India: A Million Mutinies Now

The country of India is of sufficient importance to all of us today that there is a real need for resources to help us develop a greater understanding, whether we are a traveler, business person working with India, or simply one interested in becoming more informed, such as myself. I don't expect that to be accomplished by only one book, so the challenge is to select a couple of volumes which together can do the job. For myself, this book is one that I have selected to help my own understanding of India.India: A Million Mutinies Now was originally published in 1990, and this edition brings it back into availability, with a new preface by the author. It is the third volume of a trilogy written by Naipaul on India, the first two being  An Area of Darkness , and  India: A Wounded Civilization . It does date back 20 years, and for that reason does not take into account the many developments and changes in India since that time, so if you must have something that reflects today's India in all respects, this may fall short in some ways.Author V. S. Naipaul (2001 Nobel Prize in Literature) is acclaimed both for his fiction and non-fiction. He was born in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago, to parents of Indian descent. In this book, he describes India through a series of stories covering people from many castes and different backgrounds. As these various individuals stories are told, and as you begin to grasp how they deal with the day-to-day problems of living in an overcrouded country, and surviving within the caste system still in place, you find that your understanding of India is beginning to come together. It is a long book (500+ pages), full of interesting vignettes and covering a very wide variety of individuals from all walks of Indian life.If you are considering purchase of this book, then I would also refer you to the Amazon comments to the earlier 1990 edition ( India: A Million Mutinies Now ), which remain valid for this new printing. As alternates or supplements to this book, I would also suggest  India: A Portrait , recently issued, and I am sure that there are many others. I will continue to add to this review if I do come across other books that I feel should also be mentioned.

Nobel prize winner V.S. Naipaul's masterpiece on India is a must-read for any Westerner seeking a deeper understanding of India. Naipaul tells the story of this incredibly complex country person by person, through in-depth interviews of his subjects not on politics, culture or religion but on their personal lives. Naipaul tells the stories of a wide range of characters--a secretary to a prominent businessman, members of the Bombay underworld, a Marxist rebel. He tells the story of Amir, the descendant of the Raja of Mahmudabad, now living in the palace his ancestors had gotten from the British, lost after Partition, and regained after he became a successful Muslim politician in a Hindu area. And the story of Kakusthan, a modern man who returned to tradition and the life of a pure Brahmin, in a ghetto surrounded by a Muslim neighborhood. And the story of Ashok, who rejected an arranged marriage, managed to break into marketing as a career, and now struggled with the decline of the genteel, Anglo business world he had grown up in. Naipaul's great talent is in ferreting out the details of everyday life--what his people ate, wore, above all where they lived--often in tiny 10' by 10' rooms with wife and children. One comes away with a great appreciation of the notion of caste, so embedded in the society and culture for religious and non-religious alike. One also begins to appreciate what a struggle life in India is for everyone, especially those who live in cities. This book is full of stories of struggle--against tradition, to preserve tradition, between castes, between Hindu and Muslim--and of more down to earth struggles--to find a job, to find housing, to choose a career. Unfortunately Naipaul wasn't able to interview women with the ease he interviewed men--not surprising in this traditional society--and women appear only as shadowy wives and mothers in the narrative. But a great book nevertheless.

I read this book before going to India. It was very helpful, especially trying to understand all of the group interactions, religious points of view and government corruptions. Probably being written by an ethnically Indian person, but one who had not grown up in India gave more insights for an outsider.

Good description and service.

Another book by Naipaul - who is ever critical of India and her people. Read it page by page, as his insights are important, as he seeks truth... Arrived in good condition and swiftly. Thank you.

An fascinating dive into the complexities of caste system and difficulty of truly understanding India. Enthralling reading correcting many of the old colonial misconceptions and opening up India and its people.

Great. An optimistic though dated book.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Not even for a single instance I found it boring. Right from the beginning it catches your attention and keeps it till the end. The India which I never knew I came to know about through this book. A must read for all serious Indian thinkers.

By a writer at the height of his powers. I read this before the first book in the India trilogy, “An Area of Darkness”. Quite amazingly, his writing/narrative style didn’t change over a period of thirty years.

Overall satisfied

A perfect book to know India!

gr8