Lesser Breeds

by Nayantara Sahgal

In 1932, Nurullah, a teacher aged twenty-three, comes to the city of Akbarabad. He teaches literature to first-years at the university and encounters a non-violent resistance movement against British rule. It seems to him a bizarre way for an occupied country to confront an empire in a violent unequal world - one more wrong turn, among others, that Indian history has taken. During the ten years from 1932 that he lives with a non-violent family in the 'national monument' that their doomed mansion has become, Akbarabad educates him in varied ways, leaving him stubbornly resistant to non-violence. The book ends in 1968 with a look-back and a reconsideration by the man Nurullah has now become.

Genres: Politics

369 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Nayantara Sahgal is an Indian writer in English. Her fiction deals with India's elite responding to the crises engendered by political change. She was one of the first female Indian writers in English to receive wide recognition. She is a member of the Nehru family (not the Nehru-Gandhi family as she so often points out), the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
She was awarded the 1986 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, for her novel Rich Like Us (1985)awarded by India's National Academy of Letters.

Reviews

[Norah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given a copy of this book to read for a lecture on Indian literature. There is a writing style that caused some trouble to "get into" the book, but it contains some interesting insights into the world that I think everyone should be reminded of. Also, it doesn't romanticize Indian life, but it only depicts a sliver of it.

[Neer · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disappointing read. I expected something different.

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