India

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View books by V.S. Naipaul.

A decent read - Rated
This is a good book if you just want to read an account of a man going back to India during a chaotic time in it's modern history (late 1980s), trying to understand what on earth is going on. Unlike visits in previous decades, Naipaul is quite upbeat about India on this trip and events appear to have vindicated his optimism. There are some great little stories with people all around the Union of Indian states that must resonate with many readers of subcontinent origin. Naipaul is a great travel writer but he does seem to have a major axe to grind against Islam, thinking that the good old muslim-free days of India were nothing but a peaceful utopia. Ironically similar to claims made by advocates of the Caliphate. He also has some strange ideas about Sikhism; crediting it as an example of dissent within Hinduism but blaming it's emergence on Muslim excesses in North India. If you manage to look beyond his personal biases his books make easy reading and are a nice change from those that never go below the surface.

Look down at India ..The whole world is looking up - Rated
V S Naipaul is one of the best writers that I have known. However being of Asian origin , I feel that he has a tendency to 'look down' on his ancestry. HEY Mr Naipaul ! If You're listening or come across this web page...take note..u have an Indian name and u look like an Indian..be proud of it ! All the world's leaders are queuing at India's doorstep even though it may have been used as a toilet by some passer-by....hope it wasn't you

Tremendous introduction to India - Rated
This is an excellent and thoughtful introduction to what India means to its population of Jains, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others: the book comprises extended conversations with people the author met in his travels round India and his largely generous and non-judgemental reflections upon them, as he make senses of what he hears and sees and learns.

The only pieces I felt slightly unsure about were those (admittedly fascinating but somewhat negative) chapters about Sikhs: perhaps these reflect the time at which the book was written (it was published first in 1988).

I'ld recommend this unreservedly to anyone interested in the sub-Continent.

Must read for India rediscoverers - Rated
This book was written during the political and social upheaval of late eighties India.Naipaul has been extremely successful in interpreting those changing times in Indian history. Naipaul has magnificently deciphered the role of class, caste, religion,and region in making of a new and stronger India. Contrary to belief this book establishes the argument that diversity is this new India's biggest srength and perhaps a major cause of democratic success. This is a book for any one who wants to get deeper into knowing India. It is not a backpacker's account of mysticism of India.

Word of mouth - Rated
"India" describes Naipaul's anti-clockwise journey around the metropoles of India in 1988, from Bombay to Srinagar via Bangalore, Madras, Calcutta, Delhi and Amritsar. His theme is that India, seen from the distance of his Trinadadian childhood, appeared as a single, unified entity. Close-up in 1988, however, he saw how it decomposes into a collage of religions, castes and classes. That diversity, for Naipaul, is India's strength. He sees each social group's struggle for security as the motor of India economic, political and social advances since the 1960s.

Reading between the lines, however, you can tell that Naipaul has mixed feelings about India. Apart from the revulsion at the filth and decay, he can not hide his despair of the Indian character. He sees Indians as self-destructive, always letting unnecessary foibles and squabbles obstruct progress. For Naipaul the class-warriors of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu have replaced a wise culture with a wasteland, the self-regarding idleness of Bengalis has turned Calcutta into a sewer and the Sikhs of Northwest India are persecuted because, deep down, that is their raison d'être.

It's a point of view.

The format of "India" is almost oral history or anthropology. He lets Indians, mostly middle- and upper-class, tell the stories of their lives. Gradually these tales coalesce in the reader's mind and Naipaul's collage of caste, class and ethnicity emerges. The language is clear and engaging; it is hard to imagine a more entertaining introduction to the social processes at work in modern India. Naipaul's own viewpoint emerges gradually between the lines. And he is honest about his own place in the book, not glamorising his trip with chichi exoticism like your average poncey travel-writer, but just making himself a man who travels from hotel to hotel and talks to Indians.