195 widely distributed, that choice is not open to all, the escape for most is not from the community but into it. To forget this is to be wholly subjective, wholly self-righteous, to think first and last of one's own expectations, one's extreme discomfort. If only Mr. Naipaul could have realized how utterly unreasonable this attitude is; It nearly undermines the validity of his argumentSo "To be in Bombay was to be exhausted. The moist heat sapped energy and will . . ," From that starting point, nothing can be done; the evidence of Indian bureaucratic stupidity becomes suspecto In A Passage to India, which Mr. Naipaul quotes from admiringly, Adela accuses Aziz of having tried to rape her. Later, she confesses that her behaviour was like that of certain women who honestly believe that they have received offers of marriage when none were intendedo Forster too makes much, and rightly, of the heat and the exhaustion, but his book is a novel. He has to make the situation plausible, both psychologically and circumstantially, Mr, Naipaul's is a travel book, though an unorthodox oneo Dealing with the same material, he would probably relate how an Indian took two English ladies to see some caves and tried to rape one of them there. It would not be an impossible story, only an appalling one, Mr. Naipaul suggests over and over again that appalling stories don't appal Indians. He keeps running into obtuse, unsympathetic Indians, bland, silly and incapable of understanding his simplest problems. It may be true, but somehow one feels that Mro Naipaul's aloof, sullen, aggressive manner contributed to his difficulties, accentuated theme What is to be thought of a man who writes, "I stood in the shade of Churchgate Station and debated whether I had it in me to cross the exposed street to the Tourist Office?" Mr. Naipaul will no doubt be bitterly scornful if it is hinted that some of his experiences seem self-flagellatory. He will take it as further evidence of the Indian unwillingness to see. But I am not in fact doubting his veracity, only his approach towards the discovery of the truthc He makes the truth about India seem simplec I don't believe it is simpleo Honestly and frankly, he exposes his state of mindo I cannot believe that in such a state of mind, truth can be discoveredc The truth about Mro Naipaul, certainly, but not the whole truth about India, He asserts loudly that in India for the first time in his life he was one of the crowd, and that it upset him to be sOo What, in God's name, is there to be upset about that, unless one has abandoned humility altogether? "There was nothing in my appearance or dress to distinguish me from the crowd eternally hurrying into Churchgate Station," Why should there be? In what way is it reassuring to be different in dress and appearance? "In Trinidad to be an Indian was to be distinctive c e , To be an Indian in England was distinctive o c . Now in Bombay I entered a shop or a restaurant and awaited a special quality of response." Is this so much as intelligent, is it fair7 "And there was nothing. It was like being denied part of my reality. Again and again I was caughtc I was face-lesSc I might sink without a trace into that Indian crowd- I had been made by Trinidad and England; recognition of my difference was necessary to meo I felt the need to impose myself, and didn't know how."