AN ERROR OF JUDGMENT

In the wake of Nine Hours to Rama and based on an actual incident in 1919 when Gandhi's vision of self-rule was attended by some anything-but-non-violent disturbances in the Punjab (the ""key"" to India), Mr. Wolpert's novel gives a firm recapitulation and reckoning. In the city of Amritsar, rioting, looting and burning followed the unwarranted arrest by a Deputy Commissioner of two native doctors. Unable to control the situation, an old line General ordered reprisals with the enlightened words--""Aim for their balls! Don't waste a shot!"" The novel, if such it really is, precedes and concludes the ugly action with the inquiry which took place and which moderated the finale in the interest of face--not the General's, Britain's. . . . Late Kipling country, ""rebel dogs"" and Englishmen in the waning noonday sun of Empire and quite satisfactory to read on an external level.