Review: An Area of Darkeness by V.S.Naipaul

Few books have been as incriminating about India and Indians. From the moment of his arrival in Bombay, anything and everything seems to upset him. Sir Vidia's first travelogue in his ancestral land is an honest and no-holds-barred account of what he saw in India. He is utterly distressed by everything about India, from the babu-dom of Bombay to the orange robed sadhus of Benares, from the unethical businessman to the prostrating beggars.

Hindu philosophy preaches detachment from life and in turn leads to fatality. This fatality offers a certain disconnect from everyday life. Hence everyone fulfills only his duty. A businessman is expected to make money, even by dishonesty. A stenographer is expected to take notes, but not to type. In Trinidad Naipaul was aware of his caste but he is surprised by the Indian obsession with caste and purity. It is to the caste system, he attributes this sense of duty and withdrawal.

Indians, he argues, are a people without a sense of history or even reality. The tales are timeless and the ruins are everywhere. He sees India as a country, where political power has always been in the hands of a foreign military power. Reality is so complicated and harsh that, the nation became more archaic and withdrew from any responsibility of governing itself. He is surprised at the very Indian obliviousness to poverty and basic lack of hygiene in public spaces.

Naipaul's visits to India happen at curious times. His first visit coincided with the China war of 1962, his second with the Emergency of 1975 and his third during the late 1980s which came before an economic crisis. An Area of Darkness is a dark, brutal, yet honest account of India.