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From: vallath@ucbcad.UUCP (Vallath Nandakumar)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: Books about India
Message-ID: <85@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Jul-85 14:10:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.85
Posted: Tue Jul 23 14:10:10 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jul-85 21:43:43 EDT
References: <354@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA>
Organization: UC Berkeley CAD Group, Berkeley, CA
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> Sometime ago, a friend asked for a couple of books about India. So far,
> I am sure to suggest the following three titles. 
> 
> 	DISCOVERY OF INDIA by Jawaharlal Nehru 
> 		(history, memoirs)
> 
> 	FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT by Collins and Lapierre 
> 		(journalistic, records the period around independence)
> 
> 	MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
> 		(fiction: rich in imagery, one of the best about India and
> 		 the indians)
> 
R. K. Narayan's books are rich in descriptions of Indian
life:  The Guide, The Painter of Signs and most of his
other books come to mind.  Rabindranath Tagore's short
stories are pretty good too.  There are also translations
from Indian languages - Pathar Panchali (from Bengali), Chemmeen
(from Malayalam) etc.

Freedom at Midnight is an interesting book, but historically
inaccurate.  The only defence one could make is that everybody
"interprets" history, and nobody who writes anything
interesting chronicles it.
V. S. Naipaul (if he's the guy from Trinidad) is a good writer
technically, but he has mostly negative views about India,
a sentiment I don't agree with in general.

Vallath Nandakumar