Author: IDG
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: October 14, 2001
The Nobel Prize for literature didn't
take only V S Naipaul by surprise, In fact, controversy dogged him even
in his hour of glory. Many of Delhi's literary luminaries refused to comment
on the award after it was announced and very few had good things to say
about the author. The usual buzz when an Indian or a person of Indian origin
makes it big in the global arena seemed missing, at least in the Capital's
publishing circles.
But that was only one side of the
story. Naipaul has often been considered a Nobel laureate in-the-waiting
as had been Amartya Sen for many years. So in a way, the 10-million kronor
prize came after a really long wait for the 69-year-old author, now settled
in Britain. While the author said the award was a tribute to his home Britain
and India, the home of his ancestors, he left out Trinidad where he was
born. That was, perhaps, characteristic of Naipaul whose writing has always
underscored a search for his roots and an inability to relate to a cultural
and ethnic identity.
Typically, Naipaul has always courted
controversy. His writing, as an admirer points out, transcends narrow representations
and in the process, often puts paid to political correctness.
He lashed out at Islam a week ago
and at British homosexuals recently. Last year, he vented his ire on the
government of UK over its aggressively plebian attitude to culture and
also likened PM Tony Blair to a pirate at the head of a socialist revolution
that was destroying the idea of civilisation in that country. He has criticised
the corruption in Indian politics and the treatment of the Western world
of its former colonies. And of course, his public spats with long-time
friend and fellow author Paul Theroux and more recently Salman Rushdie
are now literary history. But Naipaul has prevailed.