THE CONFLICT OF TRADITION AND MODERNITY OF INDIA IN WILLIAM DALRYMPLE’S THE AGE OF KALI AND NINE LIVES

Abstract

India is known to the world as one of the most traditional countries with a glorious past. At the same time it is fast moving with the modern world. The present paper reviews William Dalrymple’s Age of Kali and Nine Lives, where the main intention is to bring out the notion of tradition and modern thoughts embedded in both the conceptualized texts. Dalrymple’s writing of both the texts is resolutely non-analytic; rather it is simple with complex narratives in nature. By using simple analysis, the paper brings out the traditional past values of the Indian sub-continent which is deeply embedded into the society, and also analyzes the stupefying practices of the Indian sub-continent’s past in modern days, where politics, social, and faith plays the fundamental role in structural set-up of the society.