’t aware (or had forgotten) that the Fundamental Rights were always a part of our constitution but Fundamental Duties were added only in 1977. I had never heard about Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, the first woman Cabinet Minister in India. (She handled the health portfolio in the first Lok Sabha.) Or of how Jawaharlal Nehru’s signature on the signatories’ page ended up creating a slight diplomatic error. Or how certain countries such as the UK don’t have a written Constitution! The book made Civics really interesting, a miracle I didn’t think possible!

Along the way, we also see photographs of important leaders and events connected to the core topic. There are also short bios of leaders connected to the constitution such as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Maulana Azad.

As every children’s book works better with illustrations, this one too has plenty of amazing and inclusive sketches in addition to the above-mentioned photographs.

My favourite part of the book though was the final section. This rewrote the entire Preamble from a child’s perspective. It began with “We, the Children of India…” and proceeded to rephrase the whole Preamble in much easier terms, making it relatable and meaningful to little ones who might find the original text daunting.

All in all, I enjoyed taking a ramble through the Preamble with the help of this book. A couple of facts are now outdated as the author passed away a few years ago. Nevertheless, the book is still important, and will work wonderfully as a part of Indian school libraries. Maybe even in homes, as every child should know their rights from and their duties to their nation. Even adult readers need a refresher on what being Indian actually entails. We need to remember that it has nothing to do with religion, be it any religion. What better place to begin this journey of better citizenship and self-awareness than from the Preamble?