We are familiar with the legacies of the leaders of India’s freedom struggle as influential, intelligent and persistent people. Many of them sacrificed their comfort and safety for the nation’s cause. But what if the sacrifice that freedom demands is also the very thing at the core of our humanity? The English Problem by Beena Kamlani is a lyrical work of literary historical fiction about the conflict of identity, desire and duty.
In a young Shiv Advani, Mahatma Gandhi himself sees a future leader of the independence movement and of a free India. As a young man, it is decided that Shiv will travel to London, train to become a barrister and fulfil his duty for the freedom struggle. He sets off to a new country, leaving a wife whom he barely knows with an unborn child and a vague promise of his return.
As he learns how to survive as an aspiring barrister in England, he begins to realise that it may not be enough to live among the British. He may need to learn to be them. But he soon realises that no matter how many of their practices of politesse, manners and culture he imitates, his place of origin would always mark him an outsider. Simultaneously repelled and attracted to the idea of belonging among them, Shiv struggles to define himself, his desires and his responsibilities.
In The English Problem, readers meet a varied cast of characters including the familiar names of historical figures like Gandhi, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf and her pet marmoset, Mitz as well as vividly fleshed out and complex new characters. This book makes history personal as it spans from 1922 to 1944, unfolding in two narratives—one beginning in his boyhood and the other after he is shot in Glasgow and travelling back to Sind under the care of a Scottish nurse. An intellectually stimulating and philosophical book, it explores Gandhian ideas like satyagraha and ahimsa through the lenses of various characters.
The English Problem is a deeply researched, masterful novel by Beena Kamlani, inspired by the author’s own family history that explores the personal in the political.
“In our best efforts to satisfy society’s ask of us, we enlist to fight wars we don’t believe in; we follow paths laid out for us by our parents/guardians; we get married to people chosen for us to retain their approval; we bring children into the world whether we wish to be parents or not. This fulfillment of obligation or duty brings its own form of contentment but often has little to do with personal desire, which lies deep within us, sometimes sending out whiffs of oppression, or large waves of an all-encompassing ennui, filling us with a permanent sense of dissatisfaction. We are not engaged and we don’t know why. Desire demands fulfillment—if allowed play, it fills us, and overtakes our sense of duty and obligation. Shiv is enthralled by London, and once caught in its mesmerizing swirl, he comes to know what it is to be free. Then personal freedom and duty to family and country begin to war with each other. They are incompatible forces. Caught in a turbulent wave in his country’s history, Shiv has to fight it out within himself. I wanted to see how Shiv would experience that personal war—how would he negotiate it? Would he survive it? I didn’t know but I wanted to find out.”
—Beena Kamlani on writing The English Problem
The Bombay Circle Press brings this brilliant debut by Beena Kamlani to India. The novel is available on Amazon and in your nearest bookstores.