What was the Partition? What ripples do we see today, and how do people in power continue to exploit communal politics? These are difficult questions that one often wonders about whether to discuss with children. In some ways, books that talk about our history help, books like Roop and the River Crossing.
Roop and the River Crossing written by Samina Mishra and illustrated by Shivam Choudhary uses the metaphor of a kaleidoscope beautifully to look at the Partition from the eyes of a child. In the beginning, the kaleidoscope is fascinating. The ways in which broken bangles create patterns is exciting and fun. But as Roop sees the same fractured reality in the world around her, the toy loses its thrill.
Gently and powerfully, the book leads us through the turmoil of Partition. What I find most important since it is a children’s book is that she focuses more on kindness and caring for strangers than on the horrors of a world collapsing. I would have liked the conclusion to be more hopeful too, more optimistic, with a promise of a better world.
Would that have been unrealistic?
Perhaps.
But it is done perfectly in so many places that I wonder if it couldn’t have ended similarly. I noticed, for instance, the delicate choice of phrasing, like ‘no one left alive’ in the train, rather than a more brutal ‘filled with dead bodies’. I loved how the book treads a fine line between not glossing over violence but not dwelling on it either. As delicately as possible while writing about a time as traumatic as the Partition, Roop and the River Crossing gives us a tiny glimpse of what it would have been like to be a child in 1947 India. It is an important book, one that is sure to spark important conversation and thought.
| Title | Roop and the River Crossing |
| Author Illustrator | Samina Mishra Shivam Choudhary |
| Tags | Picture Book, Partition |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4 |
| Ages | 8+ |
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