This article examines the social, political and gendered representations of male caregivers/nannies in postcolonial Bengal through the children’s novella Holde Pakhir Palok ( The Golden Feather) and the “family” film Galpo Holeo Satyi ( Stranger Than Fiction) while remaining informed about the popular depiction of nannies in contemporary US literature for young people. Through a critical lens that engages caste, class, and gender, the study interrogates how male caregivers occupy a complex, liminal space in Bengali households while engaging in emotional and/or educational labour. Drawing on theories of intersectionality, masculinity studies, and decolonization, the analysis demonstrates how caregiving becomes a site for challenging hegemonic binaries of education/manual labour, masculinity/domesticity, and authority/servitude. The article also considers how such caregivers are often rendered non-threatening through the erasure of their sexuality, echoing colonial anxieties around non-binary and intersex identities. Ultimately, these texts suggest that Bengali male caregivers, although marginalized, play central roles in constructing moral and emotional childhoods. The study underscores the importance of further archival and theoretical work on male domestic labour in Indian children’s literature.
Kajori Patra (Wed,) studied this question.