Chandra's writing, like Salman Rushdie's can be classified as both 'magical realist' and as 'postcolonial'. Red Earth and Pouring Rain is a text that deals with India's colonial past, with British attitudes towards India and with India's and Indians' responses. It is also about identity, almost by definition a central concern of post-colonial literature. References to religion are scattered throughout the book and some knowledge of Hinduism may help readers to decipher the plot. For example, on p 12 we read about thirty-three million, three hundred and thirty-three thousand and three hundred and thirty three gods. On p 14, we read that 'karma and dharma, those … mechanical laws' are 'sewn into the great fabric of the cosmos … mysterious in their functioning'. Page 27 has a reference to Valmiki and Vyasa, the narrators of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Page 79 lists the four ages, krta-yuga, treta-yuga, dvapar-yuga and kali-yuga; 'many universes exist beside each other, each with its own Brahma; this is the wheel, immense, beyond the grasp of conception'. Page 103 mentions Radha and Krishna 'the cowherd, sweet limbed and faithful'. Page 121 mentions Vishnu as 'half-man, half-lion' (Vishnu as Narasimha, his fourth avatar. Page 276 has 'Rama protect us', pages 366 - 367 return to the Krishna story. I refer to other religious content below. Page 512 says, 'Dharma … is the friend of men and women … with us in our streets'. As the novel proceeds, a lot of the religious and political history of India is told through a series of cameo essays, each headed 'What Really Happened'.

The text qualifies as 'magical realism' because reality and fantasy merge in the telling of the story. Chandra's inspiration in part comes from the Arabian Nights, since his narrative, as does that text begins with a frame story (p 24). In the Nights, Scheherazade tells a story each night, which she is careful not to end before the punch line, so that the king will keep her alive to finish off her story. In Red Earth and Pouring Rain a similar device is used to allow 'a story to be told'. Also, the audience must remain entertained (p 17). Other cameo essays, between chapters, show us how the ever-larger audience becomes itself involved in the proceedings, which get printed and distributed, sometimes in embellished versions (p 190). Hearers argue about the accuracy of the stories; 'The antagonists were the retired head of the Sanskrit Department at Janakpur University and a visiting biologist from Calcutta' (p 265). Police permission for the gathering had to be obtained: 'They will even provide crowd control, and a lost-and-found booth' (p 271). Eventually, television cameras arrive (p 373). Sexual content in both of the storytellers' material was another point of debate among the crowd: 'the far-left parties object to the sensationalization and falsification of history; and the pernicious Western influences on our young. Everyone objects to the sex, except the audience' (p 373). One listener has an MA in Colonial Literature.

The frame tale (pp 25 - 42) introduces De Boigne, a French soldier of fortune who embroiled himself in 'the boiling confusion of the clans and states' of India and amassed a great fortune. The real De Boigne, Count Benoît de Boigne 1751 - June 21, 1830, was a French adventuter in India who became head of ten battalions on behalf of the powerful Maharajah of Gwalior, Mahadji Sindhia (d. 1794) who controlled much of North India, including Delhi where technically Shah Alam II (1728-1806) was Mughal Emperor. It is said that on the Maharajah's death, the Count could have made himself ruler of India but instead remained loyal to Mahadji's successor, his grand-nephew Daulat Rao Sindhia (1779–1827). In more recent years, three generations of the Sindhia family have served in the Indian Parliament. In the novel, De Boigne's soldiers become the feared Chiraj Fauj (p 40). The main narrator is a Monkey called Sanjay, although when he gets tried of speaking Abhay, the young Indian graduate of a North American College, takes over. It was Abhay who, recently returned home, had shot the old monkey for annoying him, much to his parents' horror. We read, 'there is a Hanuman temple not five minutes from here; if they find out they'll start a riot' (p 7). However, the shock of the shot revived Sanjay's memory of his previous human existence and magically he finds that he can communicate with Abhay and Abhay's family by typing on an old machine. Just as Sanjay starts to enjoy human intercourse again, Yama the God of the Dead appears and tells him that his time is up. He cries out to Hanuman, 'best of monkeys, the most loyal of friends … the protector of poets, for help' (p 16). Hanuman would live, we are told, 'as long as men and women tell his story (p 16). Hanuman, of course, features in the Ramayana where he fights by Ramas' side against Ravana. Not only is Sanjay a monkey but he had been a poet in his previous life, or at least a would-be-poet (see p 390). Ganesha also appears (p 69) and uses his powers to broadcast the storytelling from the roof of the house to the gathering that now congregates regularly outside. 'There was a story to be told', says the Son of Shiva, so 'naturally I came'. Yama agrees to stay his hand as long as Sanjay can retain the audience's interest, or rather as long as their interest is retained; 'a story', says Hanuman, 'is what the contract calls for …. Somebody else could do the storytelling' (p 44).

Two stories are woven through the text. First, Sanjay's, second, Abhay's. Perhaps only the bizarre situation links the two men and their stories yet there is some overlap. Both men struggle with their identities, as they do with the meaning and mystery of life itself. Sanjay's story is also the story of India's colonial experience. Abhay's story, about his time in the USA, is in some respects an 'East meets West story'. Once, he awakes in a motel to hear 'Gujerati, children's voices' and 'for one confused moment' he thinks he is back in India' (p 355). After telling his first 'story', Abhay avoids 'his parents eyes' because it had included a reference to sleeping with a girl called Kate, 'we … still did sometimes, although we didn’t need to be as drunk as we used to…' (p 50). Twice we hear him relate the claim, made by others, that the British had 'done good in India'. On page 53 we are told about 'a fellow named Lin' who talked 'about Asian revolutions. The British, he was saying, changed India for the better with their efficient railroads and efficient administration and so on'. Later, he meets Amanda's father (she is his new his girlfriend) who regards himself as an authority on the "Mutiny' and:

As we see in the text, Sanjay had been a prime mover behind and during the 'Mutiny'. He had wanted to cleanse India of the pollution of the British. We have Sanjay and his cook, Sunil, sending messages to each outpost of Indian resistance hidden in chappatis (p 462). We have the Delhi, Lucknow and Meerut uprisings; 'the Thirty-third were put in chains in Meerut because they refused to use the new cartridge' that rumor said was greased with beef and pork fat (p 469). Then we read that 'everything is red now' and that Victoria was to declare herself Empress of India (p 479). The 'Mutiny' (1857) was a critical event in the history of British India. Before the uprising, the East India Company was primarily still a commercial enterprise and even though many of her officials may have had little regard for Indian culture they did not want to interfere very much (see below). Some had a high regard for Indian culture. Now, the British government assumed direct responsibility. Feeling that they had fought for and won India, the government started to impose British systems and institutions. However, the idea that British political systems were morally superior to those of traditional India is open to challenge. On the one hand, hereditary kingship was the norm in India but on the other hands ancient texts on rajniti specify that unless a social contract exists between king and people, with the king fulfilling obligations towards the people, he loses his right to rule. Public opinion, too, was expressed through influential councils (parishad, orsabha) (see Embree, Vol 1 p 238).

Towards the end of the novel, Amanda visits Abhay in India and tells him that she had been reading 'something about' him, 'about India, I mean'. She had actually read M. M Kaye's romantic novel, The Far Pavilions, Rudyard Kipling's Kim and E. M Forster's A Passage to India, all fine in many respects but also all written by English writers! They are also all works of fiction. Her trip to India was not a huge success and their parting was full of a sense of awkwardness:

The east-meets west experience can be disorienting. We can lose ourselves somewhere in the middle. See Abhay's description of his sense of meaninglessness: 'my self was a hard little point … spinning … in a hugeness of dark where there was no beginning, no end: no meaning' (p 536).

Sanjay's frame tale provides the background of his own magical birth, in which De Boigne played a role. Sanjay and his three brothers were born as a result of magical laddoos eaten by Janvi, a 'Rajput lady who had inexplicably become Skinner's wife' (p 132) and by her friend, Shanti Devi. Skinner was a British Captain in the service of the East India Company, which liked him because he won battles (p 129). In the novel, Skinner becomes Resident of Barrackpore in Bengal. However, Janvi had already set her heart on an Irish adventurer, George Thomas, also known as Jahaj Jung (see pp 117). Earlier, we learn all about Thomas' arrival in India, where he had jumped ship (p 85), as well as about his strange rescue by Guha of the Vehi. This is based on the remarkable story of the real George Thomas (1756-1892), a Quartermaster who deserted his ship in Madras to ermerge as the rajah from Tipperary. Magic appears here: 'Over the next few days I discovered that I seemed to somehow absorb nourishment from the air and the sunlight' (p 89). Thomas also became a soldier of fortune, fighting first for the Rajah of Balrampor (p 94).

Building up a fierce reputation (and gaining the honorary status of a kshatriya, p 102) Thomas moved on to other exploits. With his friend, Reinhardt, he entered the service of the famous, mysterious and beautiful Begum Sumroo, also known as the Witch of Sardhana. He became her lover; 'Making love with her was like dancing' (p 107). Then destiny took a strange twist. Instead of marrying Thomas, who would 'do for a lover', the Begum made Reinhardt her 'foreign king' (p 107). Thomas, 'embarrassed and ashamed … accepted employment under a series of aliases', until 'a succession of not very remunerative hirings as escort for traders' caravans' took him to Rajputana. There, he ended up as a palace guard. Then the East India Company attacked the city and Janvi became Skinner's wife. However, she resolves that though she will bear Skinner's daughters she will not bear his sons (p 135). Janvi then sends Skinner's deputy, Uday Singh, who was a former comrade in arms of Thomas', to find him. The actual Thomas did serve Begum Sumroo (died 1836), herself a real person of legendary repute. Begum Sumroo, or Farzani, is said to have risen from being a dance-girl to being a princess. Stories about her abound, and a play, The Rebel Courtesan - Begum Sumroo by Partap Sharma (2004). A convert to Catholicism from Islam, she married a Colonel Walter Reinhardt Sombre (a Swiss-German mercenary) and commanded a troop of some 3,000 European soldiers.

Uday catches up with Thomas at a town called Hansi, which Thomas is determined to capture and to rule over as rajah. The town is deserted except for an old man and his two lions, yet Thomas can not defeat the old man, with whom he fights in single combat. Thomas sends for Begum Sumroo's help. She arrives in Hansi. He tries again and again to beat the old man. Finally, Thomas asks him how he can be defeated. The old man replies that the town can only be taken by a woman (p 155). Thomas is getting ready to dress up in women's clothes, when Uday arrives. Thomas tells him that although he thinks he understands 'about the sons' he 'really can't do anything about it at this moment' (p 156). Then he thinks, perhaps the old man can help. Magic follows. The old man prepares five laddoos (flour, sugar, oil) and asks Thomas to cut himself so that some of his blood drips into each laddoo. These are to be given to Janvi, 'and she will have sons'. No one else should touch them. As it happens, Begum Sumroo touches them, as does De Boigne (who crumbles one in his hand) when Uday crosses his path on his return journey (p 160). The two Brahmans in Barrackpore also touch them, so the children have multiple parents. The real Skinner family lies behind this fictional one; Colonel James Skinner,C.B. (1778-1841) was founder of the renowned Skinner's Horse regiment. Also known as 'Sikander Sahib'), he was the son of a Scottish Captain, Hercules and of a Rajput lady. James' sons, also by an Indian wife, were James (1808-61) and Hercules (1814-1866), while his own brother, Robert (c.1783-1821) was also a Major in Skinner's Horse. James Skinner left a considerable fortune to his heirs.

Janvi has three sons: the first is John; the second is Sikander; the third Robert (known as Chotta). . She gives one laddoo to Shanti Devi, who has a son called Sanjay. Little is heard of John, who becomes a sailor, 'a peculiar fellow. He was on ships all his life. Literally, that is' (p 506). Sanjay's 'parents' decide immediately that he will be a poet (p 144). Each of the children's future, it seems, was predetermined somehow. Also, there is a magical quality about each of them. Sikander and Chotta can make themselves invisible (p 204) while Sanjay has the ability to hear complete sounds, even as a child. Although he could not understand what he heard, later he was able to remember whole sentences and to reconstruct what had been said, even in English. Sikander (Alexander) was always going to be a soldier. Janvi said, after John's birth, 'The next one will be my Sikander' (p 143).

There are lots of references to Alexander in the novel. Sanjay's 'father', Arun and uncle, Ram Mohan, often contemplated 'the role of this Alexander, Sikander, in history' (p 129). They write a play about Alexander, in which (p 222 - 226) he meets a Sadhu under a tree. They were especially proud of this dialogue but had to delete it because, 'the Company men said that Sikander would have asked more penetrating questions about philosophy and metaphysics'. Arun calls Alexander 'the scourge of the earth', though some 'think of him as a god' (p 133). Between the branches of a peepul tree, there is a huge knotted rope. This, says Ram Mohan, was like one that Sikander had once untied, yet 'Even if he could cut it, if he did cut it, how could he bear to? Look at the thing … it is a thing of profundity' (p 131).

Skinner starts to support the cause of Christian evangelization, despite the company ban on missionary activity. He does so by offering hospitality and financial support as well as by lobbying for a change of company policy (see p 192 and 198). This resembles Charles Grant (1746 - 1823. As a Company official in India, then as a Director in London, where he also sat in Parliament, Grant did much to introduce the 'pious clause' in the 1813 Charter. This opened up India to Christian missions. Skinner became the Reverend Sarthey's patron. Together, they ask the two Brahmans, Arun and Ram Mohan, to get them copies of the Veda, which he called 'the Beds' (p 200). Before this episode, we overhear (through Sanjay) Sarthey complaining of the audacity of an Indian who had dared to question India's dire need of moral and spiritual help; 'Indian theology has as elevated a conception of God as in Christianity and equally lofty ethical conceptions' (p 193). Furthermore, intercourse between India and Britain would be of more benefit to Britain (p 194). Sarthey disagreed. He represented Hindu theology as 'that collection of libertinism, oppression, superstition and folly that masquerades as a religion' (p 198). Hindu gods were false. India's civilization was in decay (p 199; 228). The British were happy to think that India's past had been great, since the notion that the Aryans who are said to have entered India around about 1,500 BCE were actually Europeans allowed them to claim that ancient heritage as their own.

Smarthey is collecting information for his book, The Manners, Customs and Rituals of the Natives of Hindustan; Being Chiefly an Account of the Journeys of a Christian Through the Lands of the Hindoo.. This sounds rather like Grant's Observations on the State of Society Among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain (1812). Sarthey, though, may also resemble William Ward (1769 - 1823), the Baptist missionary who gained a reputation as an Orientalist and wrote A View of the History, Literature and Mythology of the Hindoos (1806). Grant was a friend of Ward. It was in order to do research for his book that Sarthey asked Arun and Ram Mohan to get him a copy of the Vedas. However, they are very reluctant to do this, since only 'twice born'' are able to study them. Instead, as they will surely have to give him something, they set about writing a text from memory. Sanjay, who already has a way with words, is conscripted to write this down, 'He has known how to write without being taught, and Sanskrit without a singe lesson' (p 201; see also p 234). First, Sanjay undergoes the sacred thread (upnayana) ceremony (described pages 202 - 203) so that he can undergo this task. In this section, pp 251 - 252, there is a discussion of Kapila's Samkhya, 'without the "subjective" there would be no "objective", and without the "objective" there would be no "subjective."' 'Dharma', we read, 'is that which is indicated - by means of the Vedas - as conducive to the highest good'. On p 244 we read of the 'Shilpa-sutra', of the 'commentaries of Patanjali' and of the 'principles of dramatics as enenciated by Bharata', the great sage who recorded the texts on dance and art as revealed by Shiva and Parvarti.

One day, Sanjay falls off their roof and lands next door, in the Residency garden, right on top of a buried image of Shiva, whose Trident pokes him in his head! (p 196). This left two holes there. People begin to tell him their secrets. He 'decided that perhaps it was the fact that the holes somehow suggested an extra pair of eyes ... that compelled confessions'. Unearthing this ancient image, Skinner and Sarthey plan to use it to loosen English 'purse strings'; Sarthey will tout this 'horrifying demon effigy' around from village to village as an example of 'the rot that lies under the surface of what is called civilization here' (p 199). Later, we hear Sarthey discussing such Hindu gods as Ganesh and Hanuman:

However, it is Janvi who really helps Skinner's mission of convincing the authorities to support the civilizing and christianizing task. She decides to go on pilgrimage to the Ganges, 'The scriptures say that Ganga is our mother' (p 219) and wants her children to accompany her. Skinner tries to dissuade her but she insists. In the end, she sets off with Mr. Sarthey and two of his companions 'to chaperone the whole affair' (p 220). Sanjay goes too. Before the party reaches the Ganges, Skinner sends his men to extract his daughters. They are to go to Calcutta 'to be educated in the best of environments' (p 254). Janvi objects. Skinner hands the girls over to 'two red-coated English cavalrymen' (p 255). Immediately, Janvi starts to build her own funeral pyre. She had decided to commit sati. Even Ram Mohan objects, when she claims scriptural authority, 'Padmani did it. The scriptures advise it'. 'What scriptures?' he asked, then demolished 'every text which could possibly support what she planned … For a Hindu, all scriptures are without meaning anyway' (p 256). Here, he sounds like his namesake, the Hindu reformer Ram Mohun Roy (1772 - 1833) who joined the Christian missionaries and Western moralists in opposing and banning sati. Janvi goes right ahead. Pages 258 - 9 describe her final rights; Sikander fulfilled the eldest son's role. On p 259, Sanjay first meets Yama, who tells him ' - sab lal ho jayega - everything will become red'. Then we read:

On the gender issue, the Europeans really thought that they could claim the moral high ground. Here, there is an amusing scene in the book when the three brothers (Sikander, Chotta and Sanjay) discover Skinner having sex with a bazaar prostitute, Amba. We hear Skinner telling her that he had 'become a soldier to take the Word to the world' (p 207). 'They all come here', the prostitute tells the children, 'here touch-this and don't touch that and untouchability and your caste and my people and I can't eat your food is all forgotten … Here anybody can touch anybody' (p 210). On the shelves of her house, Amba had numerous 'images of gods and goddesseses' (p 209).

After Janvi's death, Sikander is sent by Skinner to become an apprentice printer in Calcutta. Sanjay goes with him. Skinner says that as an Anglo-Indian, Sikander is an in-between, 'neither English, nor one of the others, and no one will let you in'. Therefore, he should start at the 'bottom, learn something that will survive in the world' (p 272). The printing press was owned by Markline, an Englishman but run by a Bengali, Ashutosh Sorkar. Sorkar is something of a nationalist. Sick and tired of having to print books denigrating Indian civilization, he had invented a code. In a book called, A Physical and Economic Survey of the Territories of East India, he inserted, 'The Company makes widows and famines and calls it peace'. In a book called Statistics Pertaining to the Growth of Rice and Wheat in the Bengal, he inserted a swear word (p 289). While the boys are working in the press, Sarthey's book arrives for reprinting, with a note from Markline ('highest priority and care' (p 302)). Markline subscribed to the moral upliftment view of Britain's role in India, 'We English rule in your country because we are sustained on a scientific diet, both bodily and intellectually. If you follow in our footsteps, you must abadon superstition' (p 307). In the book, Sanjay reads Sarthey's version of Janvi's death, which he describes as a 'senseless act of self-destruction'. 'Its not true, not true', he shouts (p 303). Markline starts to realize that some sort of code is being used, although he can't decipher it. However, the only way that Sanjay can avoid detection is by swallowing the print-letters, which gives him a new strength (p 315).

The boys abscond from the print shop. They decide to try their luck in Lucknow, where Sanjay can pursue his poetry and Sikander his ambition of becoming a soldier. In Lucknow, they are taken in by one of their own magical parents, the Begum Sumroo. Sikander 'learns the art of war' while Sanjay studies poetry with two teachers, one an Englishman called Hart, one a Muslim. Hart and the Muslim live in separate apartments in the same building but alternate their shared meals as English and as Indian evenings (food, dress). We learn that Hart has only a slight accent when speaking Urdu (p 377). Later, he is expelled from Lucknow as an 'undesirable' (p 452). Is Hart an example of an outsider who achieves an insider-like appreciation of another culture? Perhaps Thomas also qualifies in this respect.

In time, Sanjay earns some repute as a poet, while Sikander, fighting for the Marathas with the Chiraj Fauj becomes everything that a son of De Boigne and Thomas might be expected to become! Sanjay marries Gul Jahaan. She keeps getting pregnant. Tragically, her children are still born. They tried all the 'vaids, munshis, gurus and pilgrimages' to no avail. Then the couple learn of an English doctor, Dr Sarthey (the Reverend's son) who has a reputation for his brilliance. He had already written two books on the 'treatment of infectious diseases' and was now collecting data for a third book (p 405). Sanjay, who by now distrusts all Englishmen, is at first reluctant for Sarthey to treat his wife. Yet, after meeting Sarthey, he becomes strangely attracted to him. Despite himself, 'Sanjay could not dislike the Englishman: he was curious about everything' (p 407). Sarthey starts to use Sanjay as a translator. He and Gul Jahaan travel with the doctor's entourage (p 408). The baby is born but glows with an unnatural heat that burns the cot and everything and everyone that touches him (p 417). Gul Jahaan dies. Sarthey does some sort of experiment on the child, a boy. Sanjay discovers this, rescues his son and takes the child, now getting ever getting colder and colder, to Begum Sumroo (p 418). Sunil, his cook, accompanies him.

Meanwhile, we learn something about Sarthey's sexual practices. Once, Sanjay follows him, thinking he is on a sexual assignation (p 416). Instead, he sees Sarthey whipping himself. Sanjay then steals Sarthey's diary, in which we read about his boarding school experiences (pp 424 - 435). Being flogged, then flogging, appear prominently in these pages. When Sarthey discovers the theft, he tells Sanjay that 'no matter how well' he 'mouths English' he 'remained what [he] always [was]: a little unschooled savage' (p 347).

Eventually, the British defeat the Marathas and recruit Sikander (and Chotta) to fight for them (p 436). Sanjay now resolves that he will drive the English from India (p 438) but to do so he needs a boon from the Witch of Sardhana - he asks her how he can become strong, hard and immortal. She tells him to 'go find a mountaintop'. When he had finished, says Sanjay, all would be red. It was, since the British (who color their territory red on maps), won! (p 438). Sanjay went first to Hansi, where he took command of the remnant of Thomas' army, then north into the mountains. Here, he entered a cave, all alone. Yama appears. Sanjay tells Yama his wish. Yama agrees to grant this wish, provided Sanjay gives up whatever he holds most precious (p 442). He gives up his tongue. When Sanjay emerges from the cave, 32 years have passed and only Sunil is still waiting for him. However, Sanjay is very hard and very strong.

The section dealing with the uprising of 1857 follows, with Sanjay playing a leading role. He has to fight against Sikander, who, having eaten English salt, stays on their side. Eventually, at Hansi, they face each other and a battle of epic proportion follows. Sikander dies (p 467) but the English win the war. All becomes red. Sanjay is left all alone. Everyone else is dead. However, he has also sworn vengeance against Sarthey, who is now in London, a respected authority on India, a decorated member of British high society (he has been awarded the Companionship of the British Empire (p 485). Sanjay walks to England, through Persia, Egypt, gets a passage to Crete, then travels on to Rome (p 480). In London, he learns about Sarthey's reputation and reads Sarthey's books in the British Museum Reading Room (p 493). A serial murderer is on the loose in London, a madman (is this based on Jack the Ripper?). Sanjay is arrested under suspicion of being the murderer. He points a finger at Sarthey. The police investigate this allegation but observing Sarthey's house they see no one either entering it or leaving it (p 494), so how could Sarthey be the murderer? He was indeed the murderer; from his experiment on 'the child … who glowed' he had acquired the ability to fly and to live forever (p 489). How then can he be defeated? Sanjay, with a half-convinced policeman, succeeds, because of his own magical qualities, in confronting Sarthey. He cuts Sarthey's head off with a sword-stick. Sarthey's body immediately disappears, leaving only his head (p 501). The policeman, Abberline, asks 'what is this?' and Sanjay replies, 'he cannot die'.

Finally, Sanjay travels by ship back to India, learning en route the fate of his oldest brother. Arriving in Bomaby, he takes off his clothes and walks around like a naked Sadhu, which people think he is (p 507). Yama appears. He calls himself Sanjay's friend. Sanjay asks that he is reborn 'not as a human' but 'as an animal'. Yama grants him this wish. Sanjay sits, cross-legged. Rain falls on him. He remembers his 'childhood, his friends, his parents'. He also thinks abourt a young Indian student he had met in London, who had been trying to perfect his English. 'There was something trusting about his face, something innocent and straightforward, despite the stylish suit' (p 504). The young man was from Gujerat. Is this Gandhi, who was later to swap his dandy Western clothes for a simple dhoti? Gandhi helped to do what Sanjey failed to do, drive the English from India, although Gandhi's method was rather different? Sitting there, Sanjey saw 'all this and then ... he let go'. 'You children of the future', he cried, 'may you be as soft as a rose petal, and as hard as thunder ... may you be Hindustani and Indian and English and everything else at the same time … may you be this and that, may you be better than us' (p 509). As the last 'spark of desire', the 'bond of pride', left him, he became free. His body slipped into a river and 'was gone'. The mixing and mingling of ethnicities and of identities is a characteristic of postmodenity.

Religious Content

There are lots of references to gods and episodes from the epics scattered throughout the text. Quite a few of these are cited above. The cameo essays contain more religious content. For example, pp 110 - 112 start with a creation myth: Pashupati, the lord of animals, 'holds the universe together with his dance, penis erect'. We read of dark-skinned asuras 'who imparted knowledge of the secret sciences to chosen students' and of the Aryan trek into India. We read of Purusha, the primeval human, being dismembered as the four varnas, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishya and Sudra and about their functions. Pp 265 - 269 we read about pundits, women as well as men, who 'debated the compulsions of ritual … the existence of an after life and the necessity of karma in moral action'. The Buddha (Sakyamuni) sat in meditation while Mahavira 'walked alone and naked'. Then we read that a madman called Alexander came and that 'A king called Ashoka did that rarest thing … he ruled for the good of all creatures'. Page 449 introduces the Muslims, 'there were Emperors in Delhi and there was peace for a while…. Then then English came'.

How easy is it to decipher this narrative without some knowledge of Hindu traditions?

How central is religion to the narrative? Is it present in the text as background color or as integral to the plot/plots of the novel?

Identify examples of the British attitude of religious and cultural superiority towards Indian culture. Have I missed any from this essay?

Assess to what degree Thomas and Hart differ from the norm, represented by Skinner, both the Sartheys and by Markline.

What happens to Sanjay as a result of eating the print? (see p 386 and p 474 'Little fragments of English whistled into the English camp and killed them').

Is the identity issue resolved in the book? Explain your response.

If you were Amanda, what books would you read to lerarn about a friend's culture or religion?

Identify why the events of 1857 are differently represented by British and Indian writers.

How true is the book to history? Page 539 gives Sikander's death date as 1842 but he appears to have died during the Mutiny (1857).

Compare and contrast the 'magical realism' of this novel with the great Indian epics. While some Hindus believe that the Ramayana and Mahabharata are historical, others suggest that what is important is not the truth 'of' but the truth 'in' a story. As some of Chandra's characters resemble real historical people, is this a modern epic, teaching lessons about identity, east-west encounter, the colonial experience, attitudes towards the Other?

© 2001 Clinton Bennett