V.S. Naipaul’s ?The Mystic Masseur?: A Study of Post- Colonial Myth and Reality

Abstract

<h3 data-fontsize="17" data-lineheight="23">Abstract</h3> <p>The Mystic Masseur is one of the V.S. Naipaul’s finest comic creations in which we see immense sensibility, humour, success, politics and endless inventive imagination that have become the hallmarks of the author’s genius. It is Naipaul’s first novel that depicts the story of the rise of Ganesh Ramsumair, from failed primary teacher and struggling masseur to author, revered mystic and M.B.E. It is a journey memorable for its hilarious and bewildering success through politics. V.S. Naipaul has made the claim that the story of Ganesh Ramsumair is the history of their time. In each step of the career of Ganesh Ramsumair the author has satirized the rise of power of a representative of the country, called Trinidad which was about to achieve it’s independence from the British colonial rule in 1962.Beneath the muchness and manyness the author traces the romance and realism, imagination and fact of the ?rise? and ?decline? of Ganesh Ramsumair. The story of the novel is not only the life history of Ganesh Ramsumair; rather it is a story of social and economic life of the Indian islanders. The author shows his alienation and rootlessness of the people migrated from India to Trinidad. Here he puts stress on the importance of imagination for survivalThe question is whether the novel The Mystic Masseur depicts the real Trinidad, the question is answered in King’s observations in his book. ?Those familiar with Trinidadian history should recognize how Naipaul has used local events, characters and such politicians characters and such politicians as Uriah Butler, Albert Gomes, Arthur Cipriani and Naipaul’s two uncles, Rudranath and SimbhoonathCapildeo in his novel. Naipaul’s early fiction is based on memories of Trinidadian cultural and political life before he left for England in 1950.? (King 29) My paper proposes to examine how V.S. Naipaul usesthe post-colonial myth and reality in his novel The Mystic Masseu</p>