Ahimsa has been on my TBR list for a long time and finally, it was my first read of 2021. What a lovely, lovely book.
When I started reading it, I was a little puzzled. We’ve studied about the independence struggle several times in school. We know about Gandhi, his fasts, the swadeshi and boycott movements and his call for ahimsa or non-violence. We know about freedom fighters having been imprisoned and about the Hindu-Muslim riots that erupted all over the country. There seemed to be nothing new in Ahimsa, nothing that would make readers everywhere to talk about the book for so long.
And then, Ahimsa went on to be so much more. We do know about social reformists and about Gandhi moving from the word Untouchable to the word Harijan. Ahimsa goes deeper. Was Harijan an acceptable word to people who felt rejected by the god that supposedly created the caste system? Was change even possible when oppression took so many forms in daily life?
The protagonist Anjali is disgusted by the idea of cleaning toilets. She likes her sheltered cocoon, living with parents who aren’t part of the freedom struggle. She loves her beautiful clothes; does it matter that they’re imported?
Yes, it does. Anjali, and others like her, must realise the forms that oppression takes. As the story goes on, Anjali grows and changes, constantly forced to challenge her prejudices and question her ethics. Ahimsa gradually brings the realisation that the struggle for freedom is much more complex than it seems. It takes place at multiple levels and perhaps the most difficult level is the personal one, which requires us to question our personal beliefs to create meaningful change.
| Title | Ahimsa |
| Author | Supriya Kelkar |
| Tags | Historical Fiction, Middle Grade |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4.5 |
| Age-group | 10+ |
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