The Great Indian Novel

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The Great Indian Novel

Written by: Shashi Tharoor

Narrated by: Akshay Ghildiyal

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About this listen

The Mahabharata meets modern Indian history in an intellectual roller coaster ride of a novel.

In Shashi Tharoor’s satirical masterpiece, the story of the Mahabharata is retold as recent Indian history, and renowned political personalities begin to resemble characters from the Mahabharata—all of whom have a curious and ambiguous relationship with Draupadi Mokrasi (D. Mokrasi for short) . . . Brimming with incisive wit and as enjoyable a read as it is cerebrally stimulating, The Great Indian Novel brilliantly retells reality as myth.

Genre Fiction

Literary Fiction

Psychological

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This is an ambitious undertaking by Shashi Tharoor where he attempts a retelling of the Mahabharata while simultaneously entwining the narrative threads from the epic to Indian history in the 20th century. It is a must-read for every Indian and Tharoor's witty and masterful prose makes it perfectly suitable for the audiobook format as well.

To point this out at the outset, I would rate the audio performance as just OK. The narrator is drab at certain points and (probably as the result of the 'neutral' accent he puts on) trips at certain Indian names and 'Indianisms'. I wouldn't say this is too big a deal though because the performance is largely serviceable and doesn't break immersion for the most part. Still, one wishes that Tharoor would have narrated the book himself which would have made it all the more enjoyable.

To come to the story, I do not exaggerate when I say that I loved every word of it. The writing style is very reminiscent of Rushdie's brand of magical realism to which the book pays explicit homage. But Tharoor's use of the Indian political landscape as a means to bring fantastical stories from the epics into contemporary reality grounds the book in a way that amazes the reader at every turn.

The first half of the book, which is set in pre-Independence India and centers on the characters of Bhishma (Gandhi), Pandu (Bose), Dhritarashtra (Nehru), Karna (Jinnah), and others, makes for an enjoyable listen. Tharoor uses word-play, allusions, and ingenious narrative devices to bridge Mahabharata characters and events with their chosen historical counterpart and does justice to both stories in the process. There are references to Puranic stories, books, and historical personages littered throughout the narrative, and finding them serves as a delectable Easter egg hunt. The setting of the Raj also allows for the author to throw light on his criticisms of British rule that he has expounded upon in his later books and speeches. Representatives of the colonial rule are brought down to size and depicted as if in a farce to highlight the ridiculousness of it all.

The second half of the book switches gear and as it meanders from the birth of Indian democracy to Emergency (the wounds of which would have still been fresh at the time of the book's publishing) and its aftermath, this is where the book really shines. The author distills the essence of the epic, its morally grey characters, and complex themes into political philosophy and gives a lot of food for thought.

Talking about political commentary, Tharoor (but not his stand-in narrator in the novel) tries to remain politically agnostic for the most part by which I mean that he does not balk at the prospect of causing offense to representatives of every hue of the Indian political spectrum. This is especially true in the depiction of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, cast as Duryodhana, the big-bad of the Mahabharata. But her opponents are not white-washed either.
It would be very interesting to see a sequel dealing with more modern history in the same style that takes no prisoners. One also wonders how he would have cast the present actors on the political scene. Especially considering that he now numbers among them and had a front-row seat for half of the political drama over the last few decades and was on the stage for the rest.
That said, I will not pretend that such a book would see the light of day in the current political climate. There would certainly be clarion calls for censorship and cancellation (and not just from the ruling dispensation).
Of course, that makes this book all the more precious.