@article{Raman_2025, title={The Suitable Boy and the long shadow of the British on the Indian subcontinent}, volume={5}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijllc.5.2.2}, DOI={10.22161/ijllc.5.2.2}, abstractNote={<jats:p>The paper explores the Suitable Boy’s( written in1993) relevance to the current day politics of the country. It puts forward a case that the country’s march to nationalistic belligerence is not without drawbacks. Writing in 1993 , Seth did not have the hindsight which we have in 2025 , Seth writes about post-Independence India of the 50’s with the insight of the 90’s,but we see further and see that the path which India would take post 2014,till 2014 India was a secular nation but post 2014 , with the establishment of the non-Congress government at the center, India has spiraled on a downward path of over religiosity. In the 50’s India both the prominent communities are still fighting, but these are restricted to the margins of the population. In contemporary India, religion has become a tool to consolidate power, keep the masses in subservience to the oligarchs who in turn spend big money on elections, either to bribe the electorate or to buy up the legislators once the elections are over. It is alleged that the Election Commission is hand in glove with the ruling party in rigging elections, making fake voters IDs, getting voters from other states who vote to tilt the scale in favor of the ruling party. In the 90s when Vikram Seth was writing such corruption was not widespread, In the novel, the complaints of the ruling elite against the Congress party are puerile at best, at worst show a deep resistance to lower caste emancipation, and a phobia against the Gandhi- Nehru family for implementing land reforms and giving equality to all castes under the constitution which again was a legacy of the British. The novel deals in themes of elections, land reforms, caste and religious politics at a time when oligarchy was not prevalent and money power of the rich could not influence the elections as it does today.</jats:p>}, number={2}, journal={International Journal of Language, Literature and Culture}, publisher={AI Publications}, author={Raman, Prof Anjali}, year={2025}, pages={12–21} }