Abstract

In a postcolonial world, literature is integral to the formation of identity and it is with this in mind that the thesis seeks to address the formation of Hindu identity through the reading of two novels, The Romantics , by Pankaj Mishra, and The Mystic Masseur, by V.S. Naipaul. The thesis examines how Mishra and Naipaul's novels engage with the history of British colonizers fashioning Hindu identity and how this hegemonic power continues to inflect societal concerns. The interrelated dynamics of power and politics are also explored, with a special emphasis on how religion is co-opted into the secular world and how this poses a problem for the Hindus in the above two novels.