What Tharoor's Great Indian Novel says about him

 I recall trying to read Dr. Tharoor's 'The Great Indian Novel' more than 30 years ago. It was an attempt to map Indian politics onto a template provided by the Mahabharata. At the time, few would have foretold that its author would run for the Presidency of the Congress Party (which, in the novel, is termed the Kaurava Party).  Tharoor cast Nehru as the blind King Dhrtarashtra and Indira Gandhi as the ultimate villain- Duryodhana. Mahatma Gandhi and JP Narayan are estimable but they are on the wrong side- Gandhi is Bhishma and JP is Drona. The Pandavas, i.e. the good guys, are the Janata Party. The goody-goody Yudhishtar is Morarji Desai. Lord Krishna is A.K Gopalan- a Communist who sided with China in 1962- who left little mark on Indian politics, though, for some reason, the RSS speaks well of him. In addition to parochialism, Tharoor shows a casteist side. Ekalavya, noble but low born, is VV Giri- an affluent Brahmin. Ashwathama, killer of women and children, is Jagjivan Ram. 

All in all, Tharoor's book suggested a deep seated loathing of the dynastic Congress. Yet, after Tharoor's bid for the top job at the UN was nixed (by the Americans?) Manmohan made room for Tharoor's entry into Indian politics. Why? Perhaps Indians don't read 'Great Indian novels'. Or perhaps Tharoor's hatred of the dynasty was something others in the UPA shared for reasons best known to themselves.

The Mahabharata is a story about the rivalry between two cousins. By the time Tharoor published his novel, it should have been obvious that one cousin- Rahul- would be the heir to the dynastic Congress- while the other cousin- Varun- was likely to grow up in the 'Janata Parivar'. If there was to be a final apocalyptic Kurukshetra battle, it would be between the main and the cadet branch of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

As a matter of fact, the Mahabharata is carefully constructed so as to, as if by Noether's theorem, preserve two symmetries corresponding to the conservation of karma- operating across time- and dharma- operating across space- respectively. What the epic chronicles is the transition from a thymotic and timocratic age to a transactional, more egalitarian, era. I suppose, one could say that the 'Janata Parivar'- in so far as it still exists- is more representative of the vernacular, casteist, Kaleckian intermediate class whereas Congress and the older type of Communist parties were more cosmopolitan in their thinking- or drinking, if thinking was beyond them. 

Tharoor did succeed in inserting himself into Indian politics but what was his game? What was he up to? Ten years ago, we assumed he was out for his share of 'sweat equity'. Why else join a bunch of clapped out kleptocrats? 

It now occurs to me that perhaps Tharoor had a more sinister plan. He would himself be a character in a Great South Indian Novel based on the Sillapadikaram. Tharoor is actually Kanagi. He will chop off his left tit and reduce Madurai to ashes because of injustice done to Rahulji by Khargeji or Modiji or some other low class feller. Jaymis Joyce will give daadh to Tharoorji saying 'Begorrah, you dun written a better Novel than me, macushla, may yer shadder n'er grow less!'. Jane Austen will take off her panties and throw them at him. Barbara Cartland herself would rise from the Throne of World Litterchur and come to humbly pay obeisance to his lotus like feet. Stupid Hindus like Ved Vyas and Valmiki will try to push their way towards him for a like purpose. But they will be turned away ruthlessly by the sort of bodyguards Salman Rushdie really should have employed.