[ilds] An Indian View of an Indian View: Durrell’s India

[James Gifford]

Indeed!  It's probably also worth noting that Durrell makes his alter 
ego, Walsh, racially anglo-indian as well in /Pied Piper of Lovers/, 
which I think speaks to his views.

There's a scene that's always struck me as important in the novel as the 
boat bringing Walsh (Durrell) to England for the first passes the White 
Cliffs of Dover ("white as white" indicates Walsh's difference).  Walsh 
is disappointed with this first vision of England in contrast to India, 
and he's alienated from the country-love the returning British subjects 
feel -- in the same moment, he tries to speak to an Indian girl saying 
he, like her, is from Kurseong.  She looks back at him as an alien as 
well...

That liminality strikes me a crucial to Durrell.  Neither British nor 
Indian, never French and not Greek, sometimes dubiously calling himself 
Irish.  I tried to point to the peculiarities of Durrell's "From the 
Elephant's Back" in contrast to Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant."  Both 
pointing to Empire, but Durrell and Sadu (the elephant) are both 
children and resist the divisions.  Surely much of that was his own 
imaginings, but what else would one put in the space between?

All best,
James

On 2015-11-18 10:50 AM, sharbani banerjee(mukherjee) wrote:
> I agree with David and James that he was, perhaps, happiest in Cypress
> and Corfu.....the ambience somehow alleviated the occidental sense of
> oppression that he abhorred. This brings me back to the Indian influence
> upon his psyche. Places like Jamshedpur, Jullunder where he was born,
> Mymenshing, presently in Bangladesh and most importantly Kurseong and
> Darjeeling somehow shaped and coloured his preference of the topos. In
> his interviews while visiting USA.....he mentions how the hills and the
> Buddhist ascetics keep revisiting his subconscious mind. He even shows
> how he could do the Indian Yoga by sitting in the Lotus position!