Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.
action: police, 132; self-deception and, 264n1; social, 106
Adventures of Gurudeva, The (Naipaul, S.), 60Adorno, Theodor, 254n92
aesthetically informed ideologies, 174
agency: fantasy of, 40; historical, 15, 100; marginalized people asserting, 117; postcolonial politics overwhelming, 148; postcolonial scholarship and, 177; in postcolonial society, 147; representation and, 141; universalization of, 147
alienation, 167; human association and, 197; V. S. Naipaul Trinidad trip and, 77; postcolonial criticism and, 173
alien norms, colonial rule and, 168
alien self-consciousness, 141
anti-apartheid movement, 227
anticolonial nationalism, 55, 56, 200
ascetic self-sacrifice, 234
Association of Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI), 221
autobiographical essays, 162
autobiographical impulses, 14
autobiography, realism and, 165
BBC Caribbean Services, 5
BBC freelancers’ room, 163
Bend in the River, A (Naipaul, V. S.), 17, 32, 89, 139–57, 161, 189, 236, 239, 242, 272n2
Beyond a Boundary (James), 73
Beyond Belief (Naipaul, V. S.), 33, 205, 208, 282n41; friends in, 216; fundamentalism explored in, 219; as historical interpretation, 183; human connection in, 231–33; Malaysia section of, 225
Birbalsingh, Frank, 258n6
Black Jacobins, The (James), 74
blacks: equality demanded by, 179; political rhetoric in Trinidad and, 6–8, 28; population in Trinidad, 248n18
Bolo (fictional character), 45–47
browns, 110; equality demanded by, 179; political rhetoric in Trinidad and, 7–8; population in Trinidad, 248n18
brutality, V. S. Naipaul on, 78; in colonial rule, 97; by Uganda military rule, 123
Butler, Tubal Uriah, “Buzz,” 21, 24
capital: accumulation of, 171; intelligence as, 118
capitalism, 22, 63; concept-metaphors of, 173; globalizing forms of, 26; historical transition to, 150, 173; transition to, 150
Caribbean Voices (BBC program), 6
cause and effect logic, 276n20
“Caution” (Naipaul, V. S.), 45–47
chauvinism: ethnocentric, 76; Hindu, 79, 109, 110; Shiv Sena and, 207
civic association and consensus, 53
civic ideals, institutions and, 75
civility, 53; cricket and, 73
Cobham-Sander, Rhonda, 2–3, 234
Cold War: disinformation in, 46; geopolitics of, 124
colonial history, colonized people in, 23
colonialism, 1; caste-like hierarchies after, 105; deranging effects of, 132; epistemic fractures from, 178; equality and, 203; globalizing forms of, 26; hoaxes of, 146; institutions of, 119; power asymmetries in, 136; progressiveness in, 119; racial hierarchy and, 203; Roy on, 120; self-deception in, 132; Vijayanagar scholarship and, 113
colonial order, plantation economy and, 65
colonial rule: alien norms and, 168; brutality in, 97; deranging legacy of, 132; education and, 210; Hindu nationalism and, 194; ideology and, 120; in India, 120–21, 192; institutions and, 192; majority rule replacing, 140; marginalized groups and, 204; New Learning and, 201; postcolonial society challenges and practices of, 148; recovering from violence of, 227; stamps and, 142
colonial societies: stereotypes of, 184; traits of, 53
colonized societies: independence agitation in, 55; modernity deranging, 26; nationalism impact on, 55
communism: in India, 191; in Indonesia, 124; Malaysia and fight against, 213
Communist Party, in Guyana, 79
community: country to town transition of, 63; cricket and, 73; identity and, 83; national, 200; racial leadership and, 28; Shiv Sena and, 116–17
competing nationalisms, 254n94
concept-metaphors of capitalism, 173
Congress of Black Writers and Artists, 180
connected narratives, 190
“Conrad’s Darkness and Mine” (Naipaul, V. S.), 156–57, 162–64
Creoles: ethnocentric chauvinism and, 76; indentured immigration, 248n18
critical self-awareness, 238
critical self-examination, 25
“Crocodiles of Yamoussoukro, The” (Naipaul, V. S.), 233, 274n38
cultural heritage, imperialism and, 142
cultural hybridization, 113
culture: colonial, 101; counter-culture, 118; cricket and, 73; democratic, 73, 192, 233, 236; Hindu, 109; hybridized, 58; of imperialism, 228; Islamic, 230; peripheral societies and, 23; plantation, 59, 60, 105; political, 22, 202; postcolonial, 171, 186; signs of, 196; steel bands and, 77–78; R. Williams on, 23
“Culture Is Ordinary” (Williams, R.), 23
decolonization, 16, 182; disorientation from, 8; English society rifts and, 130; as global phenomenon, 123; Islamism and, 183; as moral rebalancing, 75; movement of peoples in, 178; V. S. Naipaul on, 75, 76
degradation: colonial culture and, 101; V. S. Naipaul on revolting against, 85
demagoguery, mass violence from, 74
democracy: cricket and, 73; ethnic and racial identity appeals in, 57; Shiv Sena rejection of, 116
development, 63–64; disjunctive temporality and, 168; disorientation from, 150, 168; economic, 221; Enigma presentation of, 178–79; fake, 150; inward, 174, 175; in peripheral spaces, 66; religious orthodoxy and economic, 221; uneven, 150
disadvantaged groups: historical narrative control and, 100; V. S. Naipaul interests in, 50
disjunctive temporalities, 168
dislocation: formative, 175; psychological, 210
disorientation, 166; from decolonization, 8; development and, 150, 168; disadvantaged people taking control and, 100; fundamentalism and, 212; historical, 93, 95, 168, 176, 178, 227; induction into modernity causing, 168; modernity and, 210; realism and, 95; subjective, 26, 47; working through, 172
displacement, globalization and individual, 125
double consciousness, 180
economic development, religious orthodoxy and, 221
education, 233–34; boycotting Western, 234; colonial rule and, 210; missionary, 238, 239; pesantren, 224; in postcolonial era, 146; progressiveness of colonialism in, 119
Edward Bonaventura (ship), 95–96
England: Hindu nationalism and rule by, 194; slave colonies, 97; slavery and, 97–100; societal rifts in decolonization era, 130; Spanish territory revolutions encouraged by, 96–97; Trinidad colonization and, 92, 94–102; Trinidad immigration from, 101
English public-school code, 73
equality, 207; colonialism and, 203; demands for, 179
ethnic admixture, fears of, 53
ethnic identity, democracy and appeals to, 57
ethnic prejudice, 61, 197
ethnic tensions, intracommunal, 61
ethnocentric chauvinism, 76
ethnocentric perspectives, postcolonial society structure and, 177
exploited peoples, parallels between, 105
formative dislocation, 175
Fort de France, Martinique, Indian social structures in, 50
Foster Morris (fictional character), 21–24
French Martinique, Indians in, 49, 50
Froude, James Anthony, 80
Furnivall, John S., 258n3
global comprehension, 162
globalization: capitalism and, 26; individual displacement from, 125
global movements of people, 178
Glory Dead (Marshall), 21
group identity, racial separateness and maintaining, 53
Guyana, 7; coup in, 79; racial politics in, 79
Guyana Quartet (Harris), 74
Half a Life (Naipaul, V. S.), 233–40
Heart of Darkness (Conrad), 136, 172
Hindu extremist ideology, 112
Hindu-Muslim antagonism, 50
Hindus, caste system among, 50
historical agency, 15, 100
historical blankness, 236, 237
historical consciousness, 222
historical disorientation, 93, 168, 176, 178; postcolonial peoples and, 227; realism and, 95
historical knowledge: V. S. Naipaul and, 38, 42, 51; novels and, 48
historical retardation, 175
historical scripts, individual choices framed by, 30
historical transition, 121
history: disconnection from social forces of, 64; human progress and, 62; imperial, 102; Muslims and, 217–18; V. S. Naipaul analysis of, 81; political uses of, 80
“Home Again” (Naipaul, V. S.), 27–31
House for Mr Biswas, A (Naipaul, V. S.), 12, 52, 59–70, 74–75, 157, 165, 191, 212, 236
hybridization, cultural, 113
identity: caste, 191; community and, 83; democracy and appeals to, 57; national, 148; Pan-Indian, 192, 202; representation and, 142
ideology: aesthetically informed, 174; colonial rule and, 120; of free trade, 96, 98; Hindu extremist, 112; imperial, 102; V. S. Naipaul criticisms and, 17, 19; nationalist, 55, 147; political leaders and, 119; racial, 120; religious, 161; of separateness, 179; of Shiv Sena, 117
ideology critique, 3, 118
imperialism, 102, 120, 131; artificial spaces of, 168; culture of, 228; as custodial project, 142; as modernizing project, 142; racialized contempt and, 80
indentured immigration, 248n18
independence: minorities and, 140; political, 176; of Trinidad, 10, 75
independence movements, 140, 176; nationalist ideologies and, 55
India, 240; caste in, 86, 105; colonial rule and, 120–21, 192; communism in, 191; democratic culture in, 233, 236; the Emergency in, 116; hybridity of, 194; independence of, 109; V. S. Naipaul and, 81–82, 84, 86, 89–90, 119; nationalist movement in, 108; physical environment of, 84, 86; political culture in, 202; racial pride in, 262n25; repatriation in, 251n53; social awakening in, 190, 200; urban blight in, 199–200
Indian Administrative Service, 202
Indian Mutiny of 1857, 203, 204
Indians: indentured immigration, 248n18; inward turn of, 106; rituals held on to by, 106–7
individual agency, postcolonial politics and, 148
individual development, in peripheral spaces, 66
individual happiness, 125
industrial revolution, 171
In Search of Lost Time (Proust), 168
institutions: civic ideals and, 75; of colonialism, 119; colonial powers reshaping, 168; colonial rule and, 192; Islamic fundamentalism and, 208; plantation economies lacking, 62–63; postcolonial building of, 137; power and, 100; reflective, 109
intellectual right, extreme rhetoric deployed by, 252n67
intelligence, as capital, 118
International University of the Alternative, 118
In the Castle of My Skin (Lamming), 74
Island Is a World, An (Selvon), 6
Jaipur Literature Festival, 2
knowledge: historical, 38, 42, 51; hostile production of, 80; in plantation economies, 64; self, 48, 81; sociological, 48
literary realism, 95, 154
London Calling (Nixon), 17
de Madariaga, Salvador, 78
Magic Seeds (Naipaul, V. S.), 240–44
Malik, Michael Abdul, “Michael X,” 117–19, 122
manners, as indicator of health, 249n27
marginalized groups, 198; agency asserted by, 117; colonial rule and, 204; self-assertion by, 192
Marshall, Arthur Calder, 21
Martinique, Indians in, 49, 50
mass violence: demagoguery resulting in, 74; justifications for, 144
metropolitan discourses, 118
metropolitan revolutionaries, 118
“Michael X and the Black Power Killings in Trinidad” (Naipaul, V. S.), 117–19
Mimic Men, The (Naipaul, V. S.), 33, 165
minorities: nationalism threatening, 75; political independence effects on, 140
missionary education, 238, 239
modernism: postcolonial, 173; self-formation explored through, 176
modernity, 277n41; colonized societies deranged by, 26; disorientation of induction into, 168; neocolonial project of training for, 149; plantation economies and, 62; psychological disorientation from, 210; Trinidad impact of, 55
modernization, 259n35; Western imperialism and, 142
modern society, truth uses in, 143
moral rebalancing, decolonization as, 75
Mystic Masseur, The (Naipaul, V. S.), 55
Naipaul, Seepersad, 4, 6, 14, 259n26; childhood, 10, 12; death threats against, 9; end of journalism career, 10; on rabies inoculation campaign, 9; racial discrimination and, 53, 54; writing as vocation to, 13
Naipaul, V. S., 1, 256n9, 256n11; adolescence of, 5, 52; autobiographical essays by, 162; autobiographical impulse of, 14; biographies of, 19; on brutality, 78; Caribbean travels, 74; childhood, 33, 52; on colonial period India, 203–4; critics of, 17–18, 88–89, 104, 110, 116; on decolonization, 75, 76; derogatory remarks of, 253n72; “false” sophistication of, 20; on fantasy corrupting, 91–92; on Hindu nationalism, 114–16; historical analysis and, 81; India and, 81–82, 84, 86, 89–90, 119; Islam and, 114; knowledge of history and, 38, 42, 51; moving to London, 5; on Muslims as converts, 230–31; national identity, 267n58; Nobel Lecture, 11, 15; as object of curiosity, 249n27; personal background, 3–4; postcolonial peoples studied by, 15, 105; public persona, 247n5; racial prejudice in letters by, 54; reflective style, 81; return to Trinidad, 6–7; on revolting against degradation, 85; self-knowledge and, 48; shift in tone of writings by, 162–64; shocked by society change, 250n35; situating writings of, 19; skepticism towards anticolonialism, 5; skepticism towards solidarity, 104; spaces occupied by, 52; starting career, 13–14; on steel bands, 77; tone used by, 88–89; on travel, 277n52; travel writing by, 189; Two Worlds speech, 256n11; Vijayanagar destruction, 268n67; on West Indian culture, 77–78
nationalism, 73, 147; anticolonial, 55, 56, 200; colonized societies and, 55; competing, 254n94; Hindu, 111, 194; in India, 108; minorities threatened by, 75
nationalist ideology, 147
native Indians, indentured immigration, 248n18
Nehru, Jawaharlal, 11, 114
Niangoran-Bouah, Georges, 274n38
Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2
novels: historical and sociological knowledge and, 48; rise of, 95
O’Brien, Conor Cruise, 17
order: collective, 66–67; colonial, 65; social, 60
orientalist representation, 141–43
“Our Universal Civilization,” 283n3
“Passenger: A Figure from the Thirties” (Naipaul, V. S.), 21–25, 27
People’s Democratic Party (PDP), 79
People’s National Movement (PNM), 79, 255n98
peripheral historicity, 176
peripheral societies, 15, 27, 161, 168; culture and, 23; hegemonic center resisted by, 23; realism and, 95
peripheral spaces: aesthetically informed ideologies and, 174; individual development in, 66; V. S. Naipaul developing approach to, 50–51
plantation colonies, 53, 92; English rule and, 98; social orders of, 60
plantation culture, 59, 60; caste attitudes and, 105
plantation economies: colonial order and rules of, 65; institutions lacking in, 62–63; knowledge in, 64; modernity and, 62
plural society (Furnivall), 258n3
political culture: in India, 202; of Trinidad, 22
political emancipation, collateral damage of, 125
political independence, 140, 176
political movements, identitarian, 182
politics: identitarian, 182; Islamist, 182; postcolonial, 148, 177
Port of Spain, Trinidad, 6, 33, 49; Indian social structures in, 50, 54; new communities in, 54; Raleigh raid on, 94; steel bands in, 77
postcolonial criticism, 173
postcolonial culture, 171, 186
postcolonial era: caste-like hierarchies in, 105; education in, 146; fractures of, 185; hoaxes of, 146; hostile knowledge production in, 80; institution building in, 137; movement of peoples in, 178
postcolonial freedom, 229
postcolonial literary realism, 154
postcolonial modernism, 173
postcolonial peoples: historical disorientation and, 227; historical predicaments of, 145; V. S. Naipaul examination of, 15, 105; revolutionary leaders and, 117
postcolonial politics, 177; individual agency overwhelmed by, 148
postcolonial societies, 16; agency in, 147; colonial practices and challenges of, 148; fragility of, 8; perspectives characterizing structure of, 177; racial prejudices and, 29, 31
postcolonial studies, 17, 23
poverty, in Miguel Street, 43
power: black, 117–19, 181, 183; colonial system asymmetries of, 136; institutions and, 100; learning operation of, 99–100; norms reshaped by, 168
“Prologue to an Autobiography” (Naipaul, V. S.), 162–64
psychological dislocations, 210
public spiritedness, cricket and, 73
rabies, inoculation campaign for, 8–9
racial admixture, fears of, 53
racial discrimination, 53–54
racial identity, democracy and appeals to, 57
racial perspectives, postcolonial society structure and, 177
racial politics, 14, 29; anticolonial nationalism and, 55; in Guyana, 79; in Trinidad, 79
racial self-consciousness, 29
racial violence: in Guyana, 7; in Trinidad, 7–8; Trinidad and, 74
racism, 76, 129, 185; postcolonial, 75; Vijayanagar scholarship and, 113
reflective institutions, 109
reflective mode of reasoning, 239
“Regulated Hatred” (Harding), 129
religious orthodoxy, economic development and, 221
representation, 204; agency and, 141; identity and, 142; orientalist, 141–43
revolutionary leaders: metropolitan, 118; postcolonial peoples and, 117
revolutionary movements, 147
Robinson Crusoe (Defoe), 96
Russell, William Howard, 203
Samskara (Ananthamurthy), 234
“Second Visit, A” (Naipaul, V. S.), 119
Second World War, movement of peoples after, 178–79, 182
self-awareness, 65, 83; critical, 238; El Dorado legends and, 94
self-examination: critical, 25; Wounded as call for, 112, 113
social codes, free state destabilizing, 127
social fragmentation, 190
social historical knowledge, 42
social orders, of plantation colonies, 60
social reality, falsification of, 88
social reforms, Islamic fundamentalism and, 208
sociological knowledge, 48
Souls of Black Folk, The (Du Bois), 180
Spain, 174; Chaguanes Indians and, 102; England encouraging revolution in territories of, 96–97; Trinidad colonization and, 92–95
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, 266n29
subjective disorientation, 26, 47
systemic forms of injustice, 62
Tehran Times (newspaper), 215
Theory of the Novel (Lukács), 155
Trinidad, 4; caste in, 86; as character in novel, 103; colonizing of, 92–96; cultural politics of, 77; elections of 1961, 76; English immigrants to, 101; fantasy on, 91–92; free trade and, 97–98; Grenada and, 24–25; independence, 10, 75; Indians in, 49, 50; modernity impact on, 55; oil field strike in, 21, 22; political culture of, 22; popular politics in, 21; racial antagonism in, 6–7; racial politics in, 79; racial violence and, 74; romanticizing, 277n39; separateness in, 181; as slave colony, 97; slavery in, 97–99
Trinidad Guardian (newspaper), 4, 9
Turn in the South, A (Naipaul, V. S.), 205
Two Worlds speech (Naipaul), 256n11
universalization of agency, 147
Wahhabi fundamentalism, 222
West Indians: cricket and, 73; V. S. Naipaul on culture of, 77–78; steel bands and, 77
West Indies Federation, 75
World Is What It Is, The (French), 19