The Indian Trilogy

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Didion, Joan (12 June 1980). "Without Regret or Hope". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 8 September 2005. In his 1998 non-fiction book Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples, Naipaul argued that Islam is a form of Arab imperialism that destroys other cultures. [119] [120] Naipaul moved to London, where he reluctantly accepted shelter in the flat of a cousin. Pat, who had won a scholarship for further studies at the University of Birmingham, moved out of her parents' flat to independent lodgings where Naipaul could visit her. For the remainder of 1954, Naipaul exhibited behaviour that tried the patience of those closest to him. He denounced Trinidad and Trinidadians; he castigated the British who he felt had taken him out of Trinidad but left him without opportunity; he took refuge in illness, but when help was offered, he rebuffed it. He was increasingly dependent on Pat, who remained loyal, offering him money, practical advice, encouragement, and rebuke. [40] At "Kenya Day," Leipzig, 1960, Milton Obote, centre, later PM of Uganda, demanded the release of Jomo Kenyatta, the Kenyan nationalist. In 1966 and 1967, Obote would depose all the Ugandan kings, including the Kabaka of Buganda.

Rosen & Tejpal 1998: "Actually, I hated Oxford. I hate those degrees and I hate all those ideas of universities. I was far too well prepared for it. I was far more intelligent than most of the people in my college or in my course. I am not boasting, you know well—time has proved all these things. In a way, I had prepared too much for the outer world; there was a kind of solitude and despair, really, at Oxford. I wouldn't wish anyone to go through it.." French 2008, pp.208–209: (caption) Above left: "Vidia with his glamorous sisters, ... Long gone were the days of covered heads and traditional dress for Indian women in Trinidad. Above right: Ma (Naipaul's mother) in heels with an Oxford-returned Vidia, 1956." The first chapter of the 3rd section of the book opens with one of the most scathing critiques of Indian art and literature that I have ever read, and the author manages to make a point that I myself had been wondering about for some time now. Why exactly is it that India has not produced any literature worth a note? The answer? : Indians are simply incapable of any sort of sustained rebellion. The novel is the product of an Enlightenment-era mentality, and is thus inherently rebellious. This project does not conjoin with the Indian's eternal passivity. What Indians can and do offer in plenty are fables. This was such an obvious and stunning insight that I could not believe how valid it was, and how relevant it is even to the unmentionable output of our film industry. In a small hotel in Kashmir, a group of devotees accompanying a guru is described with biting wit, and it seems cruel, but not untrue. In Chennai, at the theosophical society a man is giving an important-sounding speech about occult and Annie Basant, and Naipaul tells us: two men in the audience were dozing. His curiosity about the Aurobindo Ashram takes him to Pondicherry. He learns that Mother rarely gives darshan and buys a booklet to learn more, and then he decides to share an information which is hilarious. In one of the question-answer sessions, Aurobindo explained to a devotee that Mother was not really angry at him, but was merely concentrating, which appeared as displeasure to the devotee. Naipaul reads "an occasional impatience" in Aurobindo's response. The idea of super-consciousness (or whatever the west is looking for in the east) is ridiculed. It can make us feel bad if we allow it to. It is a comedy at one level. Apart from his need for a clear gaze and prose, he is a caricaturist too. With many West Indian writers now active in England, Caribbean Voices was judged to have achieved its purpose and slated to terminate in August 1958. [53] Naipaul's relations with his BBC employers began to fray. Despite three years of hosting the program and three completed novels, he had been unable to make the transition to mainstream BBC programming. He claimed later that he was told those jobs were reserved for Europeans. [54] In July 1958, after arriving late for a program, Naipaul was reprimanded by the producers, and, in his words, "broke with the BBC." [55]

Publication Order of India Trilogy Books

Naipaul, V. S. (1983a). "Foreword". A House for Mr. Biswas with a new foreword by the author. New York: Alfred Knopf Inc. ISBN 978-0-679-44458-9. I had more than changed flats: for the first time in my life I enjoyed solitude and freedom in a house. And just as, in the novel, I was able to let myself go, so in the solitude of the quiet, friendly house in Streatham Hill I could let myself go. ... The two years spent on this novel in Streatham Hill remain the most consuming, the most fulfilled, the happiest years of my life. They were my Eden." [58]

Naipaul wrote a monthly "Letter from London" for the Illustrated Weekly of India from 1963 to 1965. Once in India, Naipaul embarks on a wide ranging cultural journey. Memories of his youth in Trinidad mingle with vignettes about bureaucrats, anglophiles, noveau riche, avante garde, poseurs and expatriates. Naipaul finds fear and contempt in the urban degradation and rural poverty. He describes the professional beggars, the sidewalk sleepers, outdoor defecators, holy fakirs, work shirkers and crooked merchants. How these threads are tied together is a mystery that only Naipaul can unravel. French 2008, p.96: "Peter Bayley had been impressed with Vidia's confidence, ... Vidia, then, was able to adjust and compose himself in a social, formal setting." Jane and Roche in Guerrillas also evoke the title character in Jane Eyre and her employer Rochester, whose deranged West Indian wife dies at the end of the novel while attempting to set fire to their house. How much disgust seeps through the lines describing the numbness of the poor, the condition of the infrastructure, completely disregarding that he's in a country that has basically been bled out for its resources for the last few centuries.

Nixon, Rob (1992). London Calling: V. S. Naipaul, Postcolonial Mandarin. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-536196-4 . Retrieved 19 September 2013. French 2008, p.55a: "Hinduism had regulations on all things: clothing, ritual pollution, caste distinction, bodily functions, diet." Fouad Ajami rejected the central thesis of Naipaul's 1998 book Beyond Belief, that Islam is a form of Arab imperialism that destroys other cultures. He pointed to the diversity of Islamic practices across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. [120] Awards and recognition [ edit ] Naipaul, Shiva (1986). "Brothers". An Unfinished Journey. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-11943-3.

Naipaul's brother, Shiva Naipaul, was a novelist and journalist. Shiva died in 1985 at the age of 40. [127] I’d read Naipaul's India Trilogy when I was in my late teens and at that young age, it did fill me up with profound hatred for the writer who in my opinion was spewing venom against my beloved country. Naipaul and Nirad Chaudhary were the two literary villains I grew up with, though my impression of Nirad Chaudhary being utterly devoid of depth, remained the same but as I grew older, I started to admire the faculty of observation Naipaul was gifted with and also by his fearlessness to write exactly what he observed. When I heard the news of Naipaul’s demise, I decided to reread his India Trilogy as a tribute to the great writer. Naipaul died in late summer this year and I bought these books on the day of his demise but I could not start the trilogy till November, but finally have been able to complete it now.As his journey progressed, for it was a journey on several levels, he became, if not more emotionally involved, at least interested. Can't put my finger on it, but I was so willing for the book to just end that I sped up the narration to 1.25x (I rarely tinker with those settings). To some extent it was Vance's narration, which is excellent for novels, but perhaps a bit "dramatic" here? However, I'm going to assign most of the issue to the underlying text, too much fault-finding I suppose. There were scenes that should've been funny, but just weren't. If you're familiar with Paul Theroux, it's similar to him at his crankiest.

The freelancers' room was like a club: chat, movement, the separate anxieties of young or youngish men below the passing fellowship of the room. That was the atmosphere I was writing in. That was the atmosphere I gave to Bogart's Port of Spain street. Partly for the sake of speed, and partly because my memory or imagination couldn't rise to it, I had given his servant room hardly any furniture: the Langham room itself was barely furnished. And I benefited from the fellowship of the room that afternoon. Without that fellowship, without the response of the three men who read the story, I might not have wanted to go on with what I had begun." French 2008, pp.32–33: "The idyll could not last. In 1940, Seepersad and Droapatie were told by Nanie that they would be moving to a new family commune at a place called Petite valley. ... In 1943, Seepersad could stand it no longer at Petit Valley and the Naipaul family moved in desperation to 17 Luis Street. Singh, Bijender, ed. (2018). V.S. Naipaul: A Critical Evaluation. New Delhi: Pacific Books International.Naipaul himself, btw. admits to his early harshness in the third part of the trilogy. Visiting India in the 90s he is astonished at the leaps the country made technologically, in infrastructure and in science. And towards the end he does reflect a lot on his inner struggles as part of the diaspora having affected his early impressions and judgements of India significantly. He realizes that the damage of hundreds of years of colonialism couldn't be undone just in a few decades. India needed time to recover, and still does, but it's on its way. Naipaul died at his home in London on 11 August 2018. [126] Before dying he read and discussed Lord Tennyson's poem Crossing the Bar with those at his bedside. [128] His funeral took place at Kensal Green Cemetery.