Bhimrao Ambedkar: The Boy Who Asked Why
By Sowmya Rajendran
illustrated by Satwik Gade
April 2018, 32 p., ISBN 978-0-9995476-0-1
It was exciting to see a children’s book published in English about an underrepresented South Asian community. Bhimrao Ambedkar: The Boy Who Asked Why, by Sowmya Rajendran, is a children’s biography about B.R. Ambedkar, also known as “Babasaheb,” the Indian jurist, economist, politician, and social reformer who fought against social discrimination against Dalits (Untouchables) during the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.
Unfortunately the information in The Boy Who Asked Why is poorly presented, such that readers may also be asking “why?” There is little to no explanation of the Indian caste system in the story, which means readers need to already have a working understanding of the Indian caste system to understand why Bhim faces discrimination. There is a sparse explanation of caste in the back of the book, as well as a timeline of Ambedkar’s life, but no historical note. A more detailed historical note for grown-ups may have cleared up some confusion around the story. The Boy Who Asked Why was first published in India, so it may have been intended for an audience that already understands caste, but historical notes are customary for children’s nonfiction biographies.
The portrayal of historical US social conditions in the story is inaccurate or misleading at best, especially in the way it implicitly frames a comparison to India’s social context:
[Ambedkar] won a scholarship to study in America. There he discovered that he could go where he wanted, sit anywhere, drink and eat from the same cups and plates as others around him. For the first time, no one thought he was an Untouchable.
B.R. Ambedkar moved to the US in 1913 at the age of 22 to complete postgraduate studies at Columbia University. He arrived in the segregated Jim Crow USA, where Black Americans could not go where they wanted, sit anywhere, nor drink nor eat from the same cups and plates as White Americans. Ambedkar also arrived during the Chinese Exclusion Era, and just ten years before the Supreme Court case United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind where the US ruled to retroactively deny all Indian-Americans born abroad citizenship for not being a white person.
That said, the illustrations in The Boy Who Asked Why are attractive and there are so few English language books about Dalits that this picture book may serve as a springboard for teachers or librarians already knowledgeable about Indian caste and discrimination against Dalits who are looking for books to do a lesson or program; otherwise purchase is not recommended.
Review by Anna Coats, Head of Youth Services, Livingston Public Library. Editing assistance by Anastasia Chiu.