- ISBN13: 9780156005784
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
“One of the most brilliant and original essayists in any language” (Washington Post Book World) reflects on the six years he spent in India as Mexican ambassador-and reveals how the people and culture of that extraordinary land changed his life. Translated by Eliot Weinberger.
Amazon.com Review
Uncertainty stalks Octavio Paz. In Light of India is Paz's return to issues addressed in his poems of India that were inspired by his residence there three decades earlier. The paradoxes of a troubled nation are persistent, and Paz revisits the unfathomable facets of India with an eye on his Mexican homeland. Beneath the sensuous veneer of modern India lies a complex lattice of religious tendrils that reach into and influence Indian history, society, literature, and art. Paz follows these tendrils as well as anyone can, piecing together a nation of beauty, profundity, and enigma. Profundity aside, if Paz were writing about dust particles, he'd be worth reading.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
“In Light of India” is a book-length, multi-part essay in which Mexican poet Octavio Paz discusses the complex political, religious, and artistic worlds of India. Paz, who had served as his nation’s ambassador to India, writes with insight and obvious affection for his subject.
Paz is a masterful prose writer. His style is smooth and clear, and full of sage-like statements. Consider this observation: “Dialogue between a poet and a saint is difficult because a poet, before speaking, must hear others–that is to say, the language, which belongs to everyone and to no one. A saint speaks with God or with himself, two forms of silence” (p. 118).
Paz covers many topics: India’s ancient history, the conflict between Hindus and Muslims, the caste system, classical Sanskrit poetry, and more. But, as he notes, the book is not meant to be an exhaustive scholarly treatise. Rather, it is a very personal view of India: “this book. . . is the child not of knowledge but of love” (33). And as such, the book is rich in interesting anecdotes and fascinating insights, from Paz’ account of his meeting with the guru Mother Ananda Mai to his reflection on the influence of Rabindranath Tagore upon Pablo Neruda.
“In Light of India” is a marvelous companion volume to Salman Rushdie’s “The Jaguar Smile”: in that volume of essays, a writer from the Indian subcontinent reflects upon a Latin American country (the reverse of Paz’ project). But on its own, Paz’ book is a wonderful volume both for fans of Latin American literature and for those interested in India.
Rating: 5 / 5
A welcome change to see things through a great poet’s eye. Brilliant comparisons of the cultures of two great countries Mexico and India, a culture that died and a culture that still lives and is thriving.
Rating: 5 / 5
Kudos to Paz for discoursing on India’s nationhood, religion and caste. Uncertainty is the underlying theme in this book. Unlike Mexico, India proves to be a bigger (and alien) challenge to Paz’s analytical and intellectual ability and at the start of the book the reader wonders – will this be the Indian Labyrinth of Solitude?
Paz’s love for India and his desire to find answers to (paradoxical?)questions engages him in a duel that is serendipitous for him and cahallenging yet enjoyable to the reader. His bafflement is typical in a land where `one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor’. You can contest every assertion he makes – but wait! A few paragraphs later he himself is left questioning his earlier assertions. What starts out as an exercise in `jnana yoga’ (comprehension through knowledge) in the end turns out to be a discourse without conclusions. But as Paz mulls and ponders, his vexations and observances transform itself into a wonderful literary offering of bhakti- an expression of love and admiration for India and its richness and complexity – an offering of devotion that supersedes comprehension.
Rating: 5 / 5
Paz’s comments on Indian literature are eminently enjoyable. His commentary of ancient sanskrit poetry is very entertaining.
His opinions on politics and nationalism seem to indicate prejudices formed from other Western interpretations of India. A country which may have some amusing aspects, but which is by and large populated by the ignorant and the poor. And if at all there is anything good in India, it must have come from Europe. Paz too recites the same idiocies. Gandhi is portrayed more as a product of Western thought, than of Indian philosophy. While Indian nationalists are likened to religious fanatics, Tamils (of whom I am one), Paz says, “are separatists.” The only thing I would like to be separate from are such pathetically ignorant statements.
Misinformed commentaries on the Gita can be classified into two — those that insult the reader’s intelligence and those that reflect the writer’s ignorance. Paz’s comments on the Gita probably fall in the latter category. While he accepts Krishna’s words that the Self neither kills nor dies, he seems to worry about the “suffering” that war brings. Paz seems unable to comprehend that the Self which cannot die or kill can also not suffer. Gita is about “save himself, not how to save others” for Paz, because he fails to see the underlying Advaita. It is surprising that someone as perceptive as Paz missed the point about how “himself” and “others” are really the same.
Rating: 3 / 5
In reading foreigners write about India, too often you see them get caught on the horns of the complexities and contradictions of India. Invariably their real subject is not India, but how foreigners perceive India. What makes Paz’s book special is that he is really writing about the Indian mind, and like an Indian he is able to wrap his mind around the contradictions without attempting to resolve them. This book is now my top recommendation for anyone trying to get past castes, dust, and buses falling over cliffs to begin to understand India.
Rating: 5 / 5
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