To understand the Indian trilogy that V.S Naipaul wrote, we need to first understand some background of the author. This may not be true for all the novels or travelogues but it certainly is true for this particular one. His ancestors travelled from India to Trinidad for good – Some three generations ago. This makes him ethnically an Indian but disconnected geographically but somewhat connected through the vestiges of culture and customs that went into Trinidad along with this forbearers. But he is interested in India – not because he loves it or anything of that sort –but he wants to understand his ancestral land from which his grandfather and others migrated centuries ago. This quest of wanting to know led him to travel to India and he stayed in India for years and this trilogy is the fruit of the quest.
An area of Darkness
The first among the three installments is a deeply depressing account of the author’s first encounter with India where he faces a sense of estrangement – culturally and otherwise. This is quite normal for any westerner who visits India for the first time even today, not to mention how it would have been in the 60s where things were even worse. They will experience a cultural shock, a kind of estrangement which most people cannot handle. India is much beyond that, India is much deeper than that. He concurs in the very introduction that India was never his country and never will be. But he can’t stop caring for it for whatever reason. There is an element of concern, in his observation and analysis.
He describes the squalor, poverty, corruption among other things that the country is mired in an objective way. As mentioned before, this is a depressing account. In the sense, India looks like a static and decayed society (true in a sense, whatever may be the reason) in Naipaul’s portrayal which is beyond any kind of redemption. If anyone doesn’t understand the intent of the author, it’s easy to lump this work among the others which deliberately show India in a bad light. But that’s not the case here.
India: A Wounded Civilization
This is written around the time of emergency, 1975. By his own admission, this is the shortest book he has ever wrote – 161 pages. Here he explores the country which was invaded multiple times and the lasting impact the invaders had and continue to have in the land, the average Indian psyche, the attitude with which Indians face any problem.
He brings in many contemporary authors and their works to make his case, although he doesn’t take them at their face value, he uses them to penetrate into the Indian mind. Some of the contemporary writers, especially like that of R.K. Narayan have a very good insight into the Indian way of life and have depicted it so very well in their novels. The observation that impressed me was – how some Hindus interpret the philosophy of Karma in a fatalistic sense and use it as a way to escape from performing any action or taking any responsibility. Forget solving the problem, many times they don’t even acknowledge there is one. In comparison, this work is not as pessimistic as the previous one.
India: A Million Mutinies Now
The last in the Indian trilogy is also the longest one (of over 600 pages) and written in the year 1990. He visits the places he had visited 2 decades ago and meets the people he had met then. He sees the changes the country is subjected to in these two decades. He traverses across the country – from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu, meeting all kinds of people – the Naxals, the Dravidianists, the Dalits, the Brahmins, the Shias, the feminists etc. and tries to understand the nation through their own personal experiences, struggles – the result is a riveting story which slowly reveals the nation with its admixture of immense complexities and possibilities.
The past narratives meet the present challenges and dilemmas and how some of them correlate to the progress of India as a nation. Although there is negativity around, there is also a glimmer of hope in this book much unlike the previous works.
Conclusion
Let’s face it – India is an immensely complex country to understand – even for Indians, not to talk about an average Occidental. Naipaul is uniquely placed in this task. He is a Westerner for all practical purposes with long detached cultural root in this ancient land. Naipaul has tried to do this daunting task with his travels across the country, perspicacious observations, numerable interviews and he is successful in building a new narrative from the facts, stories and observations arising out of these.
There is unabashed precision in his observation but there is also empathy and concern for the people and for the country. Naipaul is recognized in the world as one of the best writers of travelogues and novelists of our times. Reading this work will make you realize why it is so.
