While parzania is in the news, this is a timely novel, digging deep into the role played by the so-called “secular” and unabashedly non-secular parties in instigating communal riots. The Peacock Throne starts with the 1984 riots and the mayhem created by rioters and looters who jump onto the murderous “secular party” bandwagon, trapping and killing innocent Sikhs. The images created are similar to that in Parzania: an unblinking police force, and an unmoved central administration allowing the breakdown of law and order. Therefore, the novel which covers the next 14 turbulent years of modern India appears more balanced than Parzania as it creates a world in which, very much like reality, impoverished and deprived sections of society are bought and sold to keep politicians (of all colours and religions) in power.

The Peacock Throne focuses on factors which have further divided and subdivided India. After the 1984 riots, it takes us through Mandal, the Babri Masjid destruction and, finally, the ascendancy of a saffron-hued party at the Centre. All the events are essentially narrated through the impact they have on the lives of ordinary people, trying to grab security in a world of rapidly changing caste and communal relations.

Setting it in the bazaars of Chandni Chowk, Sujit Saraf, who is also a playwright, has peopled the book with characters who change over time and adapt or invent ideology according to circumstances. There are rich, perfumed seths, wily politicians both Hindu and Muslim, resurgent post-1984 Sardars, enterprising prostitutes from India and Nepal, social workers with large red bindis and handloom saris, illegal Bangladeshi immigrants foraging for an identity and even a former Miss India who joins the HIV/AIDS forum, primarily for self publicity. Saraf has an uncanny eye for detail as he follows the destiny of his characters in Chandni Chowk, and through conversation and description reveals the hypocrisy behind politics and “cultural promotion”.

... contd.