About the Book

This edited volume advances the conceptual framework of the 'everyday urban' to unpack the ways in which processes of modernity in India shape young subjects and, in so doing, centers the analytical categories of childhood and youth. In rejecting simplistic binaries of agency, and teleological logics of development and modernity, the authors focus on the complex pathways of negotiation and conflict that mark the lives of young people across various historical and contemporary contexts in urban India. Chapters are organized across two key themes: Shaping Modern Subjects and Being Modern Subjects, while spanning multiple disciplines including anthropology, history, sociology, disability studies, and psychology. Together, the contributions aim to advance the field of childhood and youth studies in South Asia and beyond.

Contents

1.         Introduction: Children, Youth, and Modernity in the ‘Everyday Urban’- Anandini Dar, Divya Kannan

 Part I Shaping Modern Subjects

2          Development Discourses and Psychosocial Interventions: The Discursive Construction of ‘Risky’ and ‘Resilient’ Childhoods and Youth - R. Maithreyi

3          Conceptualisation of Development and Learning in Indian Early Childhood Curriculum- Prabhat Rai, Prachi Vashishtha

4          Mediated Childhoods: Newspapers and the Modern Malayali Child-Mary Ann Chacko

5          Clean Bodies in School Uniform: Childhood and Media Discourses of Cleanliness in Tamil Nadu, India-Smruthi Bala Kannan

6          The Trumpet and the Drum: Music and Reclaiming the Delinquent Child-Catriona Ellis

7          Identifying Child Labor: Revisiting State’s Craft in Bombay Textile Mills (1880–1911)-Palak Vashist

Par II   Being Modern Subjects

8          Examining Shifting Us-Them Binaries: The Experiences of Disabled Children in After-School Programs-Kim Fernandes

9          “Youth Must Keep Upvaluing Themselves”: Of Personality Development and Modern Selves in Contemporary Delhi-Suchismita Chattopadhyay

10        “Nobody Wants to Be the Behenji-Type”: Young People Managing Romance, Work and Violence in the Urban Slums of Kolkata-Kabita Chakraborty

11        Producing Modern Subjects of Change: Reeducation and Empowerment for Migrant Working Children in Bangalore-Valentina Glockner

12        Family Life, Schooling, and Modernity: Examining the ‘Everyday’ Experiences of Elite Adolescence in India-Adrienne Lee Atterberry

About the Author / Editor

Anandini Dar is Associate Professor in School of Liberal Studies, BML Munjal University, India.

Divya Kannan is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Archaeology at Shiv Nadar University, Institution of Eminence, India.