You have requested "on-the-fly" machine translation of selected content from our databases. While the current contract expired in 2000. This website disseminates information about India's heroic past by placing special emphasis on Hindu culture and religion, and ACK features prominently on its home page.
While researching this topic, I found many issues of ACK archived on the extensive website of a North American-based Hindu Students Council affiliate, Free India. Why, therefore, does this comic book series that bills itself as an Indian series (the caption "Glorious Heritage of India" appears on the covers of the new edition) fail to seriously explore the stories and histories of India's non-Hindu populations? Why are non-Hindu subjects not featured as prominently in this series? While I acquired tidbits of knowledge about each of the Mughal emperors, a few Sufi mystics, and some Sikh gurus, I learned a lot more about Hindu deities, devotees, saints, mythology, and historical characters (e.g., Birbal, a minister in Akbar's court).
Such questions have acquired a certain urgency given India's current socio-political climate.Īs I look back at the series, it has become apparent that the body of "knowledge" it presents about India is Hindu-centric. Nevertheless, it is important to situate these texts within a broader societal framework so as to note how the series is deployed to reaffirm a patriarchal, Hindu version of Indian identity, both in India and in the diaspora.
Part of the appeal of the series is that it presents history, mythology, and folklore in a deliciously palatable manner. Growing up in a middle-class Hindu Indian family in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia, I was provided with an engaging way to learn about India's history, cultures, and religions through the Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) comic books. "The Glorious Heritage of India": Notes on the Politics of Amar Chitra Katha
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