(Book Review on Indian Independence Day, 15th August 2005)

Anant Kumar*

Scott, Paul: The Day of the Scorpion, New York 1979
(This is the second book of the masterpiece "The Raj Quartet". The other three books are: The Jewel In The Crown - 1, The Towers Of Silence - 3, A Division Of The Spoils - 4)

This brilliantly written novel is a successful psychological study of the colonial English/British and of the colonised Indians during the last turbulent years of the British Raj in the 1930s and 40s.

Paul Scott creates compelling characters and penetrates deep into their souls. The daughters of military Generals and the sons of Nawabs cry and laugh similarly to the brown Indian youth Hari Kumar, who has only been schooled in England and who knows only one language in his land of birth, i.e. English.

This English youth of Indian colour is on the verge of mental illness because of no communication: for the white English, often disturbed by Kumar's very British accent, he is one of the inferior brown natives. Kumar does not find any friendship among the Indian youths because he experiences nothing in common with them.

It is indeed not a colonial book reminiscent of Kipling & Co., primarily focusing on jungles, elephants, dirt,… Scott talks simultaneously of dawn and sunset, the poetry of Moghul poets, the zeal of the rising Indian intellect,… In contrast to many other exotic writers on India till today (e.g. Günter Grass in "Zunge Zeigen / Showing Your Tongue"), Scott's characters cope with Indian diversity and polyphony: "Overnight from Ranpur she had ridden into the June rain. It would not reach Pankot for a while yet. She felt, from this alone, that she had travelled into another world, so that it amazed her that it was ever possible to make the mistake of thinking of India as one country." (page 375)

The reading of this novel also underlines the widespread belief of most Indians that the British were sympathetic to the Muslim minority, especially during the last decades of the Raj. To be more precise: they preferred the minority Muslims to majority Hindus in their service. For what reasons? A second question posed by this book: were the Hindu youths more nationalistic!? Third, are minorities more successfully manipulated by the ruling powers to this day?!

About the Author:

Anant Kumar*
Kassel / Germany - Motihari / India
www.anant-kumar.de.vu

Anant Kumar, a writer in the German language, was born in the North Eastern Indian State of Bihar. He learnt German as a Foreign Language in New Delhi, before he came to Germany in 1991. Between 1991 and 1998, he studied German Literature and Linguistics. He wrote his Masters Thesis on the epic MANAS of Alfred Döblin at the University of Kassel, Germany. Besides regular contributions to literary magazines and periodicals, he is the author of eight books of poetry and prose: FREMDE FRAU -- FREMDER MANN (Schweinfurt 1997/ 2000), KASSELER TEXTE (Schweinfurt 1998/ 2000), DIE INDERIN (Schweinfurt 1999/ 2000), ...UND EIN STÜCK FÜR DICH (Ahlhorn 2000), DIE GALOPPIERENDE KUHHERDE (Schweinfurt 2001/2002), DIE UFERLOSEN GESCHICHTEN (Schweinfurt 2003/2004), DREI KILO HÜHNER (Leipzig 2005) and ZERU -Eine siebentägige Geschichte (Schweinfurt 2005). He has received several awards in contemporary German literature and is a member of German Writers Association.

On going poetry readings and lectures by Anant Kumar are being organized in various cities in the European Union, in North America (Deptt. of Germanic Studies) and in India.

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