25  India – Rich like us – Nayantara Sahgal (Score 7.75)

I was pleased to note that my copy of this book had travelled from Delhi, The New Book Depot. Google shows this to be located in a multi-storey block in Connaught Place.

We learn immediately that India is in trouble. There has been a clamp-down, the so-called “Emergency” introduced by the President at the instigation of the Prime Minister, and dissidents are being jailed (see also the article at Wikipedia). There is no opposition. One person is in complete charge, albeit with a Cabinet and a Parliament. This reads like a dictatorship.

Mr Neumann is attending a meeting. He is clearly not from the UK since “he was no expert at shades of English”. He is the representative of some non-Indian company which sees a vast market in India for its products, with the clamp-down making things easier for them.

Indian regulations forbid importing any product which is, or can be, made in India. This does not seem to worry the Indian who is meeting Mr Neumann. He has the ear of senior politicians and both they and he stand to make a considerable sum of money if more senior individuals also “forget” the regulations.

There is a slight schism within the family which is entertaining Neumann later. The mother is a Cockney, married to an Indian who built his wealth honestly, from scratch, with a mule train running to and from Tibet. The second generation seem to be nouveaux-riche who would take any opportunity offered, honest or not, and have no feeling for their staff.

Neumann seems to be an American since his business is “controlled by men in skyscrapers”, a world away from where he is at present.

The mother is clearly not happy with the way in which people have been treated when their land has been taken from them, with no compensation, to build the factories for the work being discussed over dinner. No authority has been given for this, nor is any likely to be given. Bribery and corruption are endemic at all levels of the “Emergency Government”.

Other aspects of government seem to be equally unusual. There is forced sterilisation of men to reduce the size of families. This seems like Nazi Germany.

From page 131 there is a document, written in 1915 by the grandfather of Sonali, an honest woman who has been sacked from a government position as a result of refusing to turn a blind eye. She keeps quiet out of fear for her life.

The document discusses induction of poor untrained Indian farmers into the army to fight for the Raj, and the continuing existence of “sati”, burning alive of a widow after the death of her husband, even after the passing of several laws to ban it. Sinali’s great-grandmother was murdered by her dead husband’s relations by burning her alive by “sati” despite her struggles and escapes from the flames. This was done so that the family could take over the husband’s property and assets. This was very common.

In fact, we have a similar occurrence near the end of the book when the wife of a man who is in a coma is murdered at the instigation of his son by an earlier wife so that he can continue milking his father’s funds even before he dies.

I learned a lot about modern India from this book. I learned, especially, that much of what I thought I knew was lies and propaganda, issued on BBC radio and television, and shown in cinema newsreels. I must presume that this was sent by the Indian authorities to hide the Prime Minister’s actions. Why, in those days, would the BBC query any such information from the appropriate authorities?

I scored this book at 8.0.