While I get through academic or quasi-academic writing quite easily – a lot of it is for my day-to-day writing – it takes a lot of effort and concentration for me to read fiction, especially when I am not on a vacation. This year has been a welcome exception of sorts on this front as I rediscovered the joy of reading Hindi fiction thanks to a friend’s (he is a professor of Hindi) recommendations. While a lot of them have been classics, one relatively unknown book that I loved was Rambhakt Rangbaaz by Rakesh Kayasth (this was a recommendation from another friend whose first language is Tamil).
There are many reasons why I loved the book. The sarcasm and humour in the writing, if one can say so, almost matches the level of Harishankar Parsai, perhaps the best satire writer Hindi literature has ever seen. To get to this level in writing requires not just a gift with prose but also an organic link with the society one is describing in one’s writings. The destruction of intellectual ecosystems in almost all provincial towns has meant that this link has all but disappeared. To encounter such literary insight in what is otherwise a world of decadent popular culture in the Hindi belt is a pleasant surprise.
To be sure, the book is not just sarcasm and humour. It manages to capture, in my view, the social fissures that the Hindi belt has suffered in the tumultuous period post-1990s, which is often described as Mandal, Mandir and Market in the journalistic lexicon. Once again, at the risk of exaggerating, the book can be described as the post-Reforms sequel to another cult classic in Hindi literature, Shrilal Shukla’s Rag Darbari. The protagonist of the novel, a Muslim tailor who can recite the Ramcharitmanas in his conversations and goes by the name of Rambhakt Rangbaaz (the closest literal translation will be a local strongman who is a devotee of Lord Rama) sees his world turn upside down as communal fissures divide his locality in the wake of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The protagonist eventually finds validation and is able to win back the support of his community only to succumb to what is the best metaphor for the zombification of our society in the politically motivated dissemination of hate.
Some of the best voices in Hindi fiction have done a much better job of explaining the contradictions in our society than social scientists. Rambhakt Rangbaaz is a welcome addition to that tradition.
{{/usCountry}}Some of the best voices in Hindi fiction have done a much better job of explaining the contradictions in our society than social scientists. Rambhakt Rangbaaz is a welcome addition to that tradition.
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