Representation of the Adivasis: An Intersectional Study of Gender through Select Indian Picture Books in English

ABSTRACT The article explores the evolving inclusion of social justice issues with special reference to the tribal community or adivasis and deconstructs the representation of tribes in recent Indian picture books in English. Through critical discourse analysis of the selected texts, the marginalized position of the adivasis is underlined as well as it exposes the well-integrated functioning of the society for segregating them by adapting a romanticized version of adivasi life vis-à-vis standard patterns of modernity and development. To serve the purpose, it embeds an intersectional framework to examine the functioning factors like gender, class, and community that do not work in isolation but in coalition to form the subjugated identity. The decoding of the pictures and the texts reveal that the marginalization has come a long way to adapt the progressive trends to explicate the construction of oppressed childhood and at the same time the relevance of children’s literature to represent the voice of the margin to the tender minds.