Acculturation and Holistic Development in Children in India: Educative Possibilities of Children’s Edutainment Magazines in English

ABSTRACT Children’s literature has lived, flourished and transformed in/the oral traditions of every race and nation. Listening to stories have been a crucial element in inculcating in children the values and ethics, social, cultural, political and religious mores of society and of the nation at large. A tremendous amount of scholarship has emerged within the last few decades on children’s literature and its implications on the child. Despite this very little work is done on indigenous Indian children’s literature and more so on children’s magazines in English in India in particular. This is inspite of the fact that most urban English-educated child in India is exposed to these magazines at some point or the other as they grow up which subtly influence their social and cultural worldviews. This study attempts to engage with a set of selected children’s edutainment magazines in English or in English translations available in India and tries to assess the relevance of such a genre for educating children in India. This paper argues that the children’s edutainment magazines function as ideological cultural and creative products produced by the cultural-product industries, but at the same time play an active and positive role in the acquisition and development of cultural capital in children, which will enable them to become active and responsible citizens of the world. Early encounters and engagement with magazines will enable children to develop their academic, social, personal and interpersonal skills, which is at the crux of the holistic education programme today. The study will focus on the postulations of social and cultural capital as posited by Pierre Bourdieu to argue that the magazines are important tools in the holistic development of a child by analyzing the role the magazines play in the larger society and in the development of the child.