I am a big fan of Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul and this admiration does not come without any reason. I have read his many books - 'India: A Million Mutinies Now', 'Among the believers - An Islamic journey' and 'An Area of Darkness' and found them as concentrated doses of a very high level intellect.His books make a direct connect.
'An Area of Darkness' is a commentary on India of our grandparents i.e. of 1960s. India, that was struggling to stand on her feet and people who were fighting to breathe air of a country after centuries of foreign subjugation. A country without any native aristocracy (specially in northern plains) for centuries always mimicked the traits of the foreign conquerors. First India mimicked the dress, language and culture of Turks, followed by Mughals and in the last India got completely transformed in the mimicry of British. It can be seen in clubs, golf courses, army mess etc. Even in current era we love to mimic the Americans. No civilization was as ill-prepared to face invasions, no civilization was as prepared for plunder and destruction. India fails to learn from her own agonies and from her own slavery perhaps it has much to with the fatalist attitude conditioned in the minds of its millions over a period of many centuries.
Whenever India gets time for revival, she gets into the ancient habit of reviving the past, instead of adding new glories to the glorious civilization of the old. What is our contribution to the achievements of our ancestors, its cipher! We love to replicate them most often blindly. In India things never get abolished, they only get absorbed in the collective consciousness of the millions.
Naipaul covers his experience of Indian bureaucracy in a subtle humorous way and a lot remains unchanged even today. His coverage of 'Amarnath Yatra' is too realistic and his stay in Srinagar hotel is too dramatic. He also exposes the ugly stereotypes that some north Indians have of south Indians. He also covers open defecation , the filth, the poverty with a pure mind of an unbiased critic.
Naipaul covers his experience of Indian bureaucracy in a subtle humorous way and a lot remains unchanged even today. His coverage of 'Amarnath Yatra' is too realistic and his stay in Srinagar hotel is too dramatic. He also exposes the ugly stereotypes that some north Indians have of south Indians. He also covers open defecation , the filth, the poverty with a pure mind of an unbiased critic.
This book is the first of many books written by Naipaul on India. He came from England/Trinidad to visit country of his ancestors in 1962 with high hopes but left it calling it 'An Area of darkness'. In these 53 years we have not achieved much and if another Naipaul visits India now, his conclusions wont be much different.
Highly Recommended (8/10)
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