My Childhood

A collection of Amar Chitra Katha comics

If there is one thing that I remember from my childhood it is reading Amar Chitra Katha comics.  Throughout my childhood, my parents bought me dozens on these comics and I would read them over and over again.  Why did I love them so much?  They were easy to read and funny.  I was fascinated by all the different gods and goddesses and their heroic tales.  On top of that, they taught me about Indian culture-- my culture.  Being born and raised in North America, I did not have that much exposure to my heritage and its culture. 

Cover of the Krishna comic

There was one specific comic series that I loved the most-- the series about Krishna.  Krisha's comics told stories about how he continually triumphed over evil and always remained righteous. I admired that.  Krishna had a razor discus that he would throw at wrongdoers to sever their heads.  I was inspired to make my own discus out of cardboard and throw it around the house.  Krishna offered me the same role model as Superman or Batman would to other children.

A page from a Jataka Tales comic

Other Amar Chitra Katha comics that I read taught me various additional lessons.  A series of Amar Chitra Katha comics called Jataka Tales has short anecdotes about wise men who use honesty and wit to earn respect from their peers.  These stories definitely instilled moral and ethical values in me from a very young age. 

And I wasn't the only one.

Karline McLain, a professor at Indiana University, conducted a lot of research on Amar Chitra Katha comics and assembled his research into a book called India's Immortal Comic Books.  He interviewed a lot of people about their experience reading Amar Chitra Katha comics and what they learned from the comics.  His findings showed that most people who read Amar Chitra Katha comics found them to be great tools for learning about Indian culture at a young age.

One person who was interviewed stated that after reading the comics for years, he had Indian mythology embedded within himself.  Another Canadian Indian used these comics to teach his Brazilian girlfriend about his culture and she was impressed and fascinated by reading the comics.  Yet another person, an American born Indian, asserted that she relied exclusively on Amar Chitra Katha comics to learn about Hinduism and Indian culture. 

This makes sense when we look at the creator of Amar Chitra Katha comics-- Anant Pai.  The story goes that he was watching an Indian television show in which a boy was correctly answering questions on Greek mythology, but could not answer questions on Hindu mythology.  He then set out to write comics to educate youngsters about Hindu mythology in a way that would be easy for them to understand. 

With there being so few Indians in America (about 3 million) the Indian culture is still very foreign to this country.  Amar Chitra Katha comics can help enrich in exposing them to another culture in a very easy and fun way: reading comics.  Amar Chitra Katha comics have similarities to American comics in that in both comics, the heroes portray the characteristics of a ideal hero:  bravery, integrity, justice, and more. 

Next time we will take a look at American Born Chinese, a graphic novel about a Chinese American who struggles with his identity.  This relatively new and creative piece of work illustrates another comic book or graphic novels can be used to spread cultural awareness.