By Chintan Girish
Modi
Educators often have
a tough time figuring out how to have conversations with children about a
subject as sensitive as war. Avoiding such conversations is not an option
because armed conflict is all pervasive. Even children who do not live in
communities or countries devastated by war read about it, and engage with
images circulating online. Their parents or grandparents may have fought in
wars, or fled from them to save their lives.
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Sagar Kolwankar |
Author-illustrator
Sagar Kolwankar’s book Red (2018) is
a beautiful resource to use if you plan to facilitate a discussion about war,
which will hopefully venture into reflections on peace. He says, “I always like to look at history to know what we
shouldn't do in the future.” Published
by the Chennai-based Tulika Books, Red opens
up ways to think about violence not only in terms of physical harm but also its
emotional and psychological dimensions. Children may not only lose their limbs,
parents, friends and homes in contexts of war but also access to nutritious
food and clean water, safe spaces to play, and schools to go.
On the blurb of the
book, you have described Red as your "attempt at imagining the feelings of children in war-torn
parts of the world." What did this imaginative exercise do to you in terms
of your perception of the world, and the place children inhabit within it? As a
child, what did war mean to you?
I came from the same childhood upbringing as any average
Indian. While watching the news or hearing people say that Pakistan did this,
and China is closing in on our land, I had a pretty normal reaction agreeing
that we should fight back. As a child, I thought that we too should drop bombs.
War was not affecting me directly, so my response to it was impulsive. I was
not thinking about the aftermath in affected areas. As maturity took over, and
I had an opportunity to explore art as a career, my thinking flowered. I
started questioning myself.
Now I think that countries are so big, or at least they
think themselves so big, that they do not have the time to think about the
children of the world. This is especially true of war zones. So much political
ego is at stake that, when we think of dropping bombs on a nation, we forget to
think about the people or kids living there. Red was my attempt to imagine the feelings of a small boy in a war
zone, and deliver the same feelings to the reader of the book.
Which war-torn
parts of the world were your reference points while working on this book? What
kind of research process did you go through?
The story does not mention the name of any place or
nation. Even the boy in the book does not have a name. This was deliberate on
my part. I did not want to label any country or a child. Wars are happening
everywhere for different reasons. The main idea behind the story is to evoke
empathy for children, and for all the people who are suffering. It came from
the empathy I felt while going through news coverage about war.
The red kite, which
is so central to the book, spoke to me as a metaphor for the human spirit --
soaring in the sky, lying dirty and torn on the ground, and going up up up once
again. What does the kite represent to you as the creator of this book?
That is the fun part about storytelling. It opens up a
world of imagination in the reader’s mind. You had a really nice portrayal of
the kite in your mind. If that is what you took, it is quite good. The main
point is that you started thinking about empathy. For me, the kite was
innocence flying with the wind, and enjoying the moment like a child, not
knowing that the wind can change its course.
We have to understand that, in the case of this book, the
primary reader would be a child. Although the subject is barbaric, I cannot
show that directly in the visual form. Visuals can have a deep impact. But
again, we cannot keep children away from these topics. They will be part of the
same world we have created today. I feel that it is our responsibility to introduce
children to these serious subjects so that they do not make the mistakes we
did, or at least take a conscious stand. I wanted to keep the visuals
minimalistic but convey the mood using colours. I used kite paper because it
went well with the story.
No. I don't believe war treats any gender differently.
When a bomb falls, it does not discriminate. It is your life that is on the
line every hour. You have less time to worry about what's your gender. The
primary instinct is to live. For example, when you are running from an angry
dog, you don’t think about gender while running. The only thought you have at
that time is to save yourself from it. I would say humanity is at stake in war
rather than genders.
Many people have reached out to me after reading the
book. This includes children and their parents, and other adults who have read
it. I am glad that people are feeling moved, and questioning their own
perception of war. That is the goal we should we aim to, where we all question
these atrocities against humanity.
(Note: Chintan Girish Modi is an educator, writer
and peacebuilder who works on gender and
LGBTQ issues. You can reach him at chintan.prajnya@gmail.com)