Change in a coffee cup: ‘The Outraged: Times of Strife’ by Aditya Sudarshan reviewed by Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta

In this satiric take on new India, urban liberals come and go, belting out manifestos

The Outraged: Times of Strife is the second part of Aditya Sudarshan’s two-book narrative about the predicament of bubble-living liberals in contemporary India. As integral parts of the cultural-industrial complex themselves, the protagonists are uneasily aware of playing their roles in multiple performances:

“As on an assembly line, there came rolling out ebullient listings (of arts and literature festivals) in the tabloids and magazines, eager chatter about the list of speakers and pleased announcements of attendance from the speakers themselves; in sum, a real anticipation, among a certain section, of a socially and intellectually fulfilling weekend. It was all more or less a bubble… but at the time it was still swelling. We were not complaining.”

Talk, talk

They read each other’s social media posts and then meet to talk about it over coffee. Oh, and how they talk! They chatter, talk, wring their hands, sip coffee, and talk. Most of them, at least. They talk of faith and reason; instinct and intellectualism; charlatans and prophets. They imagine glorious futures, with themselves at the centre of it all.

But it’s never clear whether they know quite what they’re getting into when they talk of such matters: so many of the

conversations seem to be on the surface, as if they are themselves characters in a self-consciously made Bollywood film about Versova liberals. A filmmaker hell-bent upon staring into the abyss. A young woman obsessed with a godman’s spirituality. An older, gin-drinking generation, who once seemed beautiful and perfect but whose secrets now tumble out one by one. Various other characters who flit in and out of the pages mysteriously. And the narrator, whose comings and goings through the pages of the novel have an unfathomable logic of their own.

You people

One thing, however, is clear: the new dawn, whether televised or not, is not likely to dismantle hierarchies. In a rather telling scene in the novel, three characters go to their cleaning lady’s house in a slum for a meal. Over beer and chicken, they sit and listen to her account of her difficulties — but show little patience for her troubles. ‘“O Kaushalya!”’ says one character to her. ‘“You are not alone in your troubles. India itself is groaning in pain. But we will change the country; if not for ourselves, at least for the next generation. When a new culture comes to India, Kaushalya, all work will be respected, including manual labour. You people will not be left discarded on the fringes. You will be taken care of! O Kaushalya! I promise you!”’

How clearly the phrase, “You people”, separates Kaushalya’s working-class troubles from the speaker’s privilege.

But Kaushalya points out quietly that her problems are in the present, and cannot wait till that day in the future. “I am suffering today.”

A thought-provoking, compelling read.

The writer is in the IAS, currently based in Bengaluru.

The Outraged: Times of Strife; Aditya Sudarshan, Rupa Books, ₹295