Naipaul and the world

DR VISHNU BISRAM

VIDIADHAR SURUJPRASAD Naipaul has written extensively on varied societies. His scholarship has touched every corner of the globe like no other writer did/does. Most writers tend to focus on only one field of specialisation and one geographic area on which to write. Naipaul is perhaps the only writer who has written on virtually every major region and his literary works aptly describe life.

His nearly seven decades of prose is unmatched by writers of his generation. Every piece of writing by or on him or every interview of him won international claim. He writes courageously, critiquing Third World societies, especially their leaders for mimicking the former empires and colonial rulers they condemned during colonial rule.

There is hardly a “schooled” person who has not read his works or heard of him. And unlike most other writers, his writings covered many subjects and regions. In fact, he wrote several books on India and on Trinidad in addition to books about life in Malaysia, Africa, Guyana, the Middle East etc. He praised Trinidad and Tobago and India, his ancestral homeland.

Naipaul was often criticised for not making good company. I found Naipaul very peasant and engaging. I encountered him in January 2003 at the Sheraton Hotel in New Delhi where we both were staying and attending the Pravasi Baharatiya Divas convention. Naipaul was a keynote speaker (and an honoree of the Samman Award of India’s government) and I was invited as a reporter.

He and his wife, Nadira (Pakistan born) were very pleasant in their exchanges. They both expressed their gratitude to the government for honouring him. Sir Shridath Ramphal was also there as an honoree.

Naipaul’s 30 books and countless stories, essays, commentaries, and interviews touched many societies and subjects. It touched, besides literature, several subjects in the social sciences and humanities like politics, history, sociology, anthropology, fine arts, among others. And not surprisingly, his writings are used in colleges in several of these subjects.

Several of Naipaul’s books are prescribed for use not only in literature but also in history and other subjects. Although Naipaul wrote in English, his works are used in literature in the Middle East, India, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the USA, and the UK, for he wrote about all of these societies. And there is perhaps no university in the world where Naipaul’s works are not read in the field of literature.

When I studied Africana and Caribbean literature, Naipaul’s works were required reading. And when I did history in graduate school, my late Prof Arthur Schlesinger (adviser to late US president John F Kennedy who approved the plan to overthrow the Dr Cheddi Jagan government in Guyana in the 1960s) required a couple of Naipaul’s books on the course, “The Novel as History.” Schlesinger did same on the course on “Imperialism.”

As someone who holds post-graduate degrees in several social science subjects and educational administration, Naipaul’s books were also used in my political science and sociology courses and referenced in education courses. On the subject of migration and the Indian diaspora, last January at a conference at Gujarat University in Gandhinagar, India, I chaired a session in which two papers were on Naipaul’s literary works. The literature department of every university in India uses Naipaul’s books.

His writings were prescribed for secondary schools. When I first became a teacher, my supervisor asked me to teach two classes in English literature. Naipaul’s Miguel Street was a prescribed work in addition to novels on India, Africa, and the USA.

Naipaul’s legacy as a writer and scholar is assured. Dozens if not hundreds of books and countless articles were written on him. And every English or literature major is required to read him. At a lecture followed by a question and answer period at Queens College (Queens, NY) around 1979, his audience was held in awe on his use of the English language. He spoke brilliantly on writing style and the use of language to describe events and societies. The New York Times reporter, who also interviewed him, described Naipaul as the best writer in the English language.

Although some of the novels may be considered as fictional, they describe real-life experiences that Naipaul encountered. This helped his writings to be recommended for use in several subjects and to attract million of readers.

The world will miss Naipaul’s sharp-tongued, witty commentaries on society. But what he described yesterday about many societies and subjects are still apt today for those societies and the lifestyle he critiqued have not changed much.

His death is an incalculable loss for the world for there are few writers of his calibre around.

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Dr Vishnu Bisram