Book Review: 'The Man Who Lost India' is an Indian dystopian war novel portraying love and strife

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Meghna Pant's new book The Man Who Lost India attempts to explore what it would be like if India and China were at war in the near future. Seth, the richest man in what remains of India, lives with his family in the small town of Lalbag, safe under the shelter of Mount Akaho and saved by a ‘religious miracle'. He wants to marry his daughter off to Harsh Shah, who owns a National Identification Card, which is transferable to the spouse, and, therefore, could save her life. But she is in love with their domestic help, Manu. With this story emerging as central to the novel, one also slowly sees signs of the troops entering Seth's town.

The novel, unfortunately, falls short on several accounts. Firstly, it claims that "India is being forgotten," as deaths continue to take place with the Chinese occupying India. The novel notes how cultural markers like language, salutations, children in the family, religious inclinations, etc., are being erased by the Chinese government. Considering that all this is supposed to have happened by 2032, this is hard to believe. It certainly doesn't help the novel's guise of showing its readers a glimpse into a dystopian society.

Moreover, with so much geopolitical unrest around the world today, the book needed to have engaged in a more nuanced take on the subjects of war and occupation. We would have loved it if the author had delved a bit deeper on the subject. The premise is tenuous, and fails to show any real distinction between civilians and governments of the two nations fighting to be the next Asian superpower. There were several glaring problems with the language used as well. Some sections in particular, like those that introduced the Chinese way of living or ‘Chinese English', those that played with gender analogies through reckless metaphors, and those that offered a seemingly sympathetic look at class differences, required better perceptive and more responsible treatment by the author.

TITLE
The Man Who Lost India
AUTHOR Meghna Pant
GENRE
Fiction
Publisher Simon & Schuster
Cost Rs 499