Father India: Westerners Under the Spell of an Ancient Culture

Jeffrey Paine has written an amazing book, which is both sophisticated in its analysis and insightful in its perspective. Yet, the narrative is racy and easy to read - possibly because of his background in journalism. Paine traces the careers and Indian adventure of eight well-known persons who were either Westerners or were Indians influenced by the West to begin with, but later became deeply influenced by India. Yet in the process, they also influenced India itself. The list includes Lord Curzon, Mahatma Gandhi, E. M. Forster, Shri Aurobindo, Mira Behn (Madeleine Slade), Mother (Mirra Richard), Carl Jung, V. S. Naipaul and Annie Besant, all well-known figures in India and outside. In the process he weaves a magical yet sophisticated tapestry showing why India exercised a near-fatal charm for these people and how it changed them. He also adds a lot of tid-bits about their personal lives, and idiosyncracies, their struggles, their failures and their successes. Surprisingly, and without noticing it, by the time you finish the book, you would have developed a pretty good perspective on how India has affected and deeply influenced Western world through these people. A remarkable intellectual feat indeed. His handling of each character in the drama is confident and skillful. He has a definite format to follow, and this adds rigour to a book, which could have become a maudling, sentimental journey otherwise. The connections he makes with other contemporary characters and happenings are simply astounding and marvellous. However, he becomes less sure of himself as he comes closer to the present, possibly because the processes are still going on, and the advantage of hindsight is not available. As a result, his handling of the chapter on Shri Aurobindo and his spiritual companion, the Mother, is less deft. He also fumbles with the conclusion, possibly because India is an incredibly complex phenomenon and Paine is after all a mere mortal. Notwithstanding this slight blemish, an excellent book, worth the time and money, for anyone interested in understanding India and the West. A paperback edition is also available in Penguin India under the plain title 'Father India'.

Jeffrey Paine has done a masterful job in this refreshingly new and yet thought-provoking work. His insight into the "real" India is surprising given India's diversity and the propensity for even Indian authors to miss the subtleties of the subcontinent. What comes out clearly is Gandhi's lifetime of effort from a bird's eyeview, and what Gandhi was trying to accomplish in India and in the world in general. The effect India has had on "outsiders" in the form of invaders, visitors or missionaries has been to transform them into individuals who saw something greater in themselves than before. In effect India "converts" people more successfully than scripture thumping missionaires or cannon/sword-carrying members of the barbarian party. No small wonder that Gandhi, whose life exemplifed the principle of turning the other cheek and in loving one's neighbors rejected Christianity on moral grounds! This book also offers insight into why Christianity could not spread in India like it did in Latin America...India intoxicates its visitors, either with conversion to "Indianism" or into revulsion...either way you are transformed forever. Fundamentally, all approaches to the Truth have been tried in India, from hero (messiah) worship to heroin worship and even Heroin (drug) worship in the form of either Vedism or Tantrism. People just don't find anything new in foreign religions. And this fact is amply brought out in the authors examples of Aurobindo's effort in Pondicherry, Annie Beasant work in Madras, and in Gandhi's own "ashrams". A corrolary benefit of this book is that these facts are illuminated in a masterful manner.

The book delves into the feelings, emotions and travails as felt by some of the administrators, writers,social activists and reformers who have ';experienced ' India at close quarters.Curzon, Annie Besant,EM Forster, Chris Isherwood and finally Gandhi's experiences are chronicled in detail.The book tries to provide the reader with an understanding of India that is gleaned from the spiritual and pyschological processes of these visitors and tries to enunciate a depth of feeling. These 'outsiders'twist and turn at every corner in India and the reasons for their doing si might infuse an Indian to think more deeply , and accord the foreigner with a more intimate view of the seething cauldron that answers to the name of India.

India, some might say, offers up maternal images, those which nurture and guide a soul to new discoveries. Jeffrey Paine re-defines paternity in a rather nice way, along those lines, showing us in vivid portraits how several key Western thinkers were transformed by this rich South Asian country filled with remarkable images and ideas. Perhaps in one of his previous incarnations Paine _was_ a portrait artist, for the general character of each individual is rapidly brushed in and then the significant details which formed them are carefully drawn, episode by fascinating episode. Paine restructures time so that it becomes possible to imagine the full weight of social constriction and obligation which each individual suffered through, and he offers glimpses of what each found when they disembarked in India, far different from the scene one might come upon today.Because of his fluent knowledge of literature of all countries and of the philosophical currents which carry along many fictional thoughts, Paine is able to weave a complex cloth ---a whole suit, (not just the trousers or vest), full of all the nuanced colored threads of ideas.I cannot recomend this book more highly to anyone, whether they profess an interest in India or not. It draws one into to worlds faraway, intimate, spiritual and illuminating. What soul could want for anything more...

Father India engagingly describes how India has impacted and transformed some of the West's most unique minds. Paine writes with an intelligence and compassion rarely found today. Whether your interests lie in literature, spirituality, history, or the Third Way, this book will touch you.