Meenakshi Alimchandani interviewed MG Vassanji on
his novel A Delhi Obsession (2019). His ninth novel is an exploration of
history, memory, and identity, the broad themes that are integral to everything
that he has written.
Vassanji has a rare skill to mask his piercing
observations on contemporary society with a wry sense of humour. In his new
novel (which I haven’t yet read) he returns to India and to Delhi. His part
memoir, part travelogue, part ruminations on identity, religion and culture, A
Place Within: Rediscovering India, won the Governor General’s Prize for
non-fiction (2009).
He is both an insider and an outsider in India. A
product of the syncretic culture, where identities are not rigidly defined, he
is forever abhorrent of the Indian obsession to compartmentalise everyone into
religious and caste categories.
He describes his unease with identity thus: “I find the labels ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’
discomforting because they are so exclusive. They have not defined people for
me in Africa (where we were simply called ‘Wahindi’ Indians), in the United
States (where I lived for some years), or in Canada. I refuse to use them this
way, perhaps naively and definitely against a tide; but I am not alone. I use
the distinction ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ only in the context, and especially when
it has been used by people for themselves or others, as in the Gujarat violence.”
Despite being a two-time winner of the Giller and several
prestigious awards, Vassanji is an undervalued and underappreciated Canadian master.
The Jaipur Literary Festival organisers did the right thing by having Vassanji
talk about his book; they could not have thought of a better way to kick-off
the Toronto edition of the festival.
John Ralston Saul is another underappreciated genius.
Among the most vocal votaries of the rights of the indigenous people of Canada,
Saul’s latest book Comeback argues that Canada would be a better place if it
acknowledges and respects the rights of the local people.
In a freewheeling conversation with Daniel Lak (Al
Jazeera), Saul spoke about the revival of the indigenous civilisation and
culture and how it will be beneficial to Canada’s future, if only Canadians don’t
interfere with the natural growth trajectory of the indigenous people.
I’ve read Saul’s A Fair Country (2008), in
which he argues that Canada is a Métis nation (as opposed to a ‘western’
nation) that has been shaped by aboriginal ideas of egalitarianism and
nonviolence.
The book successfully explains the absence in
Canada of the dilemmas of identity, the existence of the ‘other’ in a society
of multiple minorities that dominate other western societies.
Finally, William Dalrymple, Suketu Mehta, Pico Iyer
and Andre Aciman read passages from their travelogues. Mehta read about the
onset of the wonderous Bombay monsoon (from Maximum City, 2005); Dalrymple read
a passage From the Holy Mountain (1997), that deals with the affairs of the
Eastern Christians; Aciman read about the permanent nature of exile, where an
exile continues to search for home and is never able to find one; and Iyer read
a passage from his book about the Dalai Lama’s visit to Japan.
I was keen to listen Farzana Doctor speak to Shree
Paradkar in Dictionaries of Desire, but it was too late in the evening and I’m
now too old to spend an entire day out, even it is for contemporary literature.
Recently, I also went to the Munk Centre to listen
Ramchandra Guha speak about the four faultlines of the Indian Republic. Guha is
a secular scholar who has written on a number of Indian subjects including
the environment, cricket, Indian history and, of course, Mahatma Gandhi.
According to Guha, the four faultlines are:
- Deepening religious division
- Persisting social inequality – caste, gender, tribal
- Environmental degradation
- Degradation of our public institutions
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