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GRIN Publishing Book Review by Annemarie Kunz
Literature Review from the year 2013 in the subject South Asian Studies South-Eastern Asian Studies grade: 10 Charles University in Prague language: English abstract: Kiran Nagarkars post-colonial novel was published in 1995. He tells a hilarious story set in the 1950s and 1960s about two boys: Ravan a Maratha Hindu and Eddie a Roman Catholic. Both are growing up in the Central Works Department chawl number 17 in Bombay and even if they barely interact throughout the whole novel their ways of life are very similar to each other. I will provide a brief summary of the book introducing the characters and storyline and describe Nagarkars style of writing which takes turns in the ongoing plot and documentary episodes. The issue I want to concentrate on is the relationship and conflict between Hinduism and Christianity two religions which coexist closely in the Indian chawl. The most important part of the book to refer to this topic is one documentary episode on neighbours in which Nagarkar describes the life in the chawl in close detail and with much irony. Thereafter I will draw on books and articles of primary and secondary literature to evaluate Nagarkars presentation of Hinduism and Christianity in Bombay. To do so I will explain the circumstances of that time and show similarities to the novel. I will conclude that Nagarkars novel provides a very good and real impression of what life and the Hindu-Christian relationship were like that time and is thus a good novel to delve into this era right after Indian independence. It is a good document of a contemporary witness as I guess that Nagarkar has lived through a live in such a chawl himself or had at least some kind of first hand experience. As I was working with a German version of the novel I am not using any direct quotations from the book.show more