Integrating Theory and Creative Practice

Is there a particular issue that is important to you or that causes you difficulties?

I believe in secular nations. Being a woman in India with a Muslim name plays a large role in all I do. India is going through a time where right wing Hinduism is taking over what should be a secular country.

There is an underlying threat to announcing your identity in any way.

Though I don't believe in any religion. I have a Muslim name and that always make things challenging. There is a growing intolerance for anyone who has a name that sounds slightly Islamic.

On the flip side of that I have an extended Muslim family who see all the work I do as blasphemy and the life I lead as one of sin.

Where does this voice I have belong?

Women even in urban India are not seen as equals and even in the visual arts the number of women is one that is slowly growing.

I work in schools and I realise that a not so subtle indoctrination has begun where all that is Hindu and right wing is put on a pedestal and all that isn't is either erased from the books or rewritten. There is a need for secular content in children’s books. We need to show our children that the richness of our nation, comes from the fact that it is woven with fabrics of so many faiths.

I do feel even as an illustrator who might do content for children my politics will always be in question. By virtue of being an Indian woman with a Muslim name. I should do something that doesn't shy away from what I believe in. So I do want to choose an essay topic that supports this in some way, yet may not focus on my personal identity so much as critically analyse how ideology and beliefs are conveyed in children’s books.

I do think I am leaning towards doing an essay that looks at how oppressive societies have used alphabet books as a way of conveying their ideologies and beginning the subtle indoctrination of children. I am creating an Alphabet Book for my final project that looks at historical places in India. The project is linked to the theme of identity and one of the main reasons for me choosing to do this book is to do a historical alphabet book that is secular in its content.

Are there examples of work by other designers/illustrators/architects/practitioners that can be argued to have addressed this issue/problem?

Rummana Hussain 1952-1999

One of the leaders in conceptual art in India. Her work changed drastically after the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992 happened following the destruction of the Babri Masjid Mosque

Zarina Hashmi (born 1937)

Is an artist born in India and working in New York. Her work includes drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. It is abstract and minimal and explores the concept of home and her personal identity.

Jennifer Sommer - MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Has written an essay on ABC books while doing her MFA and consequently revisited the topic in a blog she writes.

Literacy, Place, and Pedagogies of Possibility - By Barbara Comber is a book that looks at how we can teach children without colouring their world with social injustices. She analysis alphabet books from Australia and reveals the flaws of the white colonial world they presented.