GANDHI'S CHILDREN

by Trevor Fishlock ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 1983

India perceived--with astonishment and rue. ""Indians are a tactile people, living thigh by thigh, holding hands and embracing, close to each other's breath and borborgymi, the bubble of each other's pots."" ""A caste is a complete community, a firm identity, a defence against enemies and difficulties, conferring the benefits of stability and certainty."" ""There is also, however battered and imperfect, an Indian idea of democracy which is likely to persist. . . . It enables the ordinary man to feel, on polling day at least, that he is part of some great enterprise and drama."" ""But in the fourth decade after midnight, India is aware that it has not made the best use of the foundation-digging years. There is a sense of future ambush."" Thus the major themes that Fishlock, recently the London Times' correspondent on the subcontinent, elaborates in graphic, allusive chapters on ""marriaging,"" banditry, gods and gurus, the Gandhi ""court,"" corruption and callousness, the keystone cities (Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta), the limits of the ""green revolution."" In each case, Fishlock slips lightly from topic to topic, subtly impressing upon the reader what he maintains--whether the attachment to arranged marriages, or the disregard of health, or the ambivalence toward outlaws. Those already versed in Indian affairs may be most interested, however, in his more direct analysis of the media--escape films, arid broadcasting, a newly vigorous press. There are also brief, deft chapters on neighboring countries and the residual English flavor. Less caustic, characteristically, than the assessments of Naipaul, Mehta, and other Indians or part-Indians (though no substitute for Mehta on recent politics); in itself--ideal for the broadly and intelligently curious.

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Universe

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION