Colonial India

Because I lived as a child in barely postcolonial India, I have always been drawn to literature set in India. Novels about India have political, social and emotional resonance for me. On March 1, 2010, I posted a list of selected novels by Indian writers. Today I am writing about novels by British writers that are set in India during the Raj. These novels certainly have a colonial perspective, being of their time, but also manage to transcend that perspective in many ways. Perhaps the greatest such novel, and certainly the best-known, is E. M. Forster’s “A Passage to India,” set in India during the later years of the British Raj. Forster felt a real connection to India and Indians, and his novel shows understanding of all its characters, both British and Indian. The next most well known example of this genre is Paul Scott’s “The Raj Quartet,” four interconnected novels also about the British Raj. These novels are satisfying on so many levels: historical, psychological, cultural, and of course literary. They were collectively made into one of the best PBS presentations ever: “The Jewel in the Crown.” Scott followed this quartet with another novel set in India after Independence, called "Staying On," also very good. Other British novels set in India are M. M. Kaye’s huge bestseller about the Mutiny, “The Far Pavilions,” and Rumer Godden’s delightful novels reflecting her childhood in India, such as “The River,” which was made into a film by Jean Renoir.