Exploration of Multi-cultural Concerns in the Novels of Shashi Tharoor

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to study multi-cultural concerns in the novels of Shashi Tharoor as his novels are replete with socio-political, socio-cultural ideology and cultural clashes between the East and West culture. Tharoor deftly presents myriad cultures such as the Mahabharata culture, the celluloid culture, the political culture and the East-West culture with their issues throughout his fictional and non-fictional works. He finds impetus from the scriptures like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Upanishad and the Bible. His first highly acclaimed classic The Great Indian Novel (1989) brings out parallel study between characters of the Mahabharata and the Indian political leaders. Show Business (1992), his second novel satirizes the paradoxes in Bollywood film culture as well as it is a trenchant indictment of corruption in Indian public life. His third novel Riot (2001) traces the events of cultural activism and religious confrontation in the Indian scenario. It is a study of the East-West cultural clash against the backdrop of the communal disturbances. Tharoor’s novels are based on Indian history, culture and politics. They are marked by some kind of multicultural concerns. On the basis of Tharoor’s novels, a sincere attempt is made to explore multicultural concerns in multicultural India. All the three novels are cited to show Tharoor as a multiculturalist.