#these kids are FROM india!!!! if they couldn't afford a kannada teacher they shouldnt have taken kids from karnataka!!!

[joysmercer]

just finished the elephant chaser's daughter and i had my misgivings about shanti bhavan from the doc but this book basically affirms the fact that it's very white savior—or should i say, upper-caste savior?—in how it operates

#like DG and his kids just dont seem to even try to relate to the children and it's so very strange #also! it's such a small thing to harp on but the fact that shilpa even lost fluency in kannada bc sb didn't bother to teach it. #(despite the strong implication that tamil and kannada were the two most frequently spoken languages there) #and when her mother learned to write and started sending letters she had to ask a teacher to read them because she could only read english! #these kids are FROM india!!!! if they couldn't afford a kannada teacher they shouldnt have taken kids from karnataka!!! #HOW are these kids supposed to 'uplift their families' if they're cut off from their language and culture for 9 months out of the year #from the age of FOUR #no wonder theres such a common theme among all the kids of feeling out of place at home #like she - a born and raised indian kid - goes to cllege and gets called abcd?? #i get early education is so important and it's such a complex issue in this context but. i dunno. i dont like it. #ntm (and far more egregious of an offence tbh) the weirdass hero worship of DG and the way he treated workers after the strike #and the teachers being majority volunteers (their website says 'min 6mo' and idk if they look for any qualifications?) (deffo no oversight #given one was administering corporeal punishment for over a decade before being fired) #i dunnooooo #books #the elephant chaser's daughter #daughters of destiny