Political Issues in V. S. Naipaul’s The Mystic Masseur: A Study

Abstract

Politics, which is the widest and most comprehensive sphere of active life, becomes the parameter of Naipaul’s narrative. His narrative reveals the awakening to the reality of a political society: “Politics is part of man’s history and it is men who make history. It, therefore, remains to be the privilege of the writer as man to decide upon the extent to which he may participate or stay away from the political goings on around him” (Bhatnagar 8). Naipaul’s novels deal with the political issues of Trinidad just before and after independence. Moreover, politics is the challenge as well as the trap for the Trinidadian. The people are unable to impress their existence on the sophisticated political consciousness of the West.