CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AS CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY: PRESERVING INDIGENOUS AND GENDERED IDENTITIES IN INDIAN STORYTELLING

Abstract

This paper explores the role of Indian children’s literature in preserving indigenous traditions and negotiating gendered identities as a form of cultural sustainability. In a context where globalization and homogenization threaten local narratives, children’s texts emerge as powerful tools that safeguard oral traditions, ecological wisdom, and gendered cultural roles for future generations. Using a multidisciplinary framework of cultural studies, ecocriticism, and gender theory, the paper examines how stories reframe traditional identities while engaging young readers with questions of belonging and continuity. Texts such as Following My Paint Brush by Dulari Devi, which translates the Mithila art tradition into a narrative for children, demonstrate how indigenous art forms are sustained through storytelling. Similarly, Samhita Arni’s The Mahabharata: A Child’s View foregrounds female perspectives within a canonical epic, challenging patriarchal silences while reasserting cultural heritage. Meanwhile, Why Should I Be Afraid of My Own Shadow? by Shyam and Radhika Menon engages with tribal folklore, presenting indigenous knowledge as vital to ecological and cultural survival. Through these readings, the article argues that children’s literature functions as a site of cultural sustainability—preserving indigenous voices, destabilizing rigid gender identities, and transmitting alternative ways of relating to both community and environment. In doing so, such narratives enable young readers to imagine sustainable futures grounded in cultural diversity and inclusivity. Keywords: Children’s literature, Cultural sustainability, Indian storytelling, Indigenous traditions, Gender identity, Ecofeminism, Oral traditions, Representation, Ecocriticism, Narrative and identity.