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A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India
A view of contemporary India moves from the feudal state of Bihar, to the territories of tribes that use bows and arrows, to the slums of Calcutta
322 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Norman Lewis
183 books151 followersNorman Lewis was a British writer renowned for his richly detailed travel writing, though his literary output also included twelve novels and several volumes of autobiography. Born in Enfield, Middlesex in 1908 to a Welsh family, Lewis was raised in a household steeped in spiritualism, a belief system embraced by his grieving parents following the deaths of his elder brothers. Despite these early influences, Lewis grew into a skeptic with a deeply observant eye, fascinated by cultures on the margins of the modern world.
His early adulthood was marked by various professions—including wedding photographer, umbrella wholesaler, and even motorcycle racer—before he served in the British Army during World War II. His wartime experiences in Algiers, Tunisia, and especially Naples provided the basis for one of his most celebrated books, Naples '44, widely praised as one of the finest firsthand accounts of the war. His writing blended keen observation with empathy and dry wit, traits that defined all of his travel works.
Lewis had a deep affinity for threatened cultures and traditional ways of life. His travels took him across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Mediterranean. Among his most important books are A Dragon Apparent, an evocative portrait of French Indochina before the Vietnam War; Golden Earth, on postwar Burma; An Empire of the East, set in Indonesia; and A Goddess in the Stones, about the tribal communities of India. In Sicily, he explored the culture and reach of the Mafia in The Honoured Society and In Sicily, offering insight without sensationalism.
In 1969, his article “Genocide in Brazil,” detailing atrocities committed against Indigenous tribes, led directly to the formation of Survival International, an organization committed to protecting tribal peoples worldwide. Lewis often cited this as the most meaningful achievement of his career, expressing lifelong concern for the destructive influence of missionary activity and modernization on indigenous societies.
Though Lewis also wrote fiction, his literary reputation rests primarily on his travel writing, which was widely admired for its moral clarity, understated style, and commitment to giving voice to overlooked communities. He remained an unshakable realist throughout his life, famously stating, “I do not believe in belief,” though he found deep joy in simply being alive.
Lewis died in 2003 in Essex, survived by his third wife Lesley and their son Gawaine, as well as five other children from previous marriages.
His early adulthood was marked by various professions—including wedding photographer, umbrella wholesaler, and even motorcycle racer—before he served in the British Army during World War II. His wartime experiences in Algiers, Tunisia, and especially Naples provided the basis for one of his most celebrated books, Naples '44, widely praised as one of the finest firsthand accounts of the war. His writing blended keen observation with empathy and dry wit, traits that defined all of his travel works.
Lewis had a deep affinity for threatened cultures and traditional ways of life. His travels took him across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Mediterranean. Among his most important books are A Dragon Apparent, an evocative portrait of French Indochina before the Vietnam War; Golden Earth, on postwar Burma; An Empire of the East, set in Indonesia; and A Goddess in the Stones, about the tribal communities of India. In Sicily, he explored the culture and reach of the Mafia in The Honoured Society and In Sicily, offering insight without sensationalism.
In 1969, his article “Genocide in Brazil,” detailing atrocities committed against Indigenous tribes, led directly to the formation of Survival International, an organization committed to protecting tribal peoples worldwide. Lewis often cited this as the most meaningful achievement of his career, expressing lifelong concern for the destructive influence of missionary activity and modernization on indigenous societies.
Though Lewis also wrote fiction, his literary reputation rests primarily on his travel writing, which was widely admired for its moral clarity, understated style, and commitment to giving voice to overlooked communities. He remained an unshakable realist throughout his life, famously stating, “I do not believe in belief,” though he found deep joy in simply being alive.
Lewis died in 2003 in Essex, survived by his third wife Lesley and their son Gawaine, as well as five other children from previous marriages.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 30, 2017
I am a fan of Norman Lewis' writing, and was looking forward to this book, as I am inevitably drawn to books about India as well. This book also won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award (1992) - which is usually an excellent sign. For me, this book didn't live up to my expectations. It had a lot going for it - travel in India away from the beaten track, it concentrated in three provinces with more depth than usual travelogues, and Lewis' usual careful observations. I am not sure what where the spark was missing, but I just wasn't held by it as I normally are by this author. Unfortunately I found it easy to put aside, and had to push myself to pick it back up, rather than another book.
Lewis takes in-depth travel through Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. He mixes with the locals, visits out of the way places, and takes a particular interest in the tribal people of India.
Three stars.
Lewis takes in-depth travel through Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. He mixes with the locals, visits out of the way places, and takes a particular interest in the tribal people of India.
Three stars.
September 23, 2017
My idea of a holiday is to go walking in a nice remote, quiet place where the chances of coming across another person is slim. To me, going to India would be hell, so many people, so much noise/colour/smell, it would be a sensory overload for me. So I'm always impressed when somebody visits there and has a great time, I'm more than happy to sit in my garden and read about other people's travels. This book is a great place to start to learn about areas of India people rarely visit, I was very surprised on just how many tribes there are that have had very little contact with the outside world, I thought that was just in remote hard-to-reach places in Jungles.
Norman Lewis had visited the country a few times in his life and when he wrote this book he was in his early 80s, impressive of him to be undertaking this trip at that age, not the gentlest of things to undertake, once he got to the remote areas with rough roads it must have rattled his bones big time.
The first half of the book he was visiting large towns/cities and you could see in his writing it was getting him down, very run down, the treatment of lower castes, the corrupt rich and neglect of the homeless. He seems to have enjoyed himself much more in the second half when he starts visiting the remote villages, much quieter...unless they had found something to celebrate. That is when things started to feel more like an adventure.
The book is small part travel book and large part a study of the people. There are some very shocking facts that I knew nothing about, the act of Sati where a widow joins her dead husband on the funeral pyre, various religious events where people go crazy and sacrifice themselves to their God. I found the treatment of woman interesting, one tribe quite often marry 30yr old women and 15/16 yr old boys together, but they can't consummate the marriage until the boy has come of age, if the woman can't wait that long then it falls to her father-in-law to satisfy her.
This was a real eye-opener for me, the version I read published by Eland had little illustrations at the start of each chapter, a real nice touch.
My blog review is here. https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2017...
Norman Lewis had visited the country a few times in his life and when he wrote this book he was in his early 80s, impressive of him to be undertaking this trip at that age, not the gentlest of things to undertake, once he got to the remote areas with rough roads it must have rattled his bones big time.
The first half of the book he was visiting large towns/cities and you could see in his writing it was getting him down, very run down, the treatment of lower castes, the corrupt rich and neglect of the homeless. He seems to have enjoyed himself much more in the second half when he starts visiting the remote villages, much quieter...unless they had found something to celebrate. That is when things started to feel more like an adventure.
The book is small part travel book and large part a study of the people. There are some very shocking facts that I knew nothing about, the act of Sati where a widow joins her dead husband on the funeral pyre, various religious events where people go crazy and sacrifice themselves to their God. I found the treatment of woman interesting, one tribe quite often marry 30yr old women and 15/16 yr old boys together, but they can't consummate the marriage until the boy has come of age, if the woman can't wait that long then it falls to her father-in-law to satisfy her.
This was a real eye-opener for me, the version I read published by Eland had little illustrations at the start of each chapter, a real nice touch.
My blog review is here. https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2017...
June 2, 2017
When people visit India, a country with over 1 billion people, their senses are assaulted by the mass of humanity, smells, colours and sights in a country that is full of life. The religions and spiritually of the country adds to the cacophony of noise as they go about celebrating the living and the dead. People from the Adivasi tribes that made up seven percent of the population of India. These peoples and the places they lived were in constant danger of being swamped by the remainder of India. This is Lewis account of his visit in the 1990’s to find these people and record the things that made them different and distinct.
Lewis’ journey to see these tribes takes him away from the regular tourist haunts. Heading far from the beaten track to Orissa and Bihar in the north-western part of India, he reaches there at a time of heightened tensions and violence from a caste war. Seeking a local guide Lewis starts to venture into the jungles in search of the tribes that he wants to discover before the modern world subsumes them. He meets the Muria people who survive by eating crocodiles, monkey and insects, a tribe who marry their teenage boys off to older women. There are the Mundas who still hunt with bow and arrow, and who find laughter offensive and a tribe that may be related to Australian Aborigines and the Bonda who wear jewellery passed down from relatives and precious little else.
His evocative writing style brings alive the assault on the senses that India is, you feel that you are there standing amongst the grime and swirl of people. The writing is detailed without being cumbersome and his ability to draw out the stories from the people of the tribes that he meets lifts this book from good to great. This is the first Norman Lewis book that I have read and it will not be the last.
Lewis’ journey to see these tribes takes him away from the regular tourist haunts. Heading far from the beaten track to Orissa and Bihar in the north-western part of India, he reaches there at a time of heightened tensions and violence from a caste war. Seeking a local guide Lewis starts to venture into the jungles in search of the tribes that he wants to discover before the modern world subsumes them. He meets the Muria people who survive by eating crocodiles, monkey and insects, a tribe who marry their teenage boys off to older women. There are the Mundas who still hunt with bow and arrow, and who find laughter offensive and a tribe that may be related to Australian Aborigines and the Bonda who wear jewellery passed down from relatives and precious little else.
His evocative writing style brings alive the assault on the senses that India is, you feel that you are there standing amongst the grime and swirl of people. The writing is detailed without being cumbersome and his ability to draw out the stories from the people of the tribes that he meets lifts this book from good to great. This is the first Norman Lewis book that I have read and it will not be the last.
June 9, 2011
I travelled to India about three years ago, and naturally bought up more books than I could possibly read before the trip. I was looking at them the other day and decided on this one both for subject and a chance to read my first Norman Lewis book. He's a writer Graham Greene described as one of the best writers of any century. They were probably friends, but that is still taking a very strong position.
A Goddess in the Stones made me realize just how safely tourist-oriented our trip through Delhi and Rajasthan had been. Lewis is traveling the eastern states just over a decade before our trip to the northwest, but he enters an area of political unrest with the express purpose of encountering as many of the pre-Aryan tribal groups as possible. The other tourists he encounters are mostly Indians attending pilgrimage sites, and the villages he visits are living by ancient rules at odds with the advancing, economic miracle of modern India.
There is throughout the book the inevitable comedy of Indian bureaucracy and the perils of Indian driving, all of which is amusing in retrospect -- assuming you have survived the highways. Many don't. In Delhi there is an average of one vehicular death per day, and Lewis sees lorries piled onto one another in crevasses along the more mountainous highways he travels, On our trip we saw poverty and maimed beggars, but it is shocking to read that in 1990, Lewis sees people dying on the streets of Calcutta. He also reads reports of uninvestigated "dowery killings" by new husbands dissatisfied with the financial arrangements of their marriages, and he says the practice of infanticide is widespread enough to noticeably alter the ratio of young boys to girls.
The tribes Lewis visits, accompanied by a driver and a translator, inhabit an India still unknown even to most Indians. Tribals are considered backwards and with suspicion by those who call themselves "normal people." Yet the tribes live is caste-free societies where women have greater standing than almost anywhere else on the continent, and their egalitarian societies often render the moot the concept of poverty. They also drink enormous amounts of alcohol, men, women, and in some cases children spending most of the free time mildly or wildly drunk; and, one tribe, the Bondas, have prickly tempers that often lead to homicide. The governments efforts to modernize tribal cultures have been misguided and disastrous.
Lewis is an subtle but incisive observer who brings in historical background to his contemporary scenes and deftly draws the characters of whomever he meets, ranging from his interpreter to businessmen and hotel staff. He knows the tribal life is certain to vanish even more completely than it already has. The concepts of "jobs" and "money" are largely meaningless to the tribals. Mining and lumber operations will destroy homelands, bring jobs, and introduce money. Given the rate of industrialization in India, just twenty years later the journey Lewis took may no longer be possible.
A Goddess in the Stones made me realize just how safely tourist-oriented our trip through Delhi and Rajasthan had been. Lewis is traveling the eastern states just over a decade before our trip to the northwest, but he enters an area of political unrest with the express purpose of encountering as many of the pre-Aryan tribal groups as possible. The other tourists he encounters are mostly Indians attending pilgrimage sites, and the villages he visits are living by ancient rules at odds with the advancing, economic miracle of modern India.
There is throughout the book the inevitable comedy of Indian bureaucracy and the perils of Indian driving, all of which is amusing in retrospect -- assuming you have survived the highways. Many don't. In Delhi there is an average of one vehicular death per day, and Lewis sees lorries piled onto one another in crevasses along the more mountainous highways he travels, On our trip we saw poverty and maimed beggars, but it is shocking to read that in 1990, Lewis sees people dying on the streets of Calcutta. He also reads reports of uninvestigated "dowery killings" by new husbands dissatisfied with the financial arrangements of their marriages, and he says the practice of infanticide is widespread enough to noticeably alter the ratio of young boys to girls.
The tribes Lewis visits, accompanied by a driver and a translator, inhabit an India still unknown even to most Indians. Tribals are considered backwards and with suspicion by those who call themselves "normal people." Yet the tribes live is caste-free societies where women have greater standing than almost anywhere else on the continent, and their egalitarian societies often render the moot the concept of poverty. They also drink enormous amounts of alcohol, men, women, and in some cases children spending most of the free time mildly or wildly drunk; and, one tribe, the Bondas, have prickly tempers that often lead to homicide. The governments efforts to modernize tribal cultures have been misguided and disastrous.
Lewis is an subtle but incisive observer who brings in historical background to his contemporary scenes and deftly draws the characters of whomever he meets, ranging from his interpreter to businessmen and hotel staff. He knows the tribal life is certain to vanish even more completely than it already has. The concepts of "jobs" and "money" are largely meaningless to the tribals. Mining and lumber operations will destroy homelands, bring jobs, and introduce money. Given the rate of industrialization in India, just twenty years later the journey Lewis took may no longer be possible.
February 27, 2017
“Dónde las piedras son dioses”, es el relato narrado de todo un señor escritor de viajes como era Norman Lewis; especializado en zonas conflictivas y en haber ido a la India en varias ocasiones. Aquí deleita al lector con una narración tremendamente rica y descriptiva de su extensa ruta por las zonas prohibidas de la india. El que crea que la cosa se limita a la narración del paisaje y algo sobre las tradiciones, va totalmente equivocado, ya que a través de su ruta, nos hace una minuciosa crítica, radiografiada, de un país infecto, corrupto, lleno de esclavos, sumisión, misoginia hasta límites insospechados, con cultos inexplicables y tradiciones demenciales (como el infanticidio en clínicas o la “Pira” aún no abolida del todo) , que apesta a muerte y podredumbre, pero que sigue conservando un encanto especial en los pequeños detalles y algunas de sus gentes.
Por lo tanto, es una obra que no escatima en nada. Es densa por contener muchísima información en varias áreas, además de no ser apta para los principiantes que lean acerca de la India, ya que aquí se entra en el trapo acerca de las insalubres y precarias condiciones y, también, las demenciales acciones de algunos pobladores. En efecto ,es una narración muy gráfica, que visionas hasta olerla, prácticamente y escatológica a partes iguales. La denuncia hecha libro.
Sin embargo, y como hábil e inteligente contrapunto a su contenido, la prosa narrativa de Lewis posee un encanto cuasi poético, por que, y pese a destilar absoluto realismo, expresa el sencillo deleite de lo imperturbable, lo “incorruptible”, ya que logra transmitir el sosegado halo de lo sencillo y anecdótico del día a día en un País en dónde la pasividad activa es un dogma y un estigma, a partes iguales.
Muy buena obra pero no apta para novatos ni para personas que deseen un libro ligero de viajes. Ideal para leerse con calma y reposarlo, alternándolo con otros libros.
Así pues, una buena narrativa de viajes, por su riqueza y aporte de conocimientos extra mediante una sabia, e intento, de imparcial visión acerca de la inherente crueldad y pobreza de un país, por otro lado que bien podría haber sido civilizado si se hubieran demolido y erradicado todas ése mundo de castas, ésa potencial misoginia, su esclavitud y estafa, hecha vida, sobre su pueblo.
Por lo tanto, es una obra que no escatima en nada. Es densa por contener muchísima información en varias áreas, además de no ser apta para los principiantes que lean acerca de la India, ya que aquí se entra en el trapo acerca de las insalubres y precarias condiciones y, también, las demenciales acciones de algunos pobladores. En efecto ,es una narración muy gráfica, que visionas hasta olerla, prácticamente y escatológica a partes iguales. La denuncia hecha libro.
Sin embargo, y como hábil e inteligente contrapunto a su contenido, la prosa narrativa de Lewis posee un encanto cuasi poético, por que, y pese a destilar absoluto realismo, expresa el sencillo deleite de lo imperturbable, lo “incorruptible”, ya que logra transmitir el sosegado halo de lo sencillo y anecdótico del día a día en un País en dónde la pasividad activa es un dogma y un estigma, a partes iguales.
Muy buena obra pero no apta para novatos ni para personas que deseen un libro ligero de viajes. Ideal para leerse con calma y reposarlo, alternándolo con otros libros.
Así pues, una buena narrativa de viajes, por su riqueza y aporte de conocimientos extra mediante una sabia, e intento, de imparcial visión acerca de la inherente crueldad y pobreza de un país, por otro lado que bien podría haber sido civilizado si se hubieran demolido y erradicado todas ése mundo de castas, ésa potencial misoginia, su esclavitud y estafa, hecha vida, sobre su pueblo.
June 18, 2021
" ... La Madre Terra era la loro divinità principale, molto spesso raffigurata da una pila di pietre. I Muria erano soliti dire " Se ci credi, è una Dea. Altrimenti è una pietra" ... "
Un viaggio attraverso l'India meno nota tra tribù cosiddette primitive che hanno mantenuto usi, costumi e mentalità ancorate al passato, ma che stanno per essere raggiunte dai tentacoli della modernità e peggio ancora della società politica predominante che cerca con tentativi decisamente incoerenti e fuori luogo di uniformarli al resto del paese.
Un paese tra bellezze naturali e spaventose crudeltà sociali, tra ricchezza spirituale e brutalità permeato tutto da un profondo senso di sporcizia, non c'è quasi pagina nella quale non venga descritto questo degrado.
Un viaggio attraverso l'India meno nota tra tribù cosiddette primitive che hanno mantenuto usi, costumi e mentalità ancorate al passato, ma che stanno per essere raggiunte dai tentacoli della modernità e peggio ancora della società politica predominante che cerca con tentativi decisamente incoerenti e fuori luogo di uniformarli al resto del paese.
Un paese tra bellezze naturali e spaventose crudeltà sociali, tra ricchezza spirituale e brutalità permeato tutto da un profondo senso di sporcizia, non c'è quasi pagina nella quale non venga descritto questo degrado.
maybe
August 19, 2015Description: In the 1990s, the fifty-four million members of India’s tribal colonies accounted for seven percent of the country’s total population—yet very little about them was recorded. Norman Lewis depicts India’s jungles as being endangered by “progress,” and his sense of urgency in recording what he can about the country’s distinct tribes results in a compelling and engaging narrative. From the poetic Muria people whose diet includes monkeys, red ants, and crocodiles, to the tranquil mountain tribes who may be related to the Australian Aborigines, to the naked Mundas people who may shoot, with bow and arrow, anyone who laughs in their direction, Lewis chronicles the unique characteristics of the many tribes that find their way of life increasingly threatened by the encroachment of modernity.
June 10, 2019
He tried to give the indigenous cultures (read tribals) a voice, but somehow completely missed the point of 'Hindu' India also being indigenous. How could he not make sense of the cordiality between tribal Hindus, and urban Hindus as not being predatory, and originating from the same spiritual roots? He even makes multiple mentions of how Indians share certain cultural traits (clean homes for instance) despite being tribal, or 'Hindu' or not, how mutual respect in ingrained in all Indian origin 'religions', and he still buys the whole Aryan invasion nonsense without a grain of scrutiny, or listening to the voice of Hindutva-ites (he knows of them through his reading of VS Naipaul for instance). Rest of the portrayal of India, although rather geo-limited, is quite honest.
May 9, 2011
I recommend this highly! Beautifully written, insightful, interculturally astute...
April 2, 2025
Been waiting to read this, and was guided to it by a Pico Iyer essay. Such a different travel book, more anthropological than a clear travel narrative, and is stronger for it. What astounded me in the book is Lewis' curiosity for these people, so outside the Indian mainstream and yet possessors of such rich lives. I loved what he thought important to mention, and what he didn't. He also makes it abundantly clear which side he fights for in India's age old struggle between a beautiful, calm, but otherwise cruel and placid way of life, and a modern, capitalist, destructive striving for growth.
The portraits of these tribes are carefully drawn and presented, and it is clear how much he feels for these people, marooned in a country that is still finding itself. 40 years on, I can only guess at how much has been lost, and I'm glad someone cared enough to undertake a journey like this. A classic.
The portraits of these tribes are carefully drawn and presented, and it is clear how much he feels for these people, marooned in a country that is still finding itself. 40 years on, I can only guess at how much has been lost, and I'm glad someone cared enough to undertake a journey like this. A classic.
January 14, 2026
Commentary in Spanish and English
Leyendo a Roald Dahl en , he buscado libros de viajes en mi biblioteca de papel, hacía años no leía este tema, y unos relatos que me encantaron con 5 estrellas que deseo compartir son:
De Paul Theroux "En el Gallo de Hierro"
De Norman Lewis "Donde las piedras son dioses"
De Alí Bey "Viajes por Marruecos"
Y de Vikram Seth "Desde el lago del Cielo".
Roald Dahl me ha llenado de emociones.
While reading Roald Dahl, I searched my paper library for travel books. It had been years since I'd read anything on this topic, and some stories I absolutely loved and want to share are:
"In the Iron Rooster" by Paul Theroux,
"Where Stones Are Gods" by Norman Lewis,
"Travels in Morocco" by Ali Bey, and
"From Heaven Lake" by Vikram Seth.
Roald Dahl has filled me with emotion.
Leyendo a Roald Dahl en , he buscado libros de viajes en mi biblioteca de papel, hacía años no leía este tema, y unos relatos que me encantaron con 5 estrellas que deseo compartir son:
De Paul Theroux "En el Gallo de Hierro"
De Norman Lewis "Donde las piedras son dioses"
De Alí Bey "Viajes por Marruecos"
Y de Vikram Seth "Desde el lago del Cielo".
Roald Dahl me ha llenado de emociones.
While reading Roald Dahl, I searched my paper library for travel books. It had been years since I'd read anything on this topic, and some stories I absolutely loved and want to share are:
"In the Iron Rooster" by Paul Theroux,
"Where Stones Are Gods" by Norman Lewis,
"Travels in Morocco" by Ali Bey, and
"From Heaven Lake" by Vikram Seth.
Roald Dahl has filled me with emotion.
February 9, 2019
Norman Lewis's A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India is a somewhat strange travel book set in India. Instead of taking us to the cities and sights that most Occidentals know of (with the brief exception of a chapter in Calcutta), Lewis stages a number of visits to ethnic minorities on the Indian subcontinent. It is a good, solid book, but of more specialist interest -- yet not necessarily perceptive enough to justify the effort.
July 29, 2023
Interesting to learn about a little known part of India. India's substantial tribal population gets very little publicity in the west. Published 30 years ago much will or changed by now, although one of India 's most intractable problems is it's lack of progress in in bringing the 21st century to the countryside. The second half of the book was a bit of a struggle as he travelled from one tribal group to the other, with them seeming to merge together in the mind.
February 19, 2023
I found this an enjoyable 'primer' for the complex country of India and the myriad of non-Hindu tribes in one area of the country. Lewis has an easily read style and is adept at creating an image of the communities and landscape he travelled through.
Read
April 15, 2023India land of vast contrasts where spirituality is woven seamlessly into everyday life. Lewis takes us on a fascinating journey into parts of the subcontinent where few tourists visit and in doing so connects us with her mysterious and enchanting heartbeat.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2020
Un viaje por la India, por sus costumbres, sus problemas, sus choques religiosos y su cultura tribal.
June 27, 2021
Un libro que disfrute de principio a fin, Norman escribe de una forma cautivadora y el contenido del libro me ha parecido fascinante.
November 28, 2022
Un viaje realizado en el año 1990 por los estados de Bihar y Orissa, zonas de extrema pobreza. El autor nos describe los remotos parajes y nos describe las costumbres y otras historias de las tribus que lo habitan como los kondh, paraja o godba, que han permanecido alejadas de la cultura occidental e incluso de la propia India.
September 14, 2014
A fine, yet relatively unknown book by Norman Lewis. It describes his journey into India's hinterland of tribal areas, some places into which few westerners had ever set foot. While written in 1990/1991 it provides an account of India before even remoter parts of the country entered globalisation and the road of 'progress', though he vividly describes how the country was undergoing profound change. Norman Lewis also provides an at times grim account of tribal and indigenous cultures, forever changed by Hindu practices, the savage Christian fundamentalism that also features in other books (such as The Missionaries) and which he correctly lambasts for destroying and corrupting local culture, as well as possibly well-intentioned but destructive Indian government policy aimed at 'modernising' these supposedly 'primitive' lands. At the same time, he highlights the competition between tribes, the idolatry and obsession with local Gods and the difficulties these bring about and the at times shameful disregard for female life through arranged marriages, honour killings and other violent acts displayed.
Not an easy read given the topic, but one of the classics of British travel writing on India, from one of the best authors of the 20th century.
Not an easy read given the topic, but one of the classics of British travel writing on India, from one of the best authors of the 20th century.
November 13, 2015
Charles Dee Mitchell's review says almost everything I want to, but more eloquently. My future sister-in-law is Bengali, so I am reading everything I can about India (especially Bengal) in advance of my brother's wedding. Most books on India are about Northern India. This is a rarity in that it is on eastern India, with a focus on the pre-Aryan (and sometimes pre-Dravidian!) tribes.
Lewis writes in the first person, but his voice comes from a distance. It took me a while to realize that he chose his anecdotes carefully; he intended to invoke strong emotions. He was especially disturbed by the treatment of women in broader Indian society.
I finished the book sad that so many of the tribal people are displaced, or soon will be. The tribes profiled knew how to live with their climates, and were generally healthier than the surrounding societies. It is a shame that they are being pressured to "modernize" when their life spans are about six years longer than the Indian average (which presumably includes the sizable tribal populations).
A last note--this is not a good book to read if you want to look forward to a trip to Kolkata.
Lewis writes in the first person, but his voice comes from a distance. It took me a while to realize that he chose his anecdotes carefully; he intended to invoke strong emotions. He was especially disturbed by the treatment of women in broader Indian society.
I finished the book sad that so many of the tribal people are displaced, or soon will be. The tribes profiled knew how to live with their climates, and were generally healthier than the surrounding societies. It is a shame that they are being pressured to "modernize" when their life spans are about six years longer than the Indian average (which presumably includes the sizable tribal populations).
A last note--this is not a good book to read if you want to look forward to a trip to Kolkata.
December 25, 2012
I have a few quibbles with some of the comments and ideas, but mostly very good reading. I generally appreciate Lewis' perspective.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews