VS Naipaul: A controversial author who crafted his lines and insults
Not the one to mince words, VS Naipaul had often been scathing not only against his peers but also against the place he belonged to. (Source: AP)
NEW DELHI: Trinidad-born Indian-origin author V S Naipaul passed away at the age of 81 on Saturday. Known for his critical commentary on colonialism, religion, and politics, Naipual won the Booker Prize for his novel In a Free State in 1971. In 2001, he won the Nobel Prize Nobel Prize in Literature. In his lifetime, Naipaul also won several other accolades and earned praises even from the most staunch critics. Evelyn Waugh had once famously said,”Mr Naipaul is an ‘East’ Indian Trinidadian with an exquisite mastery of the English language which should put to shame his British contemporaries.” Not the one to mince words, Naipaul had often been scathing not only against his peers but also against the place he belonged to.
He had been called a racist by Derek Walcott, as the latter who had initially dedicated poems to Naipaul wrote, “You spit on your people/ your people applaud”. Naipaul had been accused of withholding Western prejudices, as he compared the effect of Islam on the world to colonialism, and had a public fall out with author Paul Theroux. Theroux had picked out a rare book’s catalogue and found out that the seller was offering copies of his books that were dedicated to Naipaul and his wife. Subsequently, the authors refused to acknowledge each other until they buried the hatchet in 2011.
Credit: indianexpress.com