Naipaul and India...

Naipaul’s 1st book on India was ’ An Area of Darkness’ - based on his visits to the country in period between 1955-1965 , when India was under Nehru. It painted a very bleak picture of India. Those were days when Indian leaders used to talk big about non-alignment but go with a begging bowl to US for basic food aid . He describes how independence held no meaning for majority of Indians as it only meant that the white babus were now replaced by the brown babus.

Then came ’India: A wounded civilisation’..set in the Indira Gandhi era of the 1970s. Once again , one gets the feeling about India being a doomed state , although slightly improved from the previous book. Here Naipaul deliberates on the utter hypocrisy of the followers of Gandhi and Gandhism. About how non-violence and satyagraha were mere euphemisms for cowardice and inaction. About how and why it was so easy to satisfy Indians , easier to conquer and enslave them.


The last book of the trilogy was ’India :A Million Mutinies Now’. Set in the early days of the period following the economic reforms of 1991 , Naipaul finally sees hope for India. He sees a country shedding off the baggage of the past and moving forward , and yet held back by the parasitic system imposed on it by its rulers.


Naipaul is brilliant and honest in his observations. Tells it like he sees it. It would be interesting to have a 4th book on today’s India from him , health permitting.

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