India: Injured Civilization

Author: V.S. Naipaul
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: In 1975, shortly before and after Indira Gandhi's declaration of "Emergency," Naipaul revisited the ambiguous homeland of India. Unlike the shock, anger, shame, and contempt he felt in A House for Mr. Biswas (The Darker Nations), this time he felt his journey "could not be just about seeing the sights." Beneath the wounded reality, he saw India as a product shaped by its colonial history, thousands of years of religious and cultural traditions, the caste system, and Gandhiism. As a conquered nation, India's "intellectual civilization had become parasitic," leading to a lack of creativity, intellectual exhaustion, and an inability to defend itself after independence—a country already defeated long ago. On this visit, Naipaul invested in India and Indian culture a more complex blend of reason and emotion. Sharp satire gave way to somber, even tragic, analysis and description. The dilemmas of the ancient nation were laid bare, yet the modern state failed to find a point of rebirth. Naipaul's predicament is India's predicament, and ours as well. This book is stirring, but it also proves that a novelist like Naipaul can point out problems more quickly and effectively than a team of World Bank economists and various experts.