Inheritance of Loss by Anita Desai

1.  The novel embraces several all encompassing themes, modernity, class, gender politics,

 terrorism, colonialism and patriarchy.  Told from multiple threaded narratives and alternating

between the expatriate son in New York and the cook who mythologizes this escape and the regressive dreamer who is stuck in an old world British system. 

2.   One of the appeals of reading world literature is to get a taste of life elsewhere

with all its imperfections and exotica.  Here’s one particularly evocative description.

  Can you suggest any that particularly struck you?

(p.153)”We used to travel on horseback, carrying sacks of peas for the ponies,

maps, hip flasks of whiskey.  In the rainy season, leeches would free-fall from

 the trees onto us, timing precisely the perfect acrobat moment.  We would wash

in saltwater to keep them off, salt our shoes and socks, and even our hair.”

3.  The effects of colonialism are felt in the small town.  Investigate what you know

of the history of the British Raj and explain why independence may seem more

complicated for some  Indians as they transition to freedom.

 “He came of a generation, all over the world, for whom it was easier to forget

 than to remember, and the more their children pressed, the more their memory

 dissipated. 

 Once Gyan had asked:  “uncle, but what is England like?”

  And he said: “I don’t know…”

  “How can you not know???”

  “But I have never been.”

 All these years in the British army and he had never been to England!  How

 could this be?  They thought he had prospered and forgotten them, living like a

London lord…” 

 (p.143)

4.          (pg. 155)  “He was the real hero, Tenzing, ” Gyan had said.  “Hilary couldn’t have

made it without sherpas carrying his bags.”  Everyone around had agreed.  Tenzing was

certainly first, or else he was made to wait with the bags so Hilary could take the first

step on behalf of the colonial enterprise of sticking your flag on what was not yours.” 

Again, the resentment and sense of injustice is voiced by Gyan.  Does education and

 knowledge lead to insight or cynicism?

5.          (pg.  205 )  “But profit could only be harvested in the gap between nations, 

 working one against the other.  They were damning the third world to being third-world. 

They were forcing Bose and his son into an inferior position- thus far and no further- and

he couldn’t take it.  Not after believing he was their friend.  He thought of how the English

government and its civil servants had sailed away throwing their topis overboard, leaving

behind only those ridiculous Indians who couldn’t rid themselves of what they had broken

their souls to learn.”

The novel’s dichotomy between reverence and admiration for British culture  and values

alternates throughout the storyline.  The intellectual argument resides with Gyan while the

emotional centre with the judge making it near impossible to extricate the two. 

  

6.  Is there any hope at all for the characters or are they doomed to repeat foolishness and

 continue to replicate the loss of each of their dreams?