Did You Know About The RSS’ Bharata Bharati Series? That Project Is More Important Today Than Ever Before

In the famous television series The Mentalist, serial killer ‘Red John’ kills a woman related to a remote happy memory of the hero, Patrick Jane.

When Jane realises what has happened, the killer boasts how he had entered Jane's mind and killed that memory.

The generation in India that grew up with Uncle Pai’s Tinkle cannot forget Suppandi – that innocent ever-bumbling yet lovable character.

Would you believe that his ‘official’ Twitter handle follows Caravan and The Wire among other assorted leftist publications?

The ‘left’ in India does not have the ability to create but it has perfected the science of encroaching, and whatever it touches becomes ugly and perverted.

And what it has done to Suppandi proves even cartoon characters are not spared.

Perhaps, the proverbial last straw on the back of old Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) fans is the ‘factsheet’ that was put out on social media on the auspicious occasion of Sri Rama Navami.

The factsheet asks if the readers know that Sri Rama gave a death sentence to his brother Lakshmana.

The accompanying illustration shows a muscular Sri Rama, looking like a warlord, placing his leg on the stump of a tree and shooting an arrow into the gloomy dark sky.

In effect, it is a negative message, unsuited for an auspicious day.

In short, Amar Chitra Katha seems to be slowly transforming itself into something that is the antithesis of everything that Uncle Pai stood for.

As Amar Chitra Katha becomes the battleground of ideologies, the nation is the loser. But all is not lost.

Sometimes, such situations force us to see the good that is with us already, and which we have chosen to ignore, because we have taken it for granted.

One such 'good' is the ‘Bharata Bharati’ children’s book series of the Bengaluru-based Rashtrotthana Sahitya.

The series has ‘tejasvi navadhitamastu’ (let what we study be invigorating) from the Krishna Yajurveda Taittiriya Upanishad (2.2.2) as its motto.

The chief editor of the series for a considerable period of time was Prof L S Seshagiri Rao (1929-2019).

What Anant Pai was to Amar Chitra Katha, Prof L S Seshagiri Rao was to Bharata Bharati.

He was no ordinary person but a veritable rishi in the world of Kannada literature. His message to his young audience reading the books and their parents was this:

These are small pocket books of 45 to 50 pages. They cover the biographies of great men and women.

This includes puranic and ithihasic heroes and heroines, historical personalities, warriors, freedom fighters, noble rulers, social reformers, scientists and artists.

In the case of scientists, for example, Bharata Bharati has books on Satyendra Nath Bose, P C Roy, Birbal Sahni to name a few.

The young reader is taken into consideration and tough concepts explained lucidly and in a way that the child can have an elementary grasp of what is being written about.

Here is a small paragraph from the book on Satyendra Nath Bose:

The social reformers presented in the series include among others Dhondo Keshava Karve and Dr B R Ambedkar.

Bala Bharati is part of the RSS' publishing wing. It is forthright in describing the hardships these social reformers faced. Here is an excerpt from its book on Karve:

The book on Dr Ambedkar is thought-provoking and yet contain simple but forceful words that children can easily understand:

One should remember that this book was first published in 1973 and for children. That was when the leftists and Congress hated Dr Ambedkar.

Before 1990s, the only organisation that was taking Dr Ambedkar to all sections of the society, contextualising his righteous anger and highlighting his patriotism was RSS alone.

The series has a title on Dr Ananda K Coomaraswamy and Nandalal Bose.

The book on Coomaraswamy explains how he was distressed by the attacks on Indian art by the colonial indologists and art critics and showed through his brilliant studies the greatness and sublimity of Indian art.

The book combines his passionate contribution to Indian art and culture and his own personal life in a way every child can understand.

Similarly, the book on painter Nandalal Bose shows the varied dimensions to his life and several influences on it – from Sister Nivedita to Mahatma Gandhi.

In the case of freedom fighters there are many titles. Let us see just two scenarios of sacrifice as depicted in these books:

The first one is from the book on Khudiram Bose and the second on Ashfaqulla Khan.

Equally valuable are the books on the spiritual masters of India.

The book on Agastya gives the children a right perspective on how to understand the puranic dimensions of Agastya’s life – the greatness of the power enshrined in human being:

Here is the value system the book on Yajnavalkya inculcates its young reader with:

In the case of Amar Chitra Katha, while the puranic stories were presented in an attractive way, more often than not their spiritual significance was not explicitly stated. So they became illustrated magic-adventures conveying the cultural heritage.

But in the case of Bharata Bharati, the spiritual significance of the puranic stories and the lives of great men and women are clearly told – in simple, lucid language.

These books can be used for reading and storytelling sessions in schools. With little extra effort these books can be again edited for some minor grammar mistakes, and some new illustrations can be added.

As ACK veers more and more towards anti-Hindu content, there is a huge market potentiality building up for true Bharatiya, pro-Bharatiya child literature.

So Bharata Bharati also needs a strong social media presence and a separate website. Right now there is only a web page as part of the website of Rashtrottana Sahitya.

It is time we also celebrate immortal Prof L S Seshagiri Rao who worked as chief editor to bring out this wonderful series.

The dark transformation of Amar Chitra Katha has shown us that no institution is safe from the takeover of forces hostile to Hinduism and Indian culture.

There are lessons to be learnt from this sacking of the Somnath of cultural literacy by the forces that actually stand against all the values of Anant Pai.

Let us make Bharata Bharati fill the void created by the fall of Amar Chitra Katha to forces that have betrayed Uncle Pai’s vision.