India A Million Mutinies Now
(V.S Naipaul)
Write your abstract here. ?India a Million Mutinies now? is a fascinating journey through India, of the late 1980s and early 1990?s, showcasing its on-going struggles, triumphs, and upheavals through the stories of common people. It is a travelogue by the noble prizewinning, Trinidad-born Indian author V.S Naipaul. The book is a compilation of interviews or conversations with the people of India, from different walks of life. He meets with Hindu and Muslim extremists, with Atheists, rationalists- anti-Brahmin rebels, Gangsters, Sikh terrorists, communist leaders and with former Naxalite rebels. Ordinary people like government officials, filmmakers, stockbrokers, and holy men. Naipaul succeeds in bringing a common thread to all the interviews; he goes on from one to another almost seamlessly. He sees things with a rational point of view, does not romanticize, or sugarcoat facts for the sake of political correctness. He doesn?t hesitate in talking about the sorry state of affairs in the country, accusations made are sometimes harsh and he has no qualms in expressing them. Naipaul crisscrossed the nation, from the West, Bombay to the East, Calcutta, and from Kashmir in the North to Madras in South. Throughout his journey he keeps reverting back to his life in Trinidad. The customs and rituals he performed then, without thinking or involuntarily were given meaning and reason in India. Like eating off banana leaves after a special religious occasion in his grandmother?s house was just a ritual, but in Madras he finds out that it is brahminically (Brahmins are upper class Hindus) more correct than plates. He found out that, people in India felt the need to hold on to smaller ideas of who and what they were and found stability in the smaller groupings of region, clan, caste, family, much like in Trinidad where people held on, tightly to their community to feel a sense of belonging. It is a mildly satirical composition, full of sardonic wit, but behind this facade, comes a feeling of love for the land and its people. The individuals who represent the ?Million Mutinies? were given faces and identities in Naipaul?s descriptive narrative. He tells us about their revolt, sometimes silent, sometimes raucous. The unpredictable Indian scenario is has been very meticulously captured in this striking, comprehensive, and unforgettable book.
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