David Davidar
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, pbk, $37
Review by Charmian Smith
Folllowing his acclaimed novel The House of Blue Mangos, Davidar has produced another perceptive and moving book about modern India.
In this one he looks at fundamentalism and what drives people to take a stand, rioting, destroying and killing in the name of religion - a topical theme around the world, not only in India.
Vijay, an unlikely hero, is unemployed and suffocating in a small town when a family servant is recruited by a fundamentalist association. His father persuades him to write an article about it, which is finally accepted by a small Bombay publication, The Indian Secularist, headed by the remarkable, kindly Mr Sorabjee.
Vijay is offered a job, and, after an incident with Hindu rioters in Bombay, is sent to a small town in the Nilgiri Hills to recover. However, the maturing Vijay finds religious unrest has infiltrated here too, at the Tower of God, a small Christian shrine on top of a mountain that Hindu fundamentalists want to reclaim.
He meets an assortment of colourful characters, among them a fundamentalist businessman who has a very plausible argument for his fundamentalism, a retired colonel obsessed with growing prize fuchsias, and the elusive Noah, who lives in a cemetery, secretly grows the best fuchsias of all and quotes Rimbaud, but is ostracised by the local elite.
The discord comes to a head in a tragic, but also strangely satisfying conclusion.
The ‘‘emperors'' of the title, which is also the title of a book Mr Sorabjee has written, are the Buddhist Ashoka (290-232BC), the Muslim Akbar (1542-1605) and the Hindu Gandhi (1869-1948), all of whom promoted religious freedom and tolerance while continuing to espouse their own religion. Mr Sorabjee believes India needs a new, tolerant leader who combines the talents of these three.
Davidar tells a good story, building his characters, painting his setting, weaving his plots, and building the tension. It's a book that's hard to put down.
- Charmian Smith is ODT book review editor.
