Crossing the B l a c k Waters: N i r a d C . C h a u d h u r i ' s A Passage to E n g l a n d and V . S.

Naipaul's A n A r e a of Darkness
A L A S TAIR NIVEN N 1955 N i r a d C h a u d h u r i made his first v i s i t outside India and i n 1962 V . S. N a i p a u l went to I n d i a for the first t i m e . B o t h men were established w r i t e r s , practiced i n h u m a n observation and yet possessing an innately p a t r i c i a n sense of t h e i r o w n d i s t i n c t i o n . I n v i e w i n g t h e i r o w n societies they h a d been trenchant w h e n not caustic, at a l l times provocative a n d sometimes perverse. After t h e i r journeys abroad they brought the same qualities to the books t h e y w r o t e about t h e i r visits, C h a u d h u r i i n A Passage To England a n d N a i p a u l i n An Area of Darkness." T h e i r methods w e r e s i m i l a r : to w r i t e i n p o r t r a i t f o r m a series of short essays a n a l y s i n g w h a t t h e y saw a n d accounting for t h e i r own reactions to it. C h a u d h u r i was fifty-seven w h e n he left I n d i a for the first t i m e for a n eight-week v i s i t to E u r o p e , five weeks i n E n g l a n d , two i n P a r i s a n d one i n Rome. I n the " P l e a f o r the B o o k " , as he c h a r m i n g l y christens the preface t o A Passage To England, he tells us that he celebrated the threethousandth week of h i s life at the end of his tour. N a i p a u l was only t h i r t y w h e n he traced his ancestral footsteps back to India, a n islander i n a sub-continent, a n d i t m a y be t h a t t h e i r contrasting ages has m u c h to do w i t h the different attitudes w i t h w h i c h they approached t h e i r new experiences. A comparison between the two w r i t e r s , masters both of the i m p e r i a l l y endowed language i n w h i c h they w r i t e , has more t h a n a tenuous r a c i a l v i n d i c a t i o n , for i f t h e i r casts of m i n d are often different they share an abiding awareness of t h e i r c u l t u r a l origins. B o t h are
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obsessed w i t h the fact of empire, neither is impressed by m o d i s h points of view, and together they have provided not just i n t h e i r t r a v e l w r i t i n g s but i n the body of t h e i r w o r k a collection of observations w h i c h m a k e t h e m u n surpassed among contemporary I n d i a n essayists. T h a t N a i p a u l descends f r o m indentured Indian labour brought to T r i n i d a d i n the e a r l y p a r t of the century, t h a t B r a h m i n hauteur affects every statement he makes, is elementary to a n y regular reader of his fiction, his j o u r n a l i s m or his documentaries. N a i p a u l ' s dissociation f r o m T r i n i d a d a n d corresponding i n c a p a c i t y to find a s p i r i t u a l home elsewhere has been the basis for almost all his w r i t i n g s a n d has made h i m suspicious of a n y k i n d of c o m m i t m e n t to causes t h a t m a y prove illusory. C h a u d h u r i , on the other hand, has always w o r k e d w i t h i n a f r a m e w o r k of personal certainties. H i s b r a n d of H i n d u i s m m a y not be orthodox, his suspicion of social r a d i c a l i s m is scarcely fashionable, and he has at times a veneration for E u r o p e a n excellence that, if not carefully weighed against his sense of the folly a n d f a i l u r e of t h e i r empires, can at the least embarrass one w i t h its affection and at its worst seem monstrous i n its assertion of a distinctive A r y a n p u r i t y . F o r both w r i t e r s t h e i r journeys abroad were exercises i n self-discovery. B o t h w i s h e d to test the realities they encountered against long-imbibed notions of the societies they visited a n d both a d m i t i m p l i c i t l y that they undertook t h e i r travels w i t h preconceptions so strong t h a t only revolution could have changed them. And revolution, as they m a k e clear, was not i n the a i r either i n the E u r o p e of 1955 o r the India of 1962. B y the t i m e he visited India N a i p a u l ' s disenchantment w i t h the W e s t Indies h a d been apparent both i n satires l i k e The Suffrage of Elvira a n d i n the b i t t e r affection w i t h w h i c h he h a d painted the vulnerable M r . B i s w a s . A t the root of t h a t disenchantment l a y his distress at being a n actor i n a charade w h e n he profoundly desired to be real. M e t a p h o r s of stage, film, puppetry and mimesis
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recur throughout a l l N a i p a u l ' s w o r k for they best express his desolate sense of h a v i n g i n h e r i t e d n o t h i n g w h i c h he can decently call his own. The colonial m e n t a l i t y ensured t h a t m i r r o r s of E n g l a n d were set up throughout the w o r l d , before whose reflection the minions w o u l d prance i n eager emulation. T h i s policy created a new r e a l i t y i n w h i c h a l l was i m i t a t i o n , a culture of the derivative and phoney. A w a y of life that was already i n decline i n E n g l a n d was recreated abroad w i t h n o t h i n g to n o u r i s h i t : a cardboard and canvas w o r l d peopled by actors who were hemmed i n by the rules of t h e i r craft and the dictates of t h e i r lines. E v e n the language they uttered was a l l sound and no conviction. T h e paradox, of course, was that N a i p a u l showed i n e v e r y t h i n g he w r o t e the weakness of his case. A w i t t i e r w r i t e r t h a n the a u t h o r of The Mystic Masseur' or a more poised one t h a n the consummate stylist w h o has emerged since The Mimic Men w o u l d be h a r d to find. L i k e James B a l d w i n , w h o had once felt condemned to the prison-cell of another man's language, N a i p a u l has learned to fashion t h a t language to his o w n ends a n d has become, i n the process, outraged w h e n others less fastidious t h a n he abuse it. I n An Area of Darkness he is concerned centrally w i t h the h a n d l i n g of language:
1 5

As soon as our quarantine flag came down and the last of the barefooted, blue-uniformed policemen of the Bombay Port Health Authority had left the ship, Coelho the Goan came aboard and, luring me with a long beckoning finger into the saloon, whispered, "You have any cheej?" (An Area of Darkness, p. 11)

T h i s is a novelist's opening par excellence, establishing a Greene-like O r i e n t a l seediness. O u r m o r a l antennae are alerted to w h a t k i n d of graft o r c o r r u p t i o n " c h e e j " can be. C o n t r a b a n d it is, t h o u g h mispronounced: cheese, a n Indian delicacy. N a i p a u l has at once established a l i n guistic standard of exactness both i n expression a n d accent: T o depart f r o m it, as every Indian he encounters seems to do, is to confuse m e a n i n g and therefore to violate

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communication. N a i p a u l ' s thesis of colonial m i m i c r y ensures t h a t every time an I n d i a n speaks E n g l i s h he parodies his former masters. Y e t how fastidious is t h i s master of cadence a n d i r o n y himself? " I m p o r t s were r e s t r i c t e d , " he goes on to say, " a n d Indians h a d not yet learned how to m a k e cheese, just as they h a d not yet learned h o w to bleach n e w s p r i n t . " C a l c u l a t e d l y offensive a n d obviously patronising, the statement is also untrue. Indians have " l e a r n e d " to m a k e cheese and to bleach newsprint but have not chosen to practice the skills on a state-wide scale. S u c h pedantic details m a t t e r w h e n a w r i t e r presents honesty of observation as his raison d'tre. T h r o u g h o u t An Area of Darkness N a i p a u l m a i n t a i n s his concern for the accuracy of language not just i n w r i t i n g but i n pronunciation. H i s one positive recommendation to the India of t o m o r r o w is to abandon E n g l i s h : he i n sists t h a t a n a t i o n w h i c h conducts a large p a r t of its official business i n an imported language must inevitably b l u r the subtleties of nuance necessary t o a sensitive society. N a i p a u l knows t h a t E n g l i s h is but one of seve r a l imported languages i n I n d i a " E v e r y other conqueror bequeathed a language to I n d i a , " he admits, but " E n g l i s h remains a foreign l a n g u a g e " (An Area of Darkness, p. 230) k T h a t h i s generalisation w i l l not hold can be evidenced i n the range of I n d i a n w r i t i n g w r i t t e n i n E n g l i s h since the 1930's: M u l k R a j A n a n d ' s compassion, R. K . N a r a y a n ' s intimate objectivity, R a j a Rao's c l a r i t y of metaphysical enquiry, K a m a l a M a r k a n d a y a ' s poise, N i s s i m E z e k i e l ' s agility, N e h r u ' s c o m m a n d i n g rhetoric, C h a u d h u r i ' s w i t t y intelligence. W h a t does N a i p a u l ' s w o r d " f o r e i g n " mean used of the E n g l i s h employed b y w r i t e r s such as these? B u t apart f r o m a g l a n c i n g acknowledgement of C h a u d h u r i himself N a i p a u l does not read them. H i s one analysis of a modern I n d i a n novel, M a n o h a r M a l g o n k a r ' s The Princes, conspicuously l a c k s t h e context of reading necessary to deal w i t h the book. H e makes no mention of F o r s t e r ' s The HiU of Devi or Anand's
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Private Life of an Indian Prince. " N o w h e r e , " says N a i p a u l of M a l g o n k a r ' s novel, " d o I see the I n d i a I k n o w : those poor fields, those three-legged dogs, those sweating red-coated r a i l w a y porters c a r r y i n g heavy t i n t r u n k s on t h e i r h e a d s " (An Area of Darkness, p. 73). B u t where i n An Area of Darkness is the p o l i t i c a l acuteness of Tiie Princes or any comparable attempt to speak of t h e death of the R a j as it affected the indigenous I n d i a n elite? All w r i t e r s are selective, M a l g o n k a r i n h i s w a y and especially N a i p a u l i n his. A n n i a h Gowda's reaction to An Area of Darkness is representative of m a n y I n d i a n c r i t i c s who saw i n N a i p a u l ' s book too p a r t i a l a v i e w of t h e i r c o u n t r y : " N a i p a u l , i n his reminiscences, has chosen to shut his eyes to the I n d i a w h i c h is not defecating." H e closed his ears, too, to the I n d i a w h i c h d i d not mispronounce English. P a r t of the trouble is t h a t N a i p a u l sees i n pre-colonial I n d i a only a vast h i s t o r i c darkness. C h a u d h u r i , on the other hand, d r a w s upon I n d i a n h i s t o r y w i t h every breath he takes. Indeed, he makes w h a t f o r h i m is the profound discovery that only i n E n g l a n d have the scars of earlier colonisations been effectively eradicated.
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Neither in London nor in the country was I able, by looking at the faces, figures, and clothing of the people, to guess that there had been invasions of England and spells of foreign rule for its inhabitants. In respect of India, this is one of the easiest things to do even in one street in Delhi. (A Passage to England, p. 77)

C h a u d h u r i has seen evidence of conquest everywhere he looks i n India. In E n g l a n d a massive fusion of cultures has t a k e n place w h i c h results i n an aesthetic a n d temperamental u n i t y he has never experienced on a n a t i o n a l scale before. B u t that does not m a k e h i m see h i s own people as p h i l i s t i n e o r i m i t a t i v e . H e could never share N a i p a u l ' s epithet, " a sense of history, w h i c h is a sense of l o s s " (An Area of Darkness, p. 154), n o r r e a l l y endorse his v i e w of the inevitable obfuscation of E n g l i s h w h e n handled by Indians. T h i s , after a l l , is the w r i t e r w h o delights i n noting t h a t the E n g l i s h refer to I n d i a n independence as

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a " g i f t " whereas his own people look upon i t as a " v i c t o r y " (A Passage to England, p. 201). T h e change of w o r d asserts a w o r l d of n a t i o n a l difference, w i t h selfrespect enlisted on both sides. N e i t h e r w o r d is w r o n g and neither is complete. Chaudhuri, unlike Naipaul, relishes the verbal i m p r e c i s i o n of both sides w h i l e being never less t h a n precise himself. N a i p a u l a n d C h a u d h u r i e m b a r k e d on t h e i r journeys to find out more about themselves. B o t h readily concede that they h a d well-formed notions of w h a t t h e y w o u l d find and were l o o k i n g for c o n f i r m a t i o n of t h e i r preconceptions. N a i p a u l expected disenchantment, C h a u d h u r i expected enchantment, a n d neither was confounded. "I saw how close i n the past year I h a d been to the total I n d i a n negation," N a i p a u l w r i t e s at the end of An Area of Darkness, " h o w m u c h it had become the basis of thought and f e e l i n g " {An Area of Darkness, p. 288). Chaudhuri concludes i n a different v e i n altogether: " N e v e r before, except i n the i n t i m a c y of m y f a m i l y life, h a d I been so happy as I was d u r i n g m y short stay i n E n g l a n d . It was the l i t e r a l t r u t h , a n d the happiness has l a s t e d " (A Passage to England, p. 235) T h o u g h these s u m m a r i e s are quite opposite, N a i p a u l a n d C h a u d h u r i journeyed w i t h two s i m i l a r intentions, to k n o w themselves more fully and to discover w h a t they could about the i m p e r i a l inheritance as it conditions the minds and psyches of those w h o have been affected b y it. B o t h w r i t e r s , for example, share w i t h E . M . F o r s t e r a conviction t h a t distinctions of temperature have moulded the different outlooks of the eastern and the western personality. N a i p a u l swelters t h r o u g h o u t his stay i n I n d i a ; C h a u d h u r i learns e a r l y on how not to freeze i n L o n d o n . F o r both of t h e m there exists an i m m u t a b l e alienation between east a n d west for w h i c h the implacable universe no less t h a n h u m a n perversity is responsible. N a i p a u l , though, has the r a c i a l appearance of the people he is among, C h a u d h u r i does not. W h e n a P a r i s w o r k e r

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asks C h a u d h u r i if he is E n g l i s h he chuckles a t the absurdi t y of the question. "I was t a k e n aback b y his idea of the size and looks of a n E n g l i s h m a n " (A Passage to England, p. 134). N a i p a u l admits w i t h honest v a n i t y that h i s v i s i t to I n d i a was the first occasion i n his life w h e n he h a d not been ethnically conspicuous and t h a t he d i d not altogether l i k e being a n anonymous face i n the crowd. N a i p a u l ' s point goes beyond egotism, though, for there is pathos i n the complete separation of body and s p i r i t w h i c h he feels i n I n d i a n a s k i n w h i c h fits, a soul w h i c h rejects, a l l that he encounters, N a i p a u l ' s dissociat i o n derives f r o m h i s t o r i c sources, as a w o r k l i k e The Loss of El Dorado " testifies, no less t h a n f r o m his personal temperament. Nonetheless, he is repelled b y almost everyone he meets i n I n d i a whereas C h a u d h u r i loves the conversational v i t a l i t y of even the most t r i v i a l dinnerparty in England.
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T h e greatest fear of a n y w r i t e r is t h a t he w i l l cease to respond to life and therefore cease to w r i t e . India has t h i s anaesthetizing q u a l i t y i n abundance, so N a i p a u l asserts, a n d early i n the book we find t h a t the incapacity to handle language properly is beginning to affect h i m too. "I was finding i t h a r d to spell and to f r a m e simple sentences" (An Area of Darkness, p. 23). A sense of dread accompanies h i m everywhere. H e k n o w s before he sets out on a pilgrimage that he cannot have access to the mysteries of r e l i g i o n : he can o n l y observe others' ecstacies. H e approaches the village of his forebears certain t h a t the v i s i t is pointless. "I h a d learned m y separateness f r o m India, and w a s content to be a colonial, w i t h o u t a past, w i t h o u t ancestors" (An Area of Darkness, p. 273). H e discovers a n I n d i a no m o r e a l i v e t h a n the calendar pictures of i t w h i c h he remembered f r o m his T r i n i d a d childhood. C h a u d h u r i ' s v i e w of E n g l a n d is quite opposite. F r o m the moment he looks out of the plane to the clear landscape below he finds a three-dimensional solidity to E u r o p e a n life w h i c h he missed at home,

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though that is not t o m a k e of C h a u d h u r i ' s India the same wasteland as N a i p a u l ' s . In India he is a w a r e of " a sensation of extension i n space . . . I cannot remember a n y historic b u i l d i n g i n n o r t h e r n India, w i t h the exception of the Taj at dawn, w h i c h conveys the feeling of mass. . . . Hues always seem to flow and r u n into the s u r r o u n d i n g atmosphere, as dyes w h i c h are not fast do i n w a t e r " (A Passage to England, pp. 27-29). W e see India, C h a u d h u r i claims, i n a " r a r e f i e d " w a y ; E u r o p e we see i n a " c o n c r e t e " way.
Another striking effect of the light is seen in the English landscape, which seemed decidedly more stereoscopic to me than any visual reality I had been familiar with previously. I thought I was looking at everything through a pair of prismatic binoculars. In India any landscape tends to resolve into a silhouette, with a side-to-side linking of its components, in the West it becomes a composition in depth, with an into-the-picture movement, a recession, which carries the eye of the onlooker, wherever any opening is left, to the vanishing point on the horizon. (A Passage to England, p. 29)

C h a u d h u r i converts this sense of the concreteness of E u r o p e a n life into an aesthetic t h e o r y whereby to talk of E n g l i s h painting, a r c h i t e c t u r e and literature. "There is a curious solidity and into-the-space movement i n t h e m t o o " (A Passage to England, p. 31). Of course, when C h a u d h u r i talks of t h i s density i n E n g l i s h life as a tangible p h y s i c a l r e a l i t y he is beginning to t a l k the same language as N a i p a u l , for w h o m the tragedy of colonial territories lies i n t h e i r attempt to reconstruct E n g l a n d using flimsy materials. T h e difference is t h a t N a i p a u l believes the colonial i m i t a t o r has a fantasy E n g l a n d i n his m i n d , one t h a t never properly existed. C h a u d h u r i finds evidence of its existence wherever he goes. L o n d o n really is for h i m " t h e Great M o t h e r of modern c i t i e s " (A Passage to England, p. 64), w i t h C a l c u t t a a m o n g her children, whereas N a i p a u l , when he visits a C a l c u t t a palace, feels that
this is how a film might begin; the camera will advance with us, will pause here on this broken masonry, there on this faded decoration. (An Area of Darkness, p. 226)

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I n d i a as a large film-set i n h a b i t e d by actors a n d extras: a v i e w w h i c h denies the r e a l i t y of India. One would have m o r e confidence i n N a i p a u l ' s v i e w if he h a d k n o w n enough about I n d i a w h e n he went there i n 1962, but despite n a m i n g several books he has read he displays no i n t i m a t e understanding of the country's literature, art or philosophy. H e a d m i t s as m u c h w h e n discussing the H i n d u ceremonies he witnessed as a c h i l d i n T r i n i d a d . " T h e images didn't interest me; I never sought to learn t h e i r significance" (An Area of Darkness, p. 35). Such a blas attitude surely indicates a deadness i n N a i p a u l , not i n the r e l i g i o n he i m p l i c i t l y belittles. C h a u d h u r i , by contrast, opens his book w i t h a response to the "belief i n the W e s t that we H i n d u s regard the w o r l d as a n i l l u s i o n " (A Passage to England, p. 19). N a i p a u l c e r t a i n l y believes t h i s : " T h e w o r l d is illusion, the H i n d u s s a y " (An Area of Darkness, p. 287). " W e do n o t , " C h a u d h u r i continues, " a n d indeed cannot, f o r the o n l y idea of a n after-life accepted b y a H i n d u the unconscious assumption behind a l l t h a t he does is t h a t he w i l l be b o r n again and again i n the same old w o r l d a n d live i n i t v i r t u a l l y for eternity. . . . A people w h o have learnt t o believe i n that w a y are not l i k e l y to be the persons most ready to dismiss the w o r l d as i n s u b s t a n t i a l " (A Passage to England, p. 19). N o w i t m a y be claimed t h a t the a u t h o r of The Continent of Circe, w i t h its thesis t h a t H i n d u s are of E u r o p e a n o r i g i n and t h a t t h e i r A r y a n i s m provides t h e m w i t h an instinctive consciousness of being superior to other peoples, is not the best person to represent the t y p i c a l H i n d u metaphysic and that N a i p a u l ' s understanding of H i n d u i s m approximates more closely to the n o r m . B u t none can dispute C h a u d h u r i ' s depth of reading i n I n d i a n philosophy a n d i n the epics; however solitary his conclusions are about H i n d u i s m i n The Continent of Circe, i n A Passage To England o r i n the more recent analysis of I n d i a n f a m i l y life, To Live Or Not To Live] they are based on a lifetime's study. It is greatly significant that
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C h a u d h u r i d i d not publish h i s first w o r k , The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, u n t i l 1951 w h e n he was fifty-four years old a n d that his first t r i p abroad should not be u n t i l his fifty-eighth year. H e needed the time before t h e n for a m a t u r i n g of w i s d o m a n d range of readi n g i n b o t h the I n d i a n a n d the E u r o p e a n arts. In his sixties and seventies he has published m u c h , most recently his acclaimed biographies of M a x Mller and R o b e r t C l i v e , but he held back u n t i l he was ready.
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P o i n t for point N a i p a u l and C h a u d h u r i so often stand close together yet on opposite sides t h a t it w o u l d be wearisome to list each instance. Where, for example, N a i p a u l c l a i m s that " I t is s t i l l t h r o u g h E u r o p e a n eyes that India looks at her r u i n s and her a r t " (An Area of Darkness, p. 222), C h a u d h u r i only half agrees. "Even in regard to H i n d u i s m most H i n d u s prefer to go to an E n g l i s h b o o k " (A Passage to England, p. 103), he says, m u c h i n the s p i r i t if not the tone of N a i p a u l , yet he indicts the H i n d u v i e w of a r t not for the weakness of its influence but for its strength. It has made it, he argues, "impossible to look at a nude w i t h o u t a leer, i t has resolved flesh to its most fleshly elements; the E u r o p e a n s have made it the expression of the s p i r i t u a l i n m a n " (A Passage to England, p. 87). C h a u d h u r i distinguishes between two different sets of aesthetic imperatives i n his book; N a i p a u l denies that I n d i a has a n y k i n d of creative spirit, so aesthetic definitions do not arise. Y e t i t is i n the m a t t e r of definition that the two w r i t e r s come closest to each other. N a i p a u l ' s desire for an absolutely scrupulous use of language suggest that he himself is as obsessed w i t h definition as those he castigates, but he does not notice this paradox. C e r t a i n l y his Indian, and C h a u d h u r i ' s also, is engaged on a massive l a b y r i n t h i n e exercise of definition and distinction. " T o define is to begin to separate oneself" (An Area of Darkness, p. 51), so every Indian, w i t h an almost C a l v i n i s t i c zeal to prove his status m o r a l l y and socially, sets out to show off his

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rle b y the cut the style of his more i m p o r t a n t n a t i o n develops

of his beard, the type of his caste m a r k , clothes. Appearance has not just become t h a n i n n e r reality, i t subsumes it. A interested only i n the f o r m of things.

These forms had not developed over the centuries. They had been imposed whole and suddenly by a foreign conqueror, displacing another set of forms, once no doubt thought equally unalterable, of which no trace remained. {An Area of Darkness, p. 138)

C h a u d h u r i , too, sees an I n d i a obsessed b y forms.

For the Indian minister or official the mere discussion of his plans with an Occidental in an air-conditioned room is equivalent to execution. (A Passage to England, p. 35)

T h e occasion for action becomes the action itself. N a i p a u l ' s book is full of s i m i l a r moments i n w h i c h i n t e n t i o n is substituted for achievement w i t h no sense of t h e i r difference. It is enough t h a t G a n d h i spoke. To implement what he advised becomes irrelevant. P e r h a p s there is t r u t h i n this thesis. W i t h i n a week of t a k i n g v i r t u a l l y absolute powers i n a n unprecedented c o n s t i t u t i o n a l shake-up I n d i r a G a n d h i was able to insist that there was no crisis i n India. Ignore the obvious " I n India the easiest and most necessary t h i n g to i g n o r e " (An Area of Darkness, p. 50), says N a i p a u l a n d , i f it won't e x a c t l y go away, it m a y not matter m u c h . T h e w r i t e r s share, too, the same experience of Indian attitudes to w o r k . T h e clerk w h o w i l l not b r i n g a glass of w a t e r to N a i p a u l ' s companion when she faints because it is not part of his d u t y to do such a t h i n g is matched by C h a u d h u r i ' s table-duster whose obligations do not extend to sweeping the floor. B o t h see i n I n d i a a society petrified b y f a r greater class distinctions t h a n exist i n E n g l a n d , but it is h a r d to imagine C h a u d h u r i converting the r e a l i t y of w h a t he sees a r o u n d h i m into the k i n d of u l t i m a t e J a m e s - i s m of N a i p a u l when, on the pilgrimage, he feels t h a t " N o w indeed, i n t h a t valley, I n d i a has become a l l s y m b o l " (An Area of Darkness, p. 179).

32

ALASTAIR NIVEN

C h a u d h u r i divides A Passage To England into four sections, " T h e E n g l i s h Scene," " T h e E n g l i s h People," " C u l t u r a l L i f e " and " S t a t e of the N a t i o n . " Sometimes his observation is acute, as i n his account of the " t r a d i t i o n a l and even venerable r i t u a l " (. Passage to England, p. 196) he witnesses i n the H o u s e of C o m m o n s ( C h a u d h u r i , too, can recognize m i m i c r y w h e n he sees i t ) . Sometimes he r i s k s a b s u r d i t y : do d a r k faces really reflect l i g h t less evenly t h a n p i n k ones? Occasionally he is sheerly provocative, w i t h a k i n d of n a u g h t y glee:
. . . The history of love in Bengali Hindu society is fairly well established. It was introduced from the West much later than tobacco or potatoes, but has neither been acclimatized as successfully, nor has taken as deep roots, as these two plants. (A Passage to England, p. 123)

A t other times he displays a p a t r i c i a n intellect w h i c h w i l l never endear h i m to T h i r d W o r l d radicals. " N o w , i t is a good t h i n g to do away w i t h the caste system b y b i r t h , also b y wealth, but a deadly m i s t a k e to tamper w i t h the n a t u r a l caste system of the m i n d " (A Passage to England, p. 225). N a i p a u l w o u l d surely endorse that, at least. F i n a l l y , C h a u d h u r i can be provocative i n a more searchi n g w a y t h a n a n y yet quoted. H i s view of the Welfare State, w h i c h he admires for its compassion, nevertheless raises issues to do w i t h social a n x i e t y and bored leisure w h i c h B r i t i s h society has o n l y recently started to investigate. A t the heart of C h a u d h u r i ' s study of E n g l a n d , however, lies his sense of history. H e cannot believe i n a d y i n g E n g l a n d i f a theatre at S t r a t f o r d - u p o n - A v o n plays Twelfth Night to capacity. S u c h a n audience is i n touch w i t h its civilization. H e is shocked b y a p a r t y of tourists i n C a n t e r b u r y C a t h e d r a l w h o appear not to have h e a r d of T h o m a s Becket, r a t h e r as N a i p a u l reacts to the attitude of the tourists at the fort of the P a n d a v a s : " t h i s rubble, no longer of use to anyone. W e l l , it was t i m e to eat, time for the p u r i s and the potatoes" (An Area of Darkness, p. 153). B u t such people are not the rule i n C h a u d h u r i ' s

CHAUDHURI AND

NAIPAUL

33

E u r o p e as they are i n N a i p a u l ' s India. C h a u d h u r i discovered i n E n g l i s h m e n , F r e n c h m e n and Italians a l i v i n g c o m m u n i o n w i t h t h e i r past s u c h as he already h a d w i t h h i s o w n past. H a d he stayed longer i n E u r o p e a n d m i x e d w i t h a w i d e r social cross-section he m i g h t have modified t h i s view but he w o u l d surely not have changed it thoroughly. I n d i a was his companion on his passage t o E n g l a n d , but so was his deep understanding, w h i c h few E n g l i s h people could r i v a l , of E u r o p e a n culture. E m b e d d e d i n his prose we find constant evidence of a n educated sensibility, often blended w i t h self-mockery. " W h a t I was seeing i n E n g land was m a k i n g such a n impression on me that, though neither d y i n g n o r d r u n k , I was incessantly babbling on green fields and s u c h l i k e " (A Passage to England, p. 78). T h a t k i n d of i n t i m a c y w i t h E n g l i s h and its l i t e r a t u r e s i m p l y contradicts N a i p a u l ' s v i e w of a m i m i c I n d i a w i t h no capacity to understand the language i t has adopted. N o r does N a i p a u l a v o i d stereotyped reactions himself. W h e n he receives a n i n v i t a t i o n to go away he exclaims, " A weekend i n the c o u n t r y ! T h e words suggest cool clumps of trees, green fields, s t r e a m s " (An Area of Darkness, p. 97). D o t h e y ? O n l y to someone whose use of E n g l i s h has become a n E n g l i s h m a n ' s . W h e n A z i z , his guide, is introduced he has " s o m e t h i n g of the Shakesperi a n m e c h a n i c " (An Area of Darkness, p. 110) : N a i p a u l instinctively reaches for a w h o l l y E n g l i s h likeness. Yet a few pages later he notes i r o n i c a l l y that scones, tipsy pudding, trifle a n d apple t a r t a r e on offer i n the heart of K a s h m i r . Englishness, it w o u l d appear, is funny i n other people, fastidious i n himself. I n a l l C h a u d h u r i ' s a n d a l l N a i p a u l ' s w o r k one comes back to the central fact of empire. T h e y share a view of the offensiveness of A n g l o - I n d i a n society, t h o u g h they differ i n t h e i r assessment of its most r e m a r k a b l e chronicler, R u d y a r d K i p l i n g . F o r N a i p a u l K i p l i n g renders a journey to I n d i a v i r t u a l l y unnecessary, for the society

34

ALASTAIR NIVEN

he records eighty years ago is the society still parroted up a n d down the sub-continent. " I t is as if a n entire society has fallen f o r a casual confidence t r i c k s t e r " (An Area of Darkness, p. 62). "It was a l l there i n K i p l i n g , b a r r i n g the epilogue of the I n d i a n i n h e r i t a n c e " (Ibid., p. 205). F o r C h a u d h u r i , though, the epilogue cannot be so l i g h t l y dismissed. It is, after a l l , the era i n w h i c h he lives, K i p l i n g ' s view, however b r i l l i a n t , is dated a n d p a r t i a l : " t h e Indian sojourn made h i m incapable of l o v i n g a n y Indian w i t h a m i n d , and led h i m to reserve a l l his affection for w h a t could be called the h u m a n fauna of the c o u n t r y " (A Passage to England, p. 112). B o t h w r i t e r s attest the ease w i t h w h i c h B r i t a i n has sloughed off her empire, barely r e m e m b e r i n g t h a t she h a d one o n l y a generation ago. T h e difference, however, is t h a t whereas N a i p a u l sees t h i s as f u r t h e r evidence of a decomposing c i v i l i z a t i o n C h a u d h u r i , maybe w i t h a t o u c h of sentimentality, see it as proof of B r i t i s h resilience a n d even B r i t i s h grace. An Area of Darkness a n d A Passage to England could only have been w r i t t e n b y men fascinated w i t h B r i t a i n , w i t h India, w i t h the l i n k s between t h e m and the language one bestowed upon the other. A t t h e end, however, one comes back to the m e n themselves. F o r both of them t h e i r journeys were essential stages i n self-knowledge. W i l l i a m W a l s h has spoken of N i r a d C h a u d h u r i as a m a n w i t h " a n intense fascination w i t h h i m s e l f " and a l l V . S. N a i p a u l ' s prose contains a major element of autobiography, even w h e n it is the subjectivity of detached observation. Theoretically, t h o u g h one never believes it could have been so i n practice, I n d i a m i g h t have been the cause w h i c h N a i p a u l at once craves and condemns i n his w r i t i n g . H i s v i s i t confirmed h i m i n his wariness of c o m m i t m e n t and that, f a r more t h a n the t r e n c h a n c y o r p a r t i a l i t y of any p a r t i c u l a r observation, w i l l always be the fascination of An Area of Darkness. In A House For Mr. Bisuxus^ N a i p a u l h a d already declared himself a major novelist.
14

CHAUDHURI

AND

NAIPAUL

35

T h a t promise has been a m p l y c o n f i r m e d i n The Mimic Men, In A Free State and Guerillas. '' B u t no s t u d y of his fiction w o u l d be complete w i t h o u t t h e complement of his other w o r k a n d amongst t h a t h i s a c c o u n t of t h e I n d i a n sojourn has a special pathos. N o r w o u l d i t be f a i r to leave An Area of Darkness w i t h o u t n o t i n g t h a t some of the sourness there has been replaced b y a h a r s h compassion i n the essays on I n d i a published i n The Overcrowded Barracoon as a result of o t h e r visits. T h a t book contains m a n y tributes to C h a u d h u r i , whose Autobiography, N a i p a u l says, " m a y be the one great b o o k t o have come out of the I n d o - E n g l i s h e n c o u n t e r . " A s for Chaudhuri himself, h i s scholarship a n d h i s c a p a c i t y t o e x a m i n e two cultures simultaneously undoubtedly m a k e h i m the foremost m a n of letters i n modern India. N o t l a c k i n g i n i r o n y or scepticism he nevertheless establishes i n A Passage to England a note of u n c y n i c a l e n t h u s i a s m w h i c h testifies not o n l y to the e n d u r i n g inheritance of e m p i r e but to h i s own grandness of heart.
16 1 ls 19

NOTES 'Nirad C. Chaudhuri, A Passage To England (London: Chatto and Windus, 1960). Page references here are to the Indian paperback edition (New Delhi: Orient). -V. S. Naipul, An Area of Darkness: An Experience of India (London: Andr Deutsch, 1964). V. S. Naipul, The Suffrage of Elvira (London: Andr Deutsch, 1958). *V. S. Naipaul, The Mystic Masseur (London: Andr Deutsch, 1957). V . S. Naipaul, The Mimic Men (London: Andr Deutscht 1967). Manohar Malgonkar, The Princes (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1963). "E. M. Forster, Tlie Hill of Devi (London: Edward Arnold, 1953). Mulk Raj Anand, Private Life of an Indian Prince (London: Hutchinson, 1953).
S 5 s n

H . H . Anniah Gowda, "Naipaul in India." Yearly, II, no. 2 (July, 1970), 163-170. of El Dorado:

The

Literary

Half-

'OV. S. Naipaul, The Loss Andr Deutsch, 1969). " N i r a d C. Chaudhuri, The and Windus, 1965).

A History

(London:

Continent

of Circe

(London: Chatto

36

A L A S TA IR N T V E N

19

!2Nirad C. Chaudhuri, To Live Or Not To Live! (Delhi: Hind Pocket Books, no date). N i r a d C. Chaudhuri, The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (London: MacMillan, 1951). William Walsh, A Manifold Voice: Studies in Common-wealth Literature (London: Chatto and Windus, 1970), p. 27. V . S. Naipaul, A House For Mr. Biswas (London: Andr Deutsch, 1961). !V. S. Naipaul, In A Free State (London: Andr Deutsch, 1971). V . S. Naipaul, Guerillas (London: Andr Deutsch, 1975). V . S. Naipaul, The Overcrowded Barracoon, and other articles (London: Andr Deutsch, 1972). The main references to Chaudhuri are in the essay "Indian Autobiographies," reprinted from the New Statesman, 29 January 1965, and "The Last of the Aryans," reprinted from Encounter, January 1966 {The Overcrowded Barracoon, pp. 55-70). The essays " A Second Visit," reprinted from the Magazine supplement of The Daily Telegraph, 11 and 18 August 1967, and "The Election in Ajmer," reprinted from the Magazine supplement of The Sunday Times, 15 and 22 August 1971 (The Overcrowded Barracoon, pp. 76-138) are important additions to Naipaul's account of India, but if the tone is milder and the eye for comedy a little more benign the conclusions are much the same as in An Area of Darkness. The Overcrowded Barracoon, p. 59.
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