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In India, language remains one of the most powerful symbols for the imagination of ‘national’ belonging. The history of the making of a multilingual nation reveals how some languages invariably become more powerful than the others. Also, if we dig deep into the history of one language, we can discern that one dialect becomes standardised as the mainstream, others end up being marginalised. The book raises these questions and tries to lucidly unpack the history of the politics of language in India for young readers., Debarati Bagchi originally wrote the book in Bengali, and Arup Kalita translated it into Assamese. Anwesha Sengupta and Debarati Bagchi served as editors of the book, which features illustrations by Ranjit Chitrakar and Sirajudaulla Chitrakar. Wasim Helal was responsible for the book's planning, map, and cover. This publication is sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung with grants from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany. This publication or its parts can be used by others for free as long as they provide a proper reference to the original publication. The content of the publication is solely the responsibility of the partner and does not necessarily reflect the position of RLS.

In India, language remains one of the most powerful symbols for the imagination of ‘national’ belonging. The history of the making of a multilingual nation reveals how some languages invariably become more powerful than the others. Also, if we dig deep into the history of one language, we can discern that one dialect becomes standardised as the mainstream, others end up being marginalised. The book raises these questions and tries to lucidly unpack the history of the politics of language in India for young readers., The book was originally written in Bengali by Debarati Bagchi and translated into English by Arunava Sinha. Anwesha Sengupta and Debarati Bagchi served as editors of the book, which features illustrations by Ranjit Chitrakar and Sirajudaulla Chitrakar. Wasim Helal was responsible for the book's planning, map, and cover. This publication is sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung with grants from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany. This publication or its parts can be used by others for free as long as they provide a proper reference to the original publication. The content of the publication is solely the responsibility of the partner and does not necessarily reflect the position of RLS.

In this brochure we have collated the responses of children regarding the three books. We conducted several story-telling workshops where they were encouraged to draw and/or write on the themes that our books cover – like border, migration, meanings of India/Indian and linguistic diversity. Apart from that, we have received some feedback from children over emails. At present we have more than 130 feedback – including both the illustrations and the written responses. In this brochure we have selected twenty-four illustrations and organized them thematically. Here we have documented children’s perceptions of border, migration, idea of the nation and its citizens and linguistic plurality. Students who attended the physical sessions did not have the opportunity to read the books before the workshops. They listened to our readings and discussions and then wrote/drew on the basis of their own understandings and imaginations. The responses we received via email were from the children who had already read the entire books (pdfs). The different nature of engagements with the texts is apparent in the responses. Moreover, the students who attended the physical workshops overwhelmingly belong to urban poor families (except the attendees of Shantiniketan workshop, more on this in the following section) with no cultural capital. While looking at the responses, the heterogeneity of the children needs to be kept in mind., This publication is sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung with grants from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany. This publication or parts of it can be used by others for free as long as they provide a proper reference to the original publication. The content of the publication is the sole responsibility of the partner and does not necessarily reflect a position of RLS.

চোখ-কান খোলা রেখে ইতিহাস শেখা যায় কেমন করে? ইতিহাস-সচেতন হওয়া কাকে বলে? এইসব প্রশ্নগুলোর উত্তর খুঁজতে গিয়ে "ইতিহাসে হাতেখড়ি" সিরিজের কথা ভাবা। একেকটি বই একেকটি বিষয় নিয়ে। লেখার সঙ্গে থাকছে পটচিত্র শিল্পীদের আঁকা ছবি। ইতিহাসের নানা সময়, নানা জটিল ধারণা সহজভাবে বুঝিয়ে বলাই এই বইগুলোর উদ্দেশ্য। বইগুলো পড়ে ছোটরা প্রশ্ন করতে শিখবে- এমনটাই আমাদের আশা। "দেশের ভাষা" হল এই সিরিজের তৃতীয় প্রচেষ্টা। &nbsp

While education studies and urban studies have flourished as rich areas of research in South Asia, the interface between education and the urban has received little scholarly attention. My paper attempts to address this gap by drawing attention to issues such as land and locality in the study of higher education. I argue that from the early 2000s, the domain of higher education in India witnessed a phenomenal shift which fostered a very specific relationship between education, land acquisition, and urbanization. In the post-liberalization decades, the rhetoric of urban policy and education commissions converged and echoed each other, thus paving the way for enclosed elite private education zones. Education hubs were now projected as the prime mover for urbanizing a region and providing a boost for speculation on the real estate market. By focusing on the conception, planning, and acquisition of land for the Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Sonipat, I explore how universities were now being conceived of as part of a larger zone of corporate investment. Could we conceptualize education as infrastructure that engenders a specific kind of urban space? The present paper wishes to raise this question and initiate a conversation on the university-land market connections., Education and the Urban in India: Working Paper Series, vol. 12