“The rhymes of English sound so sweet,

But the truths they conceal aren’t so neat,

With tales grim and gray,

They pass off as play,

They trick us with rhythmic deceit.”

Every evening in countless Indian homes, toddlers giggle to the tune of “London Bridge is falling down” or “Jack and Jill went up the hill.” The scenes are adorable — chubby-cheeked kids reciting sing-song verses in English — a language that opens global doors. Yet, beneath those catchy tunes lurk stories and values far removed from Indian culture and ethos. In post-colonial India, our children’s first lessons often come wrapped in centuries-old English nursery rhymes. It’s time to ask: what are we really singing to our children, and at what cost to their cultural identity and innocence? The journey to answer that question leads us to a movement that is as poetic as it is powerful: Rhymes of Bharat (https://www.rhymesofbharat.com/). This initiative is spearheading a heartfelt crusade to decolonize childhood by replacing colonial-era nursery rhymes with verses rooted in Indian culture, values, and pride.

The Colonial Hangover in the Nursery

More than seventy-five years after Independence, the echoes of the Raj still linger in our primary classrooms. The prevalence of English nursery rhymes in Indian preschools is not merely a linguistic choice but a reflection of deeper cultural hegemony​. These rhymes were introduced in India as part of the colonial education system, intended to instill British norms and create an intermediary class of English-minded Indians​. Generations later, we continue to innocently pass along this colonial hangover to our kids.

Why does this matter? Because the teaching of these rhymes “reinforces the idea that Western culture is superior to Indian culture, erodes the self-esteem of Indian students, and leads to the erosion of indigenous cultural practices and beliefs”​. In subtle ways, when “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or “Humpty Dumpty” dominate the nursery, the message absorbed is that real knowledge and fun come from the West, while Indian stories and songs are secondary. Scholars have gone so far as to call the use of English rhymes in Indian schools a form of “cultural imperialism, where Western cultural values and beliefs are imposed on non-Western cultures”. In other words, our curriculum’s clinging to these rhymes perpetuates a hidden curriculum of cultural colonization​, one that operates under our very noses, long after the British flags have been lowered.

The impact on a child’s psyche can be profound. Education researchers Deb and Kumar (2021) conducted a critical reading of English rhymes taught in West Bengal and found that young minds “could be instructed to become conforming, unquestioning mechanical products of a society through the teaching of English rhymes”​. These rhymes carry tacit themes of social hierarchy and homogenization that sustain socio-cultural hegemony and promote homogenization of thought — compromising the child’s critical consciousness​. In essence, by sticking to colonial rhymes, we risk molding children to fit a bygone imperial mold — absorbing lessons that their own world and heritage are somehow less important.

Not All Fun and Games: The Dark Themes in Nursery Rhymes

Many parents might protest: “Aren’t these just innocent, nonsense songs for kids? Does it really matter what Jack and Jill or London Bridge originally meant?” It does matter. Beneath the playful melodies and seemingly harmless lyrics, popular English nursery rhymes often harbor themes of injury, violence, prejudice, and morbid historical events​. We may not realize it as we clap and sing along, but we are imparting some disturbing subtexts to our little ones — or at the very least, wasting an opportunity to impart something better.

Take the ubiquitous “London Bridge is falling down.” Children link arms and merrily sing about a crumbling bridge without any context. But this medieval rhyme is intertwined with unsettling legends. One theory suggests it alludes to the practice of human sacrifice — rumors that children were buried alive in the bridge’s foundations to keep it standing​. Historians like Alice Bertha Gomme and folklorists Iona and Peter Opie have noted this dark interpretation. Imagine: an Indian preschooler laughing and dancing to a song that possibly references children being entombed — a narrative far removed from innocent play, and utterly irrelevant (if not harmful) to the cultural psyche of Indian children​.

Now consider “Jack and Jill went up the hill.” A simple tale of two children fetching water? Not quite. This rhyme is “steeped in historical allusions” that have nothing to do with childhood whimsy​. Some theories link Jack and Jill to a Norse myth about the moon; others see it as commentary on 18th-century France — with Jack and Jill representing Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who quite literally “came tumbling down” via the guillotine​. These interpretations are obscure, yes, but the point is that the rhyme’s origins (whether Scandinavian lore or French Revolution tragedies) are alien to Indian kids and add no value to their learning experience​. Our children sing of broken crowns and falling down, oblivious to the grim backdrop — learning nothing of moral or cultural significance, only enjoying the sing-song rhythm.

Perhaps the most famous example is “Ring-a-Ring o’ Roses”, often recited in a gleeful circle game. Generations have speculated that this nursery rhyme is a coded reference to the Great Plague (Black Death) in 17th-century England. The singsong line “A pocket full of posies” likely refers to people carrying flowers to mask the smell of disease and death, “A-tishoo! A-tishoo!” mimics the sneezing of plague victims, and “we all fall down” chillingly symbolizes how everyone eventually succumbed​. In other words, this cheerful childhood rhyme “is actually a coded reference to a historical tragedy involving mass death and suffering”, presented in such a casual, playful way that it trivializes the event​. Do we really want our toddlers mindlessly chanting about a pandemic that wiped out millions? When they eventually learn the meaning, it could either desensitize them to human suffering or frighten them unnecessarily​. Moreover, what cultural disconnect it is to have Indian children reciting a rhyme about Europe’s plague history — an event with zero resonance in India’s own rich (and equally old) heritage​.

Sadly, examples abound. “Three Blind Mice” seems like a silly tale of rodents, until you realize it references a violent episode of a farmer’s wife maiming animals (cutting off tails) — essentially animal abuse set to music. “Goosey Goosey Gander” talks about dragging an old man downstairs, a likely nod to anti-Catholic violence in England’s past — casually introducing the idea of religious violence to kids. “Ten Little Indians”, often sanitized in modern times, has an uncomfortable history as well: its original versions were outright racist. Even when the words are tweaked, one has to marvel at the irony of Indian children merrily counting down “Indians” disappearing one by one in that rhyme!

And then there’s “Chubby Cheeks”, a hugely popular rhyme across Indian kindergartens in the past few decades. At first glance it’s a harmless ditty describing a cute child. But listen closely: “curly hair, very fair, eyes are blue, lovely too — teacher’s pet, is that you?”​. The “ideal” child being praised has fair skin and blue eyes — features of Anglo-European beauty, not the typical Indian child. The rhyme, perhaps unintentionally, implies that only certain physical features are desirable and worthy of love or being the “teacher’s pet”​. What does a dark-skinned, brown-eyed Indian child internalize from this? Such subtle conditioning can hurt a child’s self-image. In a society like India that still battles colorism, a seemingly fun rhyme can reinforce the notion that fair is superior​. This is exactly the kind of hidden cultural payload we must be wary of.

In short, many English rhymes carry “numerous explicit and hidden themes that can be detrimental to the psychological and emotional growth of Indian children”​. They were products of British socio-economic contexts, historical turmoils, or value systems that are often irrelevant or even antithetical to the values we’d like to impart. These themes — injury as fun, animal cruelty, vanity in appearance, racial prejudice, colonial superiority, even genocide and plague — are “concealed beneath catchy tunes and playful lyrics”, but they “plant seeds of fear, aggression, and self-doubt” rather than positivity in young minds​. Crucially, they offer no constructive lesson or moral framework to growing children. A scholarly analysis bluntly called children’s literature (especially these rhymes) “a literature of deception” — noting that many nursery rhymes “born of socio-economic turbulence… bespeak of trauma, murders, gore, sexuality or death through the apparent lucidity of nursery rhymes.” In other words, there is often nothing innocent about these “innocent” rhymes.

Losing Our Stories, Losing Ourselves: A Cultural Disconnect

While our children’s tongues are trained to recite English couplets about foreign kings, queens, and animals, what happens to India’s own plethora of childhood lore? With each “baa baa black sheep”, we edge out a “chal mere ghode” or a regional folk song that might have taken its place. The issue isn’t just the negativity in some Western rhymes; it’s also the erasure of our indigenous cultural narratives during the most formative years of learning. When Indian culture appears nowhere in a child’s nursery syllabus, the child implicitly learns that their own culture is not worth teaching.

This phenomenon has deep psychological repercussions. Education experts argue that early education content shapes a child’s sense of self and belonging. If all the characters they sing about are Western — be it Old King Cole or Little Miss Muffet — Indian children may begin to identify more with Cinderella than with Sita or Savitri, and know more about London’s bridges than the lore of the Ganga or Yamuna. They might start seeing their grandparents’ tales as “less educational” compared to the glossy English nursery rhymes taught in school. Over time, this can “perpetuate a sense of cultural inferiority” in subtle ways​. The child’s cultural identity and self-esteem are at stake when their education signals that fun and knowledge come from England, while India’s vast treasury of stories is relegated to the background.

Moreover, because language and culture are intertwined, teaching English exclusively through Western rhymes means we are inadvertently transmitting Western norms and worldviews along with the language​. It doesn’t help that the content of these rhymes often promotes conformist thinking rather than critical engagement. As noted earlier, a child raised on repetitive foreign jingles can become an “unquestioning mechanical product” of a system​, less connected to their own surroundings and heritage. It is telling that many of these rhymes encourage rote memorization and obedience (think of “Yes, Papa” in “Johny Johny”), rather than curiosity or creativity. Compare that to Indian folk tales or epic stories which encourage moral reflection, bravery, or wit (as Panchatantra or Jataka tales do). The difference in depth is striking.

In essence, by not providing culturally relevant content, we risk raising children who are “rootless in their own soil” — fluent in English, yes, but with a fragmented sense of identity. They may excel at Western pop-culture references but be strangers to icons of their own land. This is not an argument against learning English; it’s an argument against learning only through the West’s lens. We must give our children the gift of knowing who they are and where they come from, even as they learn a global language. Why should an Indian child’s first rhymes celebrate British Bo Peep’s sheep instead of Indian lambs, calves, or kachua (tortoise) and khargosh (hare) from our own tales? Why should they mimic a British accent singing about London, when they could be joyfully voicing the names of Indian rivers, animals, or heroes?

This cultural mismatch is not a nostalgic gripe; it’s a developmental concern. Children learn best when content is relatable to their lives. Rhymes featuring snow, porridge, or English farms mean little to a child in Kerala or Kashmir who has never seen those. As educationists often remind us, relevance drives engagement. So not only are we straining our children’s cultural self-esteem, we’re also possibly making learning less effective by teaching them rhymes divorced from their reality​. It’s high time we bridge this gap.

Reimagining the Nursery: Decolonizing Childhood

The solution is both simple and profound: decolonize the nursery. This means consciously replacing those colonial-era nursery rhymes with culturally rooted Indian ones — without losing any of the joy and lyrical charm that make children love rhymes in the first place. Decolonizing childhood is about choice: choosing to foreground our own heritage in the stories and songs we offer our kids. It’s about ensuring that the first lessons of wonder and laughter they imbibe carry the fragrance of our soil, the colors of our festivals, and the wisdom of our ancestors.

This idea is not anti-English or anti-West; it’s pro-India. We can teach English language skills through content that is Indian in spirit. Imagine rhymes that carry the cadences of English but speak of the Banyan tree rather than the mulberry bush, that mention Panchatantra’s witty animals instead of the King’s horses and men who couldn’t fix Humpty Dumpty. Imagine your child learning the concept of honesty from a rhyme about young Harishchandra or Yudhishthira (legendary figures known for truthfulness), as opposed to learning about deceit from “Johny Johny yes papa” (which normalizes a child lying about eating sugar!). Why not teach counting with the ten forms of Lord Vishnu, or days of the week with references to the planets as per Vedic astrology? The possibilities are endless once we free our imagination from the colonial crib.

Thankfully, this movement is already afoot. India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 explicitly emphasizes creating a “culturally rooted education system” that is inclusive and equitable​. In line with this vision, initiatives like Rhymes of Bharat have emerged to pave the way. Rhymes of Bharat is not just a collection of poems — it is a cultural renaissance packaged in rhyme and rhythm. It “embodies the NEP’s principles by offering content that replaces colonial-era nursery rhymes with verses that celebrate India’s cultural diversity,” making learning more relatable and instilling pride and belonging in children from an early age​.

The Vision Behind Rhymes of Bharat: India in Every Rhyme

Rhymes of Bharat was born from the very realizations we’ve discussed — that our children deserve better than “rhythmic deceit” masking morbid foreign tales. This unique initiative envisions a childhood in which Indian kids around the world can grow up reciting rhymes that reflect their own roots, values, and everyday realities. The vision is elegantly simple: teach English through an Indian lens​. That means an Indian child can gain all the linguistic benefits of nursery rhymes — rhythm, vocabulary, memory — without the cultural dissonance or harmful themes. Each rhyme in the collection is meticulously crafted to blend the rhythmic beauty of English verse with the essence of Indian ethos​. The result is magical: verses that sound as fun and singable as the old rhymes, but feel entirely desi and morally uplifting.

What does a Rhymes of Bharat poem look like? Picture the classic tune of “Baa Baa Black Sheep” repurposed to honor one of India’s greatest epics. In the collection, there is a delightful rhyme that begins: “Rama, Rama, hero bright, Did you win the epic fight?” — and the response comes: “Yes sir, yes sir, with strength and might, With Hanuman’s leap and Lakshman’s sight…”. In a few lilting lines, children are introduced to the victorious return of Lord Rama in the Ramayana — “brought back Sita in the morning light” — and the joy of Ayodhya singing in praise​. The rhyme retains the engaging Q&A format and repetition kids love (“Yes sir, yes sir…”), but instead of a pointless exchange about black sheep’s wool, it celebrates bravery, teamwork, and the triumph of good over evil from our own Itihasa (history/epic). The melody is familiar, the content refreshingly ours.

Another beautiful example from Rhymes of Bharat draws on the ancient Sanskrit maxim “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (the world is one family). In simple English verse it teaches unity and brotherhood: “The world is a family, we are one, Beneath the same bright, shining sun. Who is yours, and who is mine? All are part of love divine.” Such a rhyme, with its imagery of one sun shining on all, instills values of universal love and harmony from the very start — planting seeds of inclusivity rather than division. There are rhymes that encourage truth-telling gently: “Speak the truth, and speak it kind, let gentle words fill your mind… But lies, my dear, we keep away”. There are rhymes about respecting elders, loving nature, celebrating festivals, valuing honesty and kindness — all in English, yet all deeply rooted in Indian ethos. A child raised on these will not only learn the language, but also imbibe the “timeless values and traditions of Bharat”​. Crucially, these rhymes are fun, not pedantic sermons. They come “accompanied by exquisite artwork” and a sense of whimsy​. Kids meet talking animals from Indian folktales, brave heroes from mythology, playful depictions of festivals like Diwali or Pongal, and gentle reminders of virtues — all through enchanting rhymes and pictures. The collections span a wide array of themes: “respect, kindness, bravery, wisdom, and the beauty of everyday life” are emphasized​, along with topics like the environment, love for nature, curiosity, devotion, and practical wisdom​. For instance, a rhyme about the environment might describe the banyan, peepal, and neem trees chatting in verse, while a rhyme about daily life could turn the morning routine (bowing to Mother Earth on waking, a common Indian practice) into a playful song for kids. The scope is broad but unified by a “purely Bhartiya perspective”​– meaning the examples, settings, and moral compass are all drawn from Bharat’s soil.

The vision behind such rhymes is deeply patriotic and psychological at once. On one hand, it is about preserving India’s cultural wealth for future generations​ – ensuring that modern Indian children don’t lose touch with the tales and teachings that defined generations before them. On the other hand, it’s about shaping confident, secure individuals. A child who sees their culture reflected in their nursery rhymes is subtly being told “Your culture matters. You matter.” They develop a sense of pride in who they are. Instead of internalizing inferiority, they gain cultural self-esteem. As they grow, they carry within them a core of values like respect for elders (“the art of bowing” in humility), truthfulness, empathy for all creatures, and pride in India’s diversity — because those were the themes of their earliest learning. In essence, Rhymes of Bharat seeks to create a generation of Indians who are rooted and confident, fluent in English yet carrying India in their hearts.

A Heartfelt Appeal: Singing Our Own Song

Changing the soundtrack of childhood is not a small undertaking. It challenges decades of habit and the ubiquity of Western media. But it is a change whose time has come, and it begins with us — the parents, educators, and policymakers. We must ask ourselves: when our children clap their hands to a rhyme, what do we want echoing in their minds? Is it the image of an egg-like Humpty Dumpty cracking apart meaninglessly, or the inspiring image of young Bhakta Prahlad’s faith protecting him from fire? Do we want them pretending to “pat-a-cake” for some English baker, or singing a playful rhyme about making rotis with Grandma? These choices matter. They shape our children’s mental landscape and values.

Indian parents and teachers have a proud role to play in this cultural recalibration. We have always been storytellers — our grandparents passed down folk songs, our epics have survived millennia through oral tradition. It’s time to reclaim that inheritance in our nurseries and classrooms. Let’s not outsource our children’s imagination to 18th-century England. Instead, let’s fill their early years with the rang (color) of India’s festivals, the raag (melody) of our folk songs, and the sanskar (values) of our civilization. When we do that, we give them something no English rhyme can ever provide: a sense of self. Educators can lead the way by embracing new culturally-aligned resources.

Incorporating a simple Hindi or regional-language rhyme alongside English ones is a start. Better yet, use English rhymes written with Indian context — exactly what Rhymes of Bharat offers. The next time you plan a kindergarten lesson or a preschool event, try swapping “Old MacDonald” for a rhyme about an Indian farmer and his cows and hens — watch the children’s eyes light up at hearing of things they see around them! Parents, meanwhile, can enrich home time by singing lullabies that their own grandparents sang, telling bedtime stories from the Panchatantra or Mahabharata, and yes, by reading out or playing the new Rhymes of Bharat for their kids. The excitement and connection kids feel when they recognize something of their world in a song is priceless.

Most importantly, by making this shift we also detoxify the nursery of inappropriate themes. We no longer have to worry about explaining why Rock-a-bye Baby is sitting in a treetop or why the old woman in the shoe “whipped her children soundly”. Instead, our rhymes can impart gentle life lessons. The Deadly English Rhymes analysis pointed out how Ring o’ Roses has “no moral or educational value,” whereas “many traditional Indian rhymes and stories aim to instill values like compassion, respect, and understanding”​. So why not choose the latter for our kids? By decolonizing their nursery rhymes, we’re not only removing the colonial baggage but also elevating the content of early education to something more positive, meaningful, and inspiring.

This is a passionate call, but it comes from a place of love and hope. We live in a free India — yet our children have remained colonized in their imaginations for far too long. Let’s free their imaginations. Let’s give them the wings of English, but let those wings soar over home skies. Let the first songs they sing be of Bharat — of its rivers and mountains, its sages and heroes, its universal values of love and peace.

In doing so, we will raise a generation more connected to their identity, yet open-minded and respectful of all cultures (because our own culture teaches that the world is one family!). We will see kids who stand tall, secure in who they are, able to engage with the world on equal terms, not from a place of inferiority. As Rhymes of Bharat proclaims, this is more than a book of rhymes — “it is a movement to preserve and promote the cultural wealth of our nation for future generations.”​

By decolonizing childhood, we are investing in the soul of India’s future.

So next time you hear a little one sing a rhyme, listen closely. Is it just a cute jingle, or is it teaching something? If it’s “Rhymes of Bharat,” you might catch the strains of a bhajan or the moral of a fable woven into a sweet tune. You might hear an echo of Ramayana or a whisper of Krishna’s flute in a couplet. And you’ll know that this child is not just learning A-B-C, but also who they are. May our children sing our own songs — songs of hope, and heritage. Let’s decolonize their childhood, one rhyme at a time, and help them carry the vision of Bharat in their hearts forever.

Jai Bharat!