A common thread to be observed about anything you want to read and watch about India is that the sources are from people outside India. It is like we Indians lack the ability to look inward. We are so used to see the other state, the other country, the other city. We know so less about ourselves, our locality, our country but somehow we seem to know a great deal about he "other". It is a shocking and fascinating thing. So when Naipul came to India, he saw what we ourselves dont want to see. He saw that we dont want to see. He saw a million mutinees for which the people opened up. There are other trillions which people did not open about. There were several of his mutinees he couldn't prod further because people wouldn't. They wanted him to leave it as it is. If knowing about a country is knowing about its extremes, then to know India, you should be reading this. Indians should read this book. Every Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist & the other plethora of unscientific societies should read this book. It is like a mirror held up to them. People visiting India should read this book. They know the extremes and they know that safe zone now. India is easy to travel an move about in that safe zone.
I loved the book. It is well written. It is well researched. And majority of the people he has talked to are real people and somehow he has made them comfortable to talk about things which people dont talk in their normal sense of mind. It is not a secret. It is just that we dont want to talk about it. He has understood that modern India as it stands today would have been a million pieces if not for the modern advent and administration of the British. But at the same time he has laid bare the brutality, unjustness, usurping, Plundering, Caste politics, Famines and many other synonyms related to these words. What I liked about his choice of interviewees is their innate purity. Everyone wants to be good. Every one wants to do good. But they are result of circumstances. Circumstances are staged by one group and the results spread across the community creating chasms between individuals. These chasms then end up in physical barriers. These then extend to fighting for rights. This then gives rise to leaders, sects, followers and what not.
I loved the way the history seamlessly gels with the present in Naipul's India. The transition from historical perspective to the present is one of the best I have read in any book. It is like India itself where the old co-exists with the modern seamlessly. I love this flow. It just shows how beautifully the author has envisioned India in his travel. Once he catches a thread, on a majority of cases he has followed it on his own because he was not ready to be biassed. This though is awesome. Once he sees that a particular individual is pushing certain things down his throat, he will take only what he thinks applies and then travels around to confirm or negate it with completely unknown individuals.
When you talk about India, foreign nationals and the commercial media is bemused by the mystic rather than the core India. They are also interested in the destitute. So here again, the author has added sufficient amount of both these aspects. But I did not mind much since he tries to juxtapose the mystic, the destitution, the middle class, the affluent class, the billionaires in a complete round up. So if any reader is expecting just "slumdog millionaire" he will be disappointing. This is much more. The narrative is not linear, and I liked that style of writing. It is like when you start to have a preset image of India, he will stop you and take you on a different ride. Only this time, your thoughts change to something else and when you come back to the same topic, you no longer have that previous notion.
The book is thoroughly entertaining and bold in certain aspects. The bold aspects are cleverly hidden and is available only to the more interested and demanding reader. It is not a book to finish in one sitting. It has to be savored. It has to be understood. Ultimately the author is happy with how India has turned out. The last few pages become dull after so much action in the majority of the portion. It appeared as thought the author was finished. He was tired and he couldnt find anything more interesting. And one more noticeable thing is the coverage of south India. Normally majority of the authors stop at the middle and the northern part of India and dont look south. But the author here has spent sufficient amount of time in the south also. There is good work on periyar of Tamilnadu and the wodeyars of Karnataka. All in all, the book is a testament to the never die spirit of India.
I loved the book. It is well written. It is well researched. And majority of the people he has talked to are real people and somehow he has made them comfortable to talk about things which people dont talk in their normal sense of mind. It is not a secret. It is just that we dont want to talk about it. He has understood that modern India as it stands today would have been a million pieces if not for the modern advent and administration of the British. But at the same time he has laid bare the brutality, unjustness, usurping, Plundering, Caste politics, Famines and many other synonyms related to these words. What I liked about his choice of interviewees is their innate purity. Everyone wants to be good. Every one wants to do good. But they are result of circumstances. Circumstances are staged by one group and the results spread across the community creating chasms between individuals. These chasms then end up in physical barriers. These then extend to fighting for rights. This then gives rise to leaders, sects, followers and what not.
I loved the way the history seamlessly gels with the present in Naipul's India. The transition from historical perspective to the present is one of the best I have read in any book. It is like India itself where the old co-exists with the modern seamlessly. I love this flow. It just shows how beautifully the author has envisioned India in his travel. Once he catches a thread, on a majority of cases he has followed it on his own because he was not ready to be biassed. This though is awesome. Once he sees that a particular individual is pushing certain things down his throat, he will take only what he thinks applies and then travels around to confirm or negate it with completely unknown individuals.
When you talk about India, foreign nationals and the commercial media is bemused by the mystic rather than the core India. They are also interested in the destitute. So here again, the author has added sufficient amount of both these aspects. But I did not mind much since he tries to juxtapose the mystic, the destitution, the middle class, the affluent class, the billionaires in a complete round up. So if any reader is expecting just "slumdog millionaire" he will be disappointing. This is much more. The narrative is not linear, and I liked that style of writing. It is like when you start to have a preset image of India, he will stop you and take you on a different ride. Only this time, your thoughts change to something else and when you come back to the same topic, you no longer have that previous notion.
The book is thoroughly entertaining and bold in certain aspects. The bold aspects are cleverly hidden and is available only to the more interested and demanding reader. It is not a book to finish in one sitting. It has to be savored. It has to be understood. Ultimately the author is happy with how India has turned out. The last few pages become dull after so much action in the majority of the portion. It appeared as thought the author was finished. He was tired and he couldnt find anything more interesting. And one more noticeable thing is the coverage of south India. Normally majority of the authors stop at the middle and the northern part of India and dont look south. But the author here has spent sufficient amount of time in the south also. There is good work on periyar of Tamilnadu and the wodeyars of Karnataka. All in all, the book is a testament to the never die spirit of India.
