Mandira Shah, Children of the Hidden Land

Kamayani Kumar (University of Delhi)
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Mandira Shah’s coming-of-age novel 

Children of the Hidden Land

 addresses a theme that has to a large extent remained unarticulated, unaddressed, and unacknowledged in Indian writing in English – the theme of children who have been victimized as they were caught in the crossfire of the complexities of the adult world. The novel focuses on the lives of three children – April, Henthoiba and Shalini – and narrates their inadvertent entanglement in the ethnic violence that has held Manipur hostage since the 1960s. In doing so, it goes beyond an adventure novel written to capture the imagination of young readers. It brings to the surface how ethnic conflict and demands of separatism have impacted the lives of several generations in Manipur, and especially violated the sanctity of…

1311 words

Citation: Kumar, Kamayani. "Children of the Hidden Land". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 April 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41335, accessed 09 December 2024.]

41335 Children of the Hidden Land 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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