No religious rites for Sir Vidia

HE often said he had no religion and so Nobel laureate Sir Vidia Naipaul’s funeral in London will not be a religious one.

“Emphatically a non-religious affair,” the Observer newspaper in London quoted Naipaul’s close friend, the novelist and scriptwriter Farrukh Dhondy, as saying in an interview.

No date has been fixed for the funeral since Naipaul’s death on Saturday, after a brief illness, at 85.

One of Naipaul’s three surviving siblings, Savi Naipaul-Akal, 80, lives in Valsayn and has been monitoring the news coming out from London about the final rites for her brother.

Dhondy is reported to have said he spoke to Naipaul’s widow, Lady Nadira, who said the funeral for her husband of about 20 years would be very private.

Dhondy said, “It is my understanding that Naipaul’s funeral will be very private, emphatically a non-religious affair, probably in Wiltshire, with only close family and friends...This will be followed by a memorial when many more people could be invited.”

Contacted yesterday, Akal told Newsday enough has been said about the lack of communication from the bereaved family in London about funeral arrangements.

“We are not going to prolong anything further. I need some time now for myself. To be a bit pensive and reflect on what we shared. We kept in touch always. We have not had any altercation, but we disagreed on certain things. But we knew we were a family and we kept in touch.”

Naipaul was born into a traditional Hindu family in Chaguanas, both his maternal and paternal grandparents having arrived here as indentured labourers from India to work on sugar plantations. However, since leaving Trinidad at 18 for Oxford University on an island scholarship to study literature, Naipaul never practised Hinduism nor adopted any other religion. He is reported to have been agnostic and when asked about his religious beliefs, he replied, “I have no religion.”

Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie, a former principal of UWI, St Augustine, endorsed Akal’s sentiments about Naipaul’s close bond with her and his other surviving sisters, Nalini Chapman, 66, who lives in Scotland, and Mira Enalsingh, 82, of the United States. Their elder sister Kamla Naipaul Tewari died several years ago, and their brother Shiva, also a writer, died at 40 in 1985.

“He well interacted with them. He came to Trinidad often.”

Describing him as an extremely imaginative observer of the world, Tewarie said he believed that after Naipaul’s funeral, the best honour for him would be for people to read his works.

“The best way our society can embrace Sir Vidia is for people to read his works and how he reflected on the condition of our society.”