To show her solidarity with the untouchables, Anjali’s mother cleans her outhouse herself, carrying the waste in a wagon to the dump yard.”These were the times when radios were popular, and we have scenes where the Joshi clan with their maid are listening to Gandhi’s recorded message on radio, urging Indians to purge themselves of hatred, extolling the path of ahimsa or non-violence and asking each family to give one member for the freedom movement. Anjali, reluctant to burn her exquisite collection of ghagra-cholis hides her favourite outfit under the mattress to save it from the fire. A story relevant for all times. Chachaji with his prejudices against other castes and his biases against working women is a hard nWilliam Brent is a British officer who is Anjali’s mother, Shailaja’s, former boss.Captain Brent is an intimidating British officer who treats all Indians, irrespective of caste, as untouchables. Through a strange quirk of fate, Anjali is saved by her mother who whisks her off under the British officer’s haughty nose. Anjali knew what exactly she was fighting for and why. Ahimsa highlights the freedom struggle, the way the untouchables were treated, the story introduces readers to Babasaheb Ambedkar and his ideas.Rachna Chhabria is a Bengaluru-based children’s author and a freelance writer.Anjali belongs to the brahmin class, living a comfortable life in the elite neighbourhood of Madhuban colony, with her parents and her great uncle Chachaji. She screams quit India, alerting Captain Brent who chases her through the streets of their small town.

The cover image of Ahimsa written by Supriya Kelkar is gorgeous and the title gives a big clue about the book.. Anjali shares a special bond with Nandini, the family cow housed in a tiny shed. It’s these small acts that make Anjali so relatable and real. They see Mohan, the thirteen-year-old untouchable — her family’s toilet cleaner; he earns his living removing the waste from people’s outhouses, playing gilli-danda with other children. Mohan’s anger raises doubts about Gandhi’s ways in Anjali’s mind. Anjali paints a black “Q”, short for “Quit India”, on the bungalow. Mohan refuses to join the classes saying nothing will change, he resents being called a harijan, he feels the term is insulting. What makes the book special is that Kelkar doesn’t segregate her characters as black or white, infact she paints many characters China mooncake Machine Manufacturers grey.Anjali’s mother joins the freedom movement as Anjali’s father has to work to support the family.The story is set in the fictitious town of Navrangpur, the year is 1942 when India’s freedom struggle was at its peak. Anjali is shocked when her mother reveals that Keshav is a harijan — a child of God (as Gandhi called the untouchables). Anjali has several face-offs with Captain Brent, in one of them where he calls all the Indians pests, she replies, “We’re not the ones invading someone else’s home like a cockroach. A perfect book for people to familiarize themselves with India’s struggle for freedom.Through the course of the story we see Anjali questioning Gandhi’s ideas and treating him as a human capable of making mistakes. Her mother burns their foreign-spun clothes, seeing it as a sign of enslavement and