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The Burning Elephant
The Burning Elephant is set in Kolkata before and after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, which led to widespread violence against India’s Sikh population. The novel is told from the point of view of a young boy Govinda, whose father is the headmaster of a local school. It begins with the intrusion into the schoolyard of an elephant that has escaped from its owner, and is seen as such a danger that he is immediately shot, then burnt by the police. This outbreak of violence in the idyllic world of childhood sets the tone for the novel as a whole, which gives the innocent yet knowing perspectives of Govinda in his engagement with the crowded and complex life of Serpent Lane outside the school, his awareness of the breakdown of the relationship between his parents, his sense that his own privileged life is under threat. The way the tensions in his family are rendered against the backdrop of the larger social tensions in India, while at the same time maintaining Govinda’s child-like point of view, is particularly compelling. It is the outbreak of violence after Indira Gandhi’s death which finally causes Govinda’s father to migrate to Australia – and it is the implicit lesson of this novel, never spelt out, but felt throughout, that such horror is often a central fact of migration to this country.
- GenresNovella
155 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 7, 2015
50 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Raja
3 books12 followersChristopher Raja migrated from Kolkata to Melbourne in 1986. He has lived and worked in Alice Springs since 2004. His writings (short stories and essays) have appeared in numerous publications. His co-authored play (with Natasha Raja) – ‘The First Garden’ – was performed in botanical gardens around Australia and published by Currency Press in 2012. His debut novel – The Burning Elephant (published by Giramondo, 2015) was written under a New Work grant awarded by the Literature Board of the Australia Council. He has been twice shortlisted for the Northern Territory Writers Centre’s Chief Minister’s Book of the Year award. In 2016, Chris appeared at the Ubud writer’s festival in Bali and ‘The Burning Elephant’ was launched in China at the 9th annual international conference of the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators, Guangzhou.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 16, 2020
Set during the lead-up to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984, The Burning Elephant is coloured by political eruption. Through the eyes of young Govinda, a story unfolds about discord within a marriage, sectarian violence, and the anticipation of a family preparing to emigrate to Australia.
Religion and mysticism are the book’s primary intoxicants. Characters speak in proverbs and riddles; rivers swell and burst; hijras and politicians alike place curses; Sikhs amass weapons in a temple. From the opening scene, in which a rampaging elephant is shot and burned in a schoolyard, the action is presented in mythic proportions. Like many of Govinda’s formative experiences in India, the image of the elephant’s burning body plagues him.
As the narration is defined by a child’s mind, what is bewildering or overlooked is often most interesting to the reader: the muted eroticism of his mother’s relationship with their Sikh cook; the fantasy of Australia, the ‘best country in the world’; domestic exchanges between two rival wives – one the servant to her husband’s mistress. Love, jealousy, resignation, and grief are tempered or hidden; Govinda is often left on the perimeters of the adult world. Despite increasing awareness of his parents’ fallibility, they remain removed and inaccessible to him. As the political situation in India intensifies, these pretences are tested. We watch the politics of a nation play out an intimate scale.
While Raja’s first novel is presented as Young Adult fiction, it holds layers of meaning that readers of all ages will find satisfying. Inevitably, Govinda must contemplate leaving his home country, an experience the book treats with honesty and plausibility.
Religion and mysticism are the book’s primary intoxicants. Characters speak in proverbs and riddles; rivers swell and burst; hijras and politicians alike place curses; Sikhs amass weapons in a temple. From the opening scene, in which a rampaging elephant is shot and burned in a schoolyard, the action is presented in mythic proportions. Like many of Govinda’s formative experiences in India, the image of the elephant’s burning body plagues him.
As the narration is defined by a child’s mind, what is bewildering or overlooked is often most interesting to the reader: the muted eroticism of his mother’s relationship with their Sikh cook; the fantasy of Australia, the ‘best country in the world’; domestic exchanges between two rival wives – one the servant to her husband’s mistress. Love, jealousy, resignation, and grief are tempered or hidden; Govinda is often left on the perimeters of the adult world. Despite increasing awareness of his parents’ fallibility, they remain removed and inaccessible to him. As the political situation in India intensifies, these pretences are tested. We watch the politics of a nation play out an intimate scale.
While Raja’s first novel is presented as Young Adult fiction, it holds layers of meaning that readers of all ages will find satisfying. Inevitably, Govinda must contemplate leaving his home country, an experience the book treats with honesty and plausibility.
December 4, 2016
This beautiful book transported me. Stunning. Moving. Made me cry. Talks to the soul of loosing innocence and finding God in all its complexities but somehow it is summed up in the simplistic nature of this line.
'THE TRICK IS NOT TO PANIC'
Re-creation and destruction and the cycles of life. Sweet hum of beautiful language. This whimsical novel is vivid, sights and sounds, memorable characters like Gitanjali and Mumbles. Chimes.
'THE TRICK IS NOT TO PANIC'
Re-creation and destruction and the cycles of life. Sweet hum of beautiful language. This whimsical novel is vivid, sights and sounds, memorable characters like Gitanjali and Mumbles. Chimes.
May 18, 2020
I really enjoyed reading this even though I was the wrong reading age! I felt I learned more about life in India and could imagine being there in all the color, smells and noise. Beautifully written!
May 23, 2019
The damaged Kolkata elephant that rams its way through the school compound and leaves itself no choice but to be executed by a rifle and burned to ashes is a metaphor of many things. It is a curse against the protagonist of the novel, Govinda's family, India, his naive innocence and complacent happiness, as they inevitably all break. It also signifies no apparent hope or redemption of the oppressed in this world, as represented by the senseless murder of the sikh severnt, Mumbles, who is brutally set alight by a mob of enraged Hindus in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assasination. Nor does it offer any answers to variours mysteries of the novel as to why things happen the way they do. (Gitanjali's affair with Mumbles, Sunil Seth's contradictory sense of justice, the hijura's eerie psychic power etc.) The elephant severs as a metaphor of our limitations, impossibility of knowing, transient nature of the world.
In contrast to the dark undercurrent of the story, the quotidian mundanes of Serpent Lane contain all essence of human life. The food, people, clothes, animals, plants, trees, vehicles, gods, gambling, shops, goods, excrement, friendship, jesting, festivals, bullying, fighting, poverty and injustice have their role to play. The author knows India, and the novel becomes a textbook to learn the culture and even provides ways to "universalise" India with an insider's perspective. Perhaps there is nothing exotic about India after all if one has access to the insider's point of view. People live in the best way they can in any given birthplace and a distinct culture only emerges when outsiders choose to decide it needs to be made different. With a bit of empathy and curiosity, the novel becomes familiar and universal, where anyone can be fully immersed in the culture.
At the very end of the novel, Sunil Seth, who until the end remains a mystery to Govinda concludes the narrative as follows:
"This is the age of death and destruction, but it is also the time of rebirth and recreation. We are all connected to a super soul. Life inevitably leads to a firely end but that will end all suffering and then rejuvenation will begin. Everything dies and decays. The trick is not to panic. That was Kali's whisper(182)."
Seth Sunil seems to know that the life's suffering is inevitable, but that the opposite is also true in that there are positive, creative elements in life as well.
Perhaps what we need to do is pay attention to those positive forces of life without panicing. The goodness of supernatural world may be separated from our human world of good and evil, but by paying attention, we could find a trace of the permanence.
Overall, I recommend the novel to others as it leads us to think of ourselves and the world with candour and sobriety. Only after immense affliction, light emerges. This is a proper cultural and historical introduction to the country of India, too.
The book can be read many times with different themes in mind.
In contrast to the dark undercurrent of the story, the quotidian mundanes of Serpent Lane contain all essence of human life. The food, people, clothes, animals, plants, trees, vehicles, gods, gambling, shops, goods, excrement, friendship, jesting, festivals, bullying, fighting, poverty and injustice have their role to play. The author knows India, and the novel becomes a textbook to learn the culture and even provides ways to "universalise" India with an insider's perspective. Perhaps there is nothing exotic about India after all if one has access to the insider's point of view. People live in the best way they can in any given birthplace and a distinct culture only emerges when outsiders choose to decide it needs to be made different. With a bit of empathy and curiosity, the novel becomes familiar and universal, where anyone can be fully immersed in the culture.
At the very end of the novel, Sunil Seth, who until the end remains a mystery to Govinda concludes the narrative as follows:
"This is the age of death and destruction, but it is also the time of rebirth and recreation. We are all connected to a super soul. Life inevitably leads to a firely end but that will end all suffering and then rejuvenation will begin. Everything dies and decays. The trick is not to panic. That was Kali's whisper(182)."
Seth Sunil seems to know that the life's suffering is inevitable, but that the opposite is also true in that there are positive, creative elements in life as well.
Perhaps what we need to do is pay attention to those positive forces of life without panicing. The goodness of supernatural world may be separated from our human world of good and evil, but by paying attention, we could find a trace of the permanence.
Overall, I recommend the novel to others as it leads us to think of ourselves and the world with candour and sobriety. Only after immense affliction, light emerges. This is a proper cultural and historical introduction to the country of India, too.
The book can be read many times with different themes in mind.
November 25, 2016
From the opening image of a burning elephant in a schoolyard to the violence of its ending in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Christopher Raja’s debut novella The Burning Elephant is confronting reading. It might, therefore, seem surprising that it’s marketed as Young Adult Fiction but I think it’s appropriate: I think that Australia’s young people ought to be exposed to stories that show that social cohesion is a privilege we should value and protect more than we do.
The young protagonist, Govinda, lives a privileged life in India. Growing up as the son of a schoolmaster in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), he has a comfortable lifestyle and is inclined to be a little priggish. As an only son, he is more than a little indulged. Unlike the poor and disadvantaged who surround him, he has the luxury of parents he can criticise and servants he can patronise. He resents his father Sunil Seth and is supercilious towards the cook, patronisingly nicknamed Mumbles because Govinda can’t always understand what he says. He idolises his mother and is appalled when he realises she is having an affair with Mumbles, not so much on moral grounds but more because of the differences in caste.
Yet Mumbles is a man of great dignity. He is a Sikh, and through him Govinda comes to realise that the father he would like to admire, is an intolerant man. Warning Mumbles that he doesn’t want any more trouble after an incident with a prophesying hijra (a transgender person), Govinda’s father switches tack and complains about finding a long hair in his food. Govinda is appalled by his father’s demand that Mumbles should therefore cut his hair
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/11/25/t...
The young protagonist, Govinda, lives a privileged life in India. Growing up as the son of a schoolmaster in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), he has a comfortable lifestyle and is inclined to be a little priggish. As an only son, he is more than a little indulged. Unlike the poor and disadvantaged who surround him, he has the luxury of parents he can criticise and servants he can patronise. He resents his father Sunil Seth and is supercilious towards the cook, patronisingly nicknamed Mumbles because Govinda can’t always understand what he says. He idolises his mother and is appalled when he realises she is having an affair with Mumbles, not so much on moral grounds but more because of the differences in caste.
Yet Mumbles is a man of great dignity. He is a Sikh, and through him Govinda comes to realise that the father he would like to admire, is an intolerant man. Warning Mumbles that he doesn’t want any more trouble after an incident with a prophesying hijra (a transgender person), Govinda’s father switches tack and complains about finding a long hair in his food. Govinda is appalled by his father’s demand that Mumbles should therefore cut his hair
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/11/25/t...
February 8, 2016
This book is young adult fiction dealing with themes of adultery, caste, religious violence, migration and (perhaps unintentionally) gender equality. Set in India, the story is told through the eyes of a young boy, Govinda, whose mother is having an affair with the family cook, and whose hometown is increasingly feeling the heat of caste and religious violence. Following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, fragile peace in Govinda’s hometown breaks down, and the family decides to escape to Australia.
Govinda watches events in his town with the privilege of a child of the higher-caste and religious majority. He observes scenes of violence but remains safe from them, until the crisis advances to a stage where the family cannot ignore it. This is not a story of heroism or solidarity. The family seeks mainly to look after themselves.
The marriage of Govinda’s parents, Gitanjali and Sunil Seth, seems dull, unfulfilling and controlling. The author seems to weave a moral tale through the adultery of Gitanjali with the cook, Mumbles Singh. Don’t expect a happy ending. Caste boundaries are made clear. In Govinda’s eyes, the closeness between Gitanjali and Mumbles is improper because Mumbles is a cook, not because he understands that they are having an affair.
The perspective of the book can be confusing at times. It is told in third person, following Govinda. At times things are described as a child would see and understand them. And at other times they are described as only an adult would understand.
Raja creates scenes with a filmic sense of description. Overall a very interesting book and worth a read.
Govinda watches events in his town with the privilege of a child of the higher-caste and religious majority. He observes scenes of violence but remains safe from them, until the crisis advances to a stage where the family cannot ignore it. This is not a story of heroism or solidarity. The family seeks mainly to look after themselves.
The marriage of Govinda’s parents, Gitanjali and Sunil Seth, seems dull, unfulfilling and controlling. The author seems to weave a moral tale through the adultery of Gitanjali with the cook, Mumbles Singh. Don’t expect a happy ending. Caste boundaries are made clear. In Govinda’s eyes, the closeness between Gitanjali and Mumbles is improper because Mumbles is a cook, not because he understands that they are having an affair.
The perspective of the book can be confusing at times. It is told in third person, following Govinda. At times things are described as a child would see and understand them. And at other times they are described as only an adult would understand.
Raja creates scenes with a filmic sense of description. Overall a very interesting book and worth a read.
February 20, 2016
The Burning Elephant is a challenging and moving read aimed at young adults.
The story is set at the time of the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, but the events of the time are seen through the eyes of Govinda, a young boy growing up in relative comfort as the son of a respected school principal in Kolkata. The themes of the story include culture, poverty, religious conflict, violence, corruption, adultery and the tensions of good and evil through a child's eyes.
As the story develops the possibility of Govinda's family emigrating to Australia emerges and this serves to draw the reader into considering what life might be like for young Govinda in a new country. From the moment that the story opens we see his relative privilege stripped away and his childhood lost through exposure to a national crisis as it is played out on the intimate of his local neighbourhood. On one hand the promise of emigration seems to offer hope that he will escape from exposure to violence, but on the other hand you sense the deep culture shock and isolation that may await him amidst the fresh grief and trauma from current events.
Raja draws an evocative picture of life in Kolkata at the time and reading this book really made me feel like I was experiencing life in Govida's neighbourhood. The themes struck me as quite challenging for the intended reading age, but this is perhaps a reflection of my own sheltered life and a childhood that was left undisturbed by conflict.
The story is set at the time of the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, but the events of the time are seen through the eyes of Govinda, a young boy growing up in relative comfort as the son of a respected school principal in Kolkata. The themes of the story include culture, poverty, religious conflict, violence, corruption, adultery and the tensions of good and evil through a child's eyes.
As the story develops the possibility of Govinda's family emigrating to Australia emerges and this serves to draw the reader into considering what life might be like for young Govinda in a new country. From the moment that the story opens we see his relative privilege stripped away and his childhood lost through exposure to a national crisis as it is played out on the intimate of his local neighbourhood. On one hand the promise of emigration seems to offer hope that he will escape from exposure to violence, but on the other hand you sense the deep culture shock and isolation that may await him amidst the fresh grief and trauma from current events.
Raja draws an evocative picture of life in Kolkata at the time and reading this book really made me feel like I was experiencing life in Govida's neighbourhood. The themes struck me as quite challenging for the intended reading age, but this is perhaps a reflection of my own sheltered life and a childhood that was left undisturbed by conflict.
February 15, 2017
I really enjoyed this book. It took me to Calcutta - such vivid descriptions. Also, it explored some very important themes like equality, innocence and religion. I would highly recommend this book. The author has an excellent understanding of India. It has made me want to learn more about the tragic assassination of Gandhi
May 8, 2018
The Burning Elephant by Christopher Raja gives a phenomenal insight into life in Kolkata, India through the eyes of a small boy, whose innocence is lost when he is caught up in the chaos that precedes and follows the assassination of the nation's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
While Young Adult Fiction is not a genre I would normally read, this book had me hooked in the first few pages, with its beautiful and brilliantly vivid descriptions that leapt off the page. The climax of the story had my heart in my mouth, with all my senses heightened. I could see, taste and smell life on the streets of Kolkata. The story was unpredictable, spine chilling and movingly sad. One of those books where you think about it long after the fact.
While Young Adult Fiction is not a genre I would normally read, this book had me hooked in the first few pages, with its beautiful and brilliantly vivid descriptions that leapt off the page. The climax of the story had my heart in my mouth, with all my senses heightened. I could see, taste and smell life on the streets of Kolkata. The story was unpredictable, spine chilling and movingly sad. One of those books where you think about it long after the fact.
December 19, 2015
I loved this book for the vivid descriptions it provided to me. The beauty in the chaos of a 1970's Kolkata shines out of every page in the book, each character as complex and vivid as they get. A must read for all book lovers, expecially those in love with the city of Kolkata.
July 15, 2016
A shattering Calcutta shown from the eyes of Govinda, a young kid whose mind is confused and overwhelmed by the contradictions of reality. The Burning Elephant is a book that keeps his promises.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews