Uncle Nehru's Elephant Diplomacy: Devika Cariappa

 Archaeologist Devika Cariapa is out with a new picture book for children- Uncle Nehru, Please Send An Elephant. Beautifully illustrated by Satwik Gade, this book has been published by Tulika Books. Devika shares more details about  her new book which has loads of elephantine details.

How long have you been excavating information for this story?

 

The book has an interesting origin. Although I typically write longer, non-fiction books for children, I had always wanted to write a picture book. Quite soon after I shared this dream of mine with the editors at Tulika, they happened to see a story about Nehru’s ‘elephant diplomacy’ in a leading newsmagazine. They felt that there was an idea there that would make the basis of a wonderful story for children. They asked me if I would write it. Of course, I said yes right away!

The process of research took a few months, since the topic is quite specific and limited in scope.

Why did you feel this story needed to be shared with kids?

 Many reasons! There are so many delightful aspects to this story. 

 Firstly, the fact that children around the world were enterprising enough to write directly to the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru requesting him to send an elephant is pretty novel in itself. More unusual was the fact that Prime Minster Nehru had the time and patience to entertain their requests and personally write back to each of them…in some cases even correcting the grammar and spellings in their original letters!

In India, we take elephant sightings for granted. Every child has probably seen an elephant in real life and been impressed with its magnificence. And yet, at that time, most children around the world had never actually seen a real elephant! It was a different world, one which the children of today will find fascinating.

Was it easy to access the letters written to Uncle Nehru?

 Some of them were available through secondary sources like books and articles. The Canadian boy who wrote in is still alive and talks of how he wrote his letter to Nehru.

Your earlier books with Tulika have been in longer format. Was it easy to write this story with limited words?

It was as challenging. Trying to keep to a word limit, to fit in all the information I had, to keep in mind that it was a picture book, be true to the non-fiction genre while also make it a fun read for younger readers.

Do you think elephant diplomacy could help build bridges among countries  in today’s world? The internet has made information easily available at the click of a button.

 Nehru’s elephant diplomacy was conducted in a very different context - an important fact that I’ve tried to highlight in the book. Children today may not be aware that India was facing a number of challenges at the time these requests for elephants were being made. It was a newly independent country with problems of poverty, food shortages, poor infrastructure, lack of education facilities etc. – a lot of issues that our leaders were grappling with at the time.

In the midst of all this, Nehru was trying hard to place India on the world stage as a country that was friendly, helpful and progressive. When the children of Japan wrote with their request for an elephant, Nehru saw it as a chance to build a bridge, putting to rest the horrors of the recently ended World War II. India and  Japan had been enemies during this war but Nehru explained to the Japanese children that he wanted all nations to now work together as friends so there would be no future wars.

 Nowadays, things have changed. Not only do children have access to information at the click of a button, they will also quite easily be able to observe wild animals either in zoos or on the internet.

 And the very idea of sending animals to a faraway country is definitely a thing of the past. As I mention in the book- today we know more about animals rights, how sensitive they are and how humans have to respect their right to remain in their own environment.

The illustrator Satvik Gade has conveyed a lot through pictures in the book. How closely did you work with him on this project?

 I loved Satwik’s delightful illustrations and his brilliant colours as also the fact that he revels in the historical details of the story! However, writers do not typically work directly with the illustrator – that happens only through the publisher.

 

Uncle Nehru, Please Send An Elephant is available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada,Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam and Bengali. To buy a book in your favourite language, click here.