Chand Sitare, a collection of songs by Rais Farogh, and illustrated by S.Sajid Rizvi won
the National Book Council Award for book production in 1978.
Ek thi Jheel (1973) by Meher Nigar Masroor, illustrated by Naheed Jafri, is profusely
illustrated in colour and won the National Book Award and the 1973 UBL Literary
Award for book production in 1972–1973. The National Book Foundation also published
a humorous book for children, Mulla Nasiruddin (1975) by Mahmud Sham. The National
Book Foundation in Pakistan has taken up the task of publishing low-cost illustrated
children’s books. They also get the books translated into regional and national
languages and up to 1988 had produced 215 titles. In addition, another project was
under way to bring out 90 titles in the next three years. Some leading private publishers
like Ferozsons have undertaken publishing joint ventures with foreign collaboration.
The prominent writers in Pakistan are Meher Nigar Masroor, Ibne Insha, Muhammad
Iqbal, Qamar Ali Abbas, Sharif Kamal Usmani, Mahmud Sham, Lakhat Saeed and Nazar
Qayyum. The prominent illustrators for children are Naheed Jafri, A.Mansoor, Zaki
Meer, Syed Sultan Akbar, B.A.Najmi, Samina Shahabuddin, Talat, Sajid Rizvi and
Zahimeer. The prominent publishers of children’s books are Ferozesons, Saeed Kitab,
Tahir Sons and the government-supported National Book Council of Pakistan.
Sri LankaSri Lanka is an island country, separated from the Indian sub-continent by the narrow
Palk Strait. With an area of 61,610 square kilometres and 16.9 million population, it is a
mixed society of which 72 per cent of the population is Sinhala and 20 per cent Tamil, with
other smaller communities making up the remaining 8 per cent. It is also a multi-
religious society in which 67 per cent of the people are Buddhists, 17 per cent Hindus, 8
per cent Christians and 7 per cent Muslims.
Sri Lanka was part of the British Empire until it became an independent nation in
- The history and culture of Sri Lanka has close links with its neighbour, India.
Sinhala and Tamil are the main languages and English is widely spoken. In addition,
there are fifty other dialects. The most remarkable feature in Sri Lanka is its literacy rate
of 87 per cent which is the highest in the Indian sub-continent. In spite of such a high
literacy rate, Sri Lanka suffers from lack of indigenous children’s literature.
The early literature for children comprised folk-tales, rhymes and songs in the form of
oral literature. When the British ruled the island, the medium of instruction in the
better schools was English; the textbooks and supplementary readers were imported
from England and the books in Tamil were imported from India. The Sinhala-speaking
children who comprised the bulk of schoolchildren were too poor to buy other books,
with the result that for a long time no publisher came forward to publish books for
children in Sinhala. The first books for children in Sinhala were written by Munidasa
Kumartunga, Martin Wickramasinghe and G.B.Senanayake.
The government made education free for all from kindergarten to university in 1943
which led to a rapid increase in the number of school children. The adoption of Sinhala
as the language of instruction in schools created the demand for books in that language
and supplementary readers for use in school were developed.
THE INDIAN SUB-CONTINENT 809