Books: Story Power

WOMEN TRAVELLERS IN COLONIAL INDIA
BY INDIRA GHOSE
OUP
PRICE: RS 350, PAGES 196

The book analyses travel literature generated by British women travellers in colonial India. The travelogues discussed range from those of the enthusiastic wanderer Fanny Parks to the reluctant traveller Emily Eden -- the sister of Governor-General Lord Auckland. Also included are accounts of the Mutiny by British women and the works of one philanthropic traveller -- the well-known social reformer Mary Carpenter.

Ghose historicises this literature in the colonial context and raises the following questions: Did women travellers perceive India differently from men? Can we discern a single uniform female gaze in these texts? Finally, what were the linkages between travel and power in the context of British India? What follows is an exploration into a relatively lesser-known dimension to the working of the Empire. Ghose illustrates how colonial politics was shaped by women caught between subversion and affirmation of British rule. Thus, Eden debunks colonial myths such as the civilising mission. But at the same time, silence on colonial reality works here to contain the subversive inclination of her perspective.

Ghose concludes with the valuable yet rather obvious point that a uniform female insight does not exist in colonial India. This is so because gender is only one of the identities defining the glance which is peppered by issues of race, ethnicity and class. It is the power positions in which women travellers find themselves that determine their gaze. The book opens up an interesting terrain in imperial and colonial studies. The significance of this promising theme, however, gets lost in heavy jargon in the futile attempt to theorise. What results is a bumpy narrative which neither leaves the reader rich in feminist theory nor provides a feel of the contents of the travelogues under discussion.

AUTHORSPEAK: DEEPAK DALAL
Writing about the Wilds
A trekker who tells adventure stories

Trekking through the wilds is one thing, writing imaginatively about it quite another. Mumbai-based writer Deepak Dalal seems to have blended these traits well. With his second book -- part of an eco-adventure series for children -- Dalal is trying to create a niche for himself. Ranthambore Adventure (Tarini Publishing), recently released, is the tale of Genghis the tiger, and the regal species' struggle for survival against all odds. "The tiger is under pressure," says Dalal, "primarily from poachers who export tiger bones to the Far-East for Chinese medicines. But tigers are also an 'evolutionary pride'. Given half the chance, they can regenerate rapidly and survive."

For Dalal, children's fiction has a purpose -- to introduce them to the beauty and romance of the coral reefs of Lakshadweep, the Himalayas, the Brahmaputra valley, Ladakh or the Thar Desert. Dalal -- son of Tarla Dalal who is renowned for her cookery books -- feels "fiction for children usually means Enid Blyton or adventure stories like the Hardy Boys. They read of great places abroad but know precious little about our own country. We talk about going to the Alps or Mauritius, but it's all here in India." His first work Lakshadweep Adventure was also written keeping this purpose in mind and he is now working on a book about Ladakh and the Konkan coast. "It would be very easy to write an urban adventure. But essentially I want to set my books in all the exotic locales in India," he says. "Through these books, children could be at one with the flora and fauna of the place -- get the feeling of exploring some of the world's most beautiful coral reefs as in Lakshadweep Adventure or feel the thrill of a chase in the wildlife game sanctuary as in Ranthambore Adventure."

These books are not the types that Indian publishers normally wager on. And so, Dalal turned publisher himself with a company named after his five-year-old daughter. His frustration is evident when he says that Indian authors are just not taken seriously enough by the Indian publishing industry. This is not really the case. But to beat the system, Dalal directly approached schools in Mumbai and other metros and has had the satisfaction of seeing some schools prescribe the book as study material. For someone trying to be a rather subdued desi version of Enid Blyton, this is no bad beginning.

-Nandita Chowdhury