India, Incredible India is a new book with words by best-selling author Jasbinder Bilan, celebrating the rich history and culture of India. Jasbinder spoke to CILIP's Pen&inc. magazine about her fiction and her involvement with India, Incredible India and why it is so important to bring the story of the country to life for children and young people.

Can you give us a brief introduction to you and your work.

I’m Jasbinder Bilan, author of middle-grade adventures: Asha and the Spirit Bird, Tamarind and the Star of Ishta, Aarti and the Blue Gods and India, Incredible India, my first non-fiction title. I was born close to the foothills of the Himalaya in rural Punjab on our family farm. When I was 18-months-old, my family moved to Nottingham, where I was brought up. In my work I love creating exciting real-world adventures with a sprinkle of magic that feature brave determined heroes. My debut Asha and the Spirit Bird won The Times /Chicken House Prize 2017 and went on to win the Costa Children’s Book Award 2019. Tamarind and the Star of Ishta won the Indie Book Awards 2021.

Strong girls and adventure feature centre stage in Asha, Tamarind and Aarti – how important is it for you that your readers see these characters and feel that sense of adventure and agency, especially given their South Asian heritage?

I think it’s hugely important that all children see themselves reflected in the books they read and when I write I do so from the heart of my eleven-year-old self. I love creating characters that won’t say no to the call of adventure, characters who are complex, kind and courageous even though they are also far from perfect.

It’s really important to me that Asha, Tamarind and Aarti form great friendships and they are balanced in each story by a boy character – so they have a wide appeal.

My books are also a window into another world, allowing all children to leap through and experience life from a fresh point of view and to go somewhere they might not ordinarily go. I want to show everyone that girls like Asha, Tamarind and Aarti have agency and go on incredible adventures. These are books for all readers and it’s crucial children regardless of background are encouraged to read books like mine, that have characters which reflect our contemporary society. This helps them to develop empathy, challenge stereotypes and realise that these girls are pretty incredible and worth going on an adventure with!

Did you see these types of characters as you were growing up? And, if not, was it something you were aware of at the time – or did you realise later. How does that experience feed into your own writing now?

As a little girl growing up in Nottingham, I was an avid reader and a member of the local library. I don’t think I was really aware that none of the books I read reflected my roots or showed someone like me having adventures and fun. In one sense that’s the beauty of reading – I never thought that I was excluded from the incredible worlds of the books I read.

It was only when I became an adult and a writer that I became aware of this situation. When you only see white characters in stories you begin to think that stories can only feature those characters.

It’s only when you look critically, like the CLPE report of 2017 did, that it becomes apparent there’s a real problem which needs to be corrected. Although steps have been taken to improve the statistics, there is still a long way to go – both in encouraging diverse voices to enter the publishing world, as well as having diverse characters in our books.

I want to have the freedom to write all the stories I choose. I don’t want my narratives to be pigeon-holed or my characters to be stereotyped. It’s easy for the book world to expect certain narrow stories from diverse authors. As a girl, the stories I loved most were the adventurous magical ones, so when I write I want my stories to be exciting, ground-breaking and surprising.

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In what way are these books a celebration of your own family and heritage?

When I first began my wonderful MA Creative Writing Course at Bath Spa University, I was so excited to be finally embarking on my childhood dream of becoming a children’s author. However, it took a while to find my natural voice and to have the confidence to raise it.

At the time there was very little diversity in children’s writing, so the majority of pieces I wrote during the course featured white characters with the sorts of families I had experienced in the books I read.

But the course encouraged us all to write the story only you can tell. Once I realised this was what I had to do, I knew exactly what my story would be. I had a very close relationship with my grandmother and when I began thinking of an idea, a very clear image sprang into my head – a little girl playing in the dust with water and behind her was a huge snow-capped mountain. From that single image I began creating the story that would become Asha and the Spirit Bird.

The heart of my stories are inspired by my roots in India but I am also British, so they are a reflection of that multi-layered experience. Aarti and the Blue Gods is about that dual heritage, and that’s what I hope to celebrate in my books.

India, Incredible India is about the country of your birth and heritage. How keen were you to write it, and create this celebration of India, its people and show that it is a cultural and innovative powerhouse, with an incredible history. What does that connection to India mean to you, and what do you hope readers get from the book?

It was such a huge honour to be asked to write India Incredible India. When I visited the country of my birth as an adult, I kept diaries and was keen to capture both the visual impact and the incredible emotional journey of returning for the very first time. I drew on these diaries when I came to write the book and it gave me a personal way into a project, which was so vast and full of possibilities.

As I was growing up, we always shared stories of India around the dinner table. My mother would create enticing fragrant banquets where the whole extended family could gather and re-live memories of happy times on our family farm.

My father was particularly proud of his heritage and he often told us that one day we would hire a Jeep and drive cross-country all the way back to India. Once we were there we would travel to the most wonderful places. He wanted to show us what an amazing country India was, full of impressive locations, untold histories and wild-life beyond our dreams. Our imaginations were fired and we couldn’t wait to load up and set-off on this adventure! Even though we didn’t physically take this trip, I’d like to think that in writing the book I made my father’s dream come true.

I never found a book like India, Incredible India in the library when I was growing up, so I’m so proud to have created it. It’s like a gift to my younger self. It’s the sort of book I would have spent hours poring over with my siblings and I hope readers will dive head-first into it as if they are actually living the journey.

India is a country full of surprising, phenomenal facts and throughout I wanted to celebrate its incredible diversity, resilience and ambition. The final spread is a return to my mother’s home Moranwali – village of the Peacocks, a fitting end to a book inspired by the power of family and heritage and a celebration of the wonders India has to offer.

In India, Incredible India you revisit the idea of powerful female figures from all walks of life who have had an impact on the country and globally. How was that experience of researching these women and writing their stories? When you are sharing these stories, do you feel the positive, inspiring impact it will have on young readers?

It was an absolute a privilege to include so many incredibly powerful, clever and determined female stories within this book. All of these women have fought against inequalities and what society expects of them and risen to achieve their childhood dreams.

They haven’t taken no for an answer, they didn’t listen to the voices that might have said they couldn’t become a physicist for example, or a top tennis player, or be the first female amputee to climb Mount Everest.

India is one of the few world countries to have had a female prime minister, so it really is in its DNA to have strong women pushing for change and key positions both within the country and globally. I think readers are going to be hugely inspired to find out about these powerful women and see them as role models. I also hope reading about them will encourage girls to aim for the stars, the planets and the universe – their achievements can be limitless too.

What else are you working on and what can we expect to see next?

This year has been phenomenally busy and I’ve been so lucky to be involved in lots of exciting new projects. My next middle grade story publishes with Chicken House in February 2023 – it’s another magical adventure set in my home-town, Nottingham which I can’t wait to share with readers. I’m thrilled to have a book coming July 2023 with Barrington Stoke with an eco theme, and you can also expect a Dr Who story and a horror story. Phew!

India, Incredible India (978 140639 5426), published by Walker Books is available in all good bookshop and online here.