By: Prof. Dr. Prithviraj Taur, Head of Marathi Department, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded, India

  I am writing this essay for the First World Forum of Children's Literature, held in Antalya, Turkey. Thanks to President Margarita Al, World Organization of Writers (WOW) who initiated this event. 

My main question is: “What exactly is the connection between children's literature and the literary world of adults?”

I have been searching for this question for the past 25 years. Is children's literature a literary genre (eg: stories, poems, novels, plays) or a literary stream (eg: dalit, rural, feminist, tribal) in the overall literary universe? Tried to get the answer to this question from books around the world. Coincidentally, in an article in Marathi language, it was noticed that this contract has been written very precisely. Well-known critic R. G. Jadhav, while delineating the distinction between children's literature and adult literature, has envisioned separate, autonomous circles of both. He also wrote that these two separate circles intersect each other at two distinct points. He has also observed that the literary works that come around these two intersecting points are the best and the best works of art in that language. The juxtaposition between adult literature and children's literature is explained by him through the metaphor of the universe and body. Jadhav said that if mature literature is the universe, then Childrens literature is the pinda ( Body) form, it also contains the universe.

One thing that can be seen from this analysis is that it is necessary to think about Childrens literature in the same way as literature, keeping in mind the Children psyche. In fact, it is the other side in which the Children Psychi expresses itself, which is more important. The literature which is written keeping in mind the children's mind remains the same according to the norms of children's literature.

Children's literature is not possible to write for self-exploration. Children's literature is reader-centric literature. Children's literature has to be written considering many factors such as the age, intelligence, cognitive level, mentality, experience world of the readers. Children's literature is an obstacle course. Many obstacles have to be crossed, many sensors have to be faced, where children's literature comes into existence.

It can be broadly said that children's literature is written for children in the age group of one to eighteen years. Of course, this analysis is very rough. In this too, keeping in mind the educational levels like pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher secondary, there are divisions like toddlers literature, children's literature, Youngsters literature.

Writing children's literature is as difficult as writing for teenage boys. There is a dearth of books in youngsters literature that will be useful to overcome the challenges that today's adolescent child is facing at the physical and mental level. I don't think this is just a Marathi or Indian language issue. So this picture can be seen all over the world. Books that talk about magical things or character-strengthening matters cannot keep a teenagers bound for long.

In fact, not only the teenagers, but the age group for whom the children's literature is written requires a great deal of attention. New writings, new secrets, new plans, new activities, new experiments, new educational system are needed for them. All governments around the world need to pay attention to this.

The fact is, this age group needs a large number of universities globally. However, apart from America, there are no visible children Universities in other countries. Happily, in India, the country I represent,  the Bal Vishwavidyalay was established in 2009 at Gandhinagar Gujarat. The Children's Research University is the epitome of the work of the eponymous university. Children's University in Gujarat is doing very serious and basic thinking about children. I would urge the whole world to follow suit.

As the contract of children's literature is connected with literature, it is also connected with Sanskar (Morals and Values). The establishment of world culture is done only through children's literature. It is true that literature is thinking about the global human being across the boundaries of language, religion, country, ideology. However, children's literature always insists on human values and artistic values. World culture comes into existence from this value formation.

As a Marathi speaker, I have been nurtured by classical Marathi folktales and saints, so I have been nurtured by Childrens literature in world literature. Tolstoy's stories have become folklore in Marathi. How much land does a person need? Almost every Indian knows this story. Tolstoy's writings have become synonymous with Indian soil. The same can be said about William Shakespeare. Story of Cinderella, story of Snow White, fairy tales, Christmas stories are the gifts of European literature to Indian fiction. While Khwaja Nasruddin came to India from Turkey, 101 stories of Arabian Nights came to Indian soil from Arab country, Alibaba, Sindbad, Tarzan, He-Man, Phantom, Spiderman are all heroes known to Marathi kids. That is, Marathi children were nourished just as the stories of Panchatantra were done by the stories of Kathabrihatsagara (Ocean of Stories), the witty stories of Vetal Panchvishi, Sinhasana Battishi, Akbar-Birbal, Tenaliraman, in the same way, children's literature from all over the world also did it. And so an Indian folktale heroine is as much a part of Indian children as Cinderella, Alice and Himgauri. His strong connection with all these is due to the moral value underlying these stories.

 Children's literature has interwoven everything. The backbone of children's literature is basically moral and civility. It also helped the global man to become civilized.

All the literary forms and literary trends that exist in the world of adult literature are also found in children's literature. Apart from this, children's literature has a large predominance of puzzles, picture stories, number stories, and sports songs. Science fiction and sports fiction form a large part of youngsters literature. Teenagers heroic journey has been reflected in spy stories, wit stories, police stories, science stories, sports stories. So the dreamy world of children has been invented through wonderful stories.

The name of Rabindranath Tagore is familiar to us, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Tagore is a Bengali language writer. Bengali literary culture is characterized by the fact that unless you write for children, you don't get official recognition as a writer, and then you realize that Sharad Chandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Rai, Mahasweta Devi wrote for children with the same vigor and affection that they wrote for adults. is More or less in Indian languages we see a picture of important writers consciously writing for children. Premchand, Bhishma Sahani, Vijaydan Detha, Kusumagraja in Marathi, Vinda Karandikar, V. S. Khandekar would definitely mention writers writing in Hindi-Marathi language, however this picture is becoming rarer in recent times. Important writers in that language do not seem to be writing for children and this is a matter of regret.

Children's literature always seems to get secondary treatment, or children's literature is ignored. Even if we look at the amount of awards for children's literature, we will notice a distinction made between the amounts of adult literature and children's literature. On the contrary, producing any good children's book takes a lot more work than an adult book.

Any great work of children's literature is as much about the author as it is about the illustrator, publisher, printer, paper supplier and bookbinder. A children's book is therefore a group work. The artwork that is created when many heads come together is undoubtedly beautiful.

I will specifically mention a book of 408 words and 64 pages called 'The Giving Tree' (Shel Silverstein). This book is a beautiful example of the fact that the way to reach children is through the care of flowers. Marathi children's literature has been enriched by the translated stories of world authors like Munro Leaf, Sergei Mikhalkov, Brecht, Chekhov, Tatsuharu Kodama, Houda Hadadi, Janet Winter, Tsubota Joji, Awa Naoko.

I am a Marathi speaker. It is the language of twelve crore people. It is the 13th rank language in the world. This language has a history of 2500 years.  I have been inspired by reading the story of Chiu Kau in the book Lilacharitra written in the eleventh centuries AD. This is something that should be recorded as the best story in world children's literature. The language I write, speak and think is Marathi. But I owe this language as much to other languages of the world. When I was a child, the friendship between India and Russia was strong. 40-50 years ago, Soviet literature was translated and available in large numbers in most Indian languages. Children's coloring books published from Moscow have enriched my childhood, folktales published by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have given me new colors of imagination, Antoine Sanzupery's 'Little Prince' is my favorite, translation of world children's literature available at the bus stand has contributed to linguistic and literary richness. is given When we do not know the geography of the world, we do not know the history of the world, Baghdad, Damascus, Istanbul, Madrid, Egypt and the world's oceans, forests and deserts have reached children through children's stories.

But reaching to the children is a tough task. Because the child is the secondary reader. He depends on his parents for books. Because the money is in the parents' pockets. And parents choose books according to their choice and convenience. Parents buy books dealing with practical and professional mathematics. Therefore, good children's literature does not necessarily reach children. Therefore, in the new world, there is a need to continue publishing free or low-cost books for children. There are some people in my language who try to do that, I know there is no shortage of good people in every part of the world, and I am grateful for them.

I came across an African story called 'The Village Baby' (Jane Cloven Fletcher), The Koku's story was a new experience for me, it gave me a different perspective on the world. Any and all child born in the village is the responsibility of the village and every elder of the village should recognize this responsibility and deal with it, the feeling is basically noble. Lack of this feeling is visible in the developed world today. Degeneracy begins when the society and the country begin to say that your child is only yours and only your responsibility, and contemporary reality is the reality that brings such degeneration to the fore.

Therefore, when writers and people who think for children from different countries of the world are coming together and commenting on children's literature, we should appeal to all the countries of the world from this platform that you should provide free books for children in your countries, establish children's universities. an environment should be created for the children which gives scope for their all-round development.

 The high quality human beings that we envision in the future will be created from the children of today, we all need to work together to create the happy world of our dreams.

 The mantra 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' is given by Indian ancestors. Indian culture is a great culture that says 'whatever you want'. As the pike of this culture, I appeal to all that today we take a step for universal brotherhood and start a new journey towards the new sun.