_The Age of Kali_ by William Dalrymple is a fantastic and informative book on the Indian subcontinent, primarily abut India but with a section on Pakistan and essays as well on Sri Lank and the partially Indian island of Reunion. It is a result of ten years of travel by the author throughout the region, Dalrymple noting at the beginning of each essay in the book when he wrote it and in several cases following it up with a postscript (the earliest essay dates from the late 1980s and the book was published in 1998).
In his introduction, Darlymple stated that the great question facing India now was whether the prosperity of the south and west of the country can overcome the "disorder and decay" of the east and the north. The author adopted a more or less regional organization of his essays accordingly.
The first section was on the north and consisted of five essays. The first essay focused on the state of Bihar in the northeast of the country and on what the author termed the "Bihar effect;" Bihar has been gripped by corruption, caste conflict, government breakdown, and general lawlessness, something he feared might spread to other areas of India. Bihar has been subjected to nearly open warfare and outright massacres between armed Untouchables and high-caste Indians, criminal politicians (in 1997 thirty-three of its state assembly lawmakers had criminal records; one individual, Dular Chand Yadav, had fifty counts of murder pending against him), armed gangs robbing cars in broad daylight, kidnappings, and upwards of ten private armies roaming the countryside. Some of the problems of Bihar may be the result of a revolution in much of India, one in which lower caste politicians are supplanting upper-caste elites, a revolution which has had positive effects (among other things blunting the Hindu revivalist movement and anti-Muslim actions) and negative effects (the "emergence of a cadre of semi-literate village thugs" in some areas).
Other essays in this section focused on the once beautiful city of Lucknow (capital of the former Kingdom of Avadh, "indisputably" the largest, wealthiest, and most beautiful pre-Raj city in India), its palaces, pleasure gardens, and gilded dome mosques decaying due to poverty, neglect, corruption, and being replaced by shanty-huts and ugly concrete tower-blocks; the city of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, a "temple town" where many devout Hindus believe Krishna still lives, destination for hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims, and also heartbreakingly many thousands of widows, who live lives of terrible poverty and suffering, the result of traditional Hindu society views on widows, which with the death of their husband lose all status and are often exiled from their homes and even villages; an interview with Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, seen as both a "madwoman and a saint," a leader of the militant Hindu revivalists and once heir to Gwalior, a Portugal-sized kingdom dissolved at Independence in 1947; and a visit to English schools, legacy of the Raj, fragile "archipelagoes of Englishness" in a "choppy Indian sea" facing very uncertain futures.
The second section had three essays on Rajasthan (in the north and west of the country). The first essay was titled "The sad tale of Bahveri Devi" and was indeed a sad tale of brave sathins (informal social workers among village women) and their struggle to stop infanticide and child marriages and promote education for all children, the essay focusing on a lower-caste sathin who was raped and faced both caste and gender-based bias as result of her efforts and of the rape. The second essay focused on caste conflicts and what Indian opponents called "caste-apartheid." The third essay was on sati (the act of a widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre); regrettably despite efforts to eradicate it sati is still deeply engrained in many parts of rural India and Rajasthan is a center for the cult of the goddess Sati Mata.
The third section was one the author titled "the new India," with one essay somewhat light-hearted, profiling a Hindi rap star and a Bombay-based romance novelist, and another more serious essay on protests against Western businesses in India, the author focusing in particular on rapidly developing and prosperous Bangalore, which has quadrupled in size in 25 years thanks to among other things its computer industry but like much of India faces huge problems thanks to hyper-development and the massive strains its puts on infrastructure and on the growing disparity in wealth between rich and poor.
The fourth section was on the south of India, the author taking the reader to the Tamil temple town of Madurai and the ancient worship of the goddess Meenakshi; to witness the decay of the culture and architecture of Hyderabad, a once Italy-sized state within India on the Deccan plateau, that thanks to its Golconda diamond mines once rivaled Belgium in wealth but was forcibly annexed by India in 1948 during Operation Polo; and to see an exorcism at a temple of the goddess Parashakti in Cochin.
Section five was titled "On the Indian Ocean" and was fascinating; "At Donna Georgina's" detailed the city of Goa, still heavy with Portuguese influence (the Portuguese having set up shop in 1510 and not having left until the locally unpopular "liberation" of Goa by India in 1961), a place like Lucknow and Hyderabad that was having its culture and architecture forcibly and deliberately eroded; another essay provided an excellent summation of the Tamil Tigers and the war in Sri Lanka; and the third essay was a wonderful account of Reunion.
The final section was on Pakistan, with essays on Imran Khan, ultra-famous sports star turned politician (and what his fame and life said about Pakistan as a whole); a very interesting tour of the tribal states of Pakistan and the ruins of the fascinating Gandhara civilization (a composite civilization influenced by the Alexander the Great, its greatest icon a meditating Buddha in a Greek toga), and an interview with and account of Benazir Bhutto and her family.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Top reviews from other countries
Paul Comerford
Another piece in the Indian puzzle
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2013