Focused on the occidental/diasporic constructions of India by Rudyard Kipling, E.M. Forster and V. S. Naipaul, this volume examines the uncanny similarities and marked contrasts in their India-related works. It critiques these writer's perceptions of the Indian socio-cultural and historical contexts through a close reading of their well-known texts including Kim, A Passage to India, and An Area of Darkness. The study, ranging from the colonial and partly ambivalent outlook of Kipling tot he postcolonial strains in Forster and the diminishing presence of a colonial's bias in Naipaul, makes for an absorbing and insightful reading.
In equal measure, the volume investigates the interface between travel writings and fictional constructs of these writers. It works on and across the boundaries between these two genres, and illumines the often illusive terrain of their 'crossover point' in terms of people, situations and events. This pioneering wok discerningly dismissed 'the rhetoric of Empire', draws attention to Edward Said's discourse on Orientalism, and identifies an authentic and thought provoking positioning on India-related writings.