Rumble in a Village: A Novel

by Luc Leruth, Jean Drèze

Anil Singh, a banker working in London, finds out that his uncle has died in Palanpur, a village in north India, and that he is the sole heir. Egged on by his India-loving girlfriend, Pat, Anil decides to go and take charge of his property (a small house and some farmland) and learn more about the country his parents came from. An ardent photographer, he takes his cameras along to avoid boredom and with the hope of later publishing the photos of the village in a coffee-table book. He even thinks he might try his hand at being a gentleman farmer. On the way to the village, Anil discovers that his uncle was murdered and that the police have arrested his uncle’s domestic help, a Dalit woman named Neetu, but no one believes that she could be the killer.

While the murder mystery is one thread of the story, we follow Anil as he bumbles along through Palanpur, making friends and mistakes. He is determined to help the villagers by bringing modern amenities and development to the village. This leads him on a sometimes confusing, yet eye-opening journey through the myriad complexities of northern India—the politics of different caste groups (the Thakurs, the Muraos, the Dalits), jealousy, corruption, bureaucratic nightmares, poverty, gender disparity, power struggles and the turmoil of a village divided.

Rumble in a Village starts out as a murder mystery but the narrative soon broadens into an entertaining and insightful fictional look at life in an Indian village. Peopled with colourful characters such as the seemingly innocent Babu who befriends Anil and starts working for him; the village headman, Rampal; Kishan Lal, who teaches Anil about farming and life in Palanpur; Captain, an army man who drops mysterious hints about the murder and much else; Ashok Kumar, the lawyer who helps Anil make sense of the property he has inherited; the beautiful and dedicated teacher, Smita; the obnoxious police superintendent, BKS; and many others (including a bad tempered billy-goat), the novel, based on Jean Drèze’s observations as a young researcher in a real-life village, paints a compelling portrait of the darkness and light that invest the lives of villagers in northern India.

Genres: Fiction

308 pages, Hardcover

Published September 10, 2020

Reviews

[Krutika · Rating 4 out of 5]

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When Jean Dreze, an economist resided in Palanpur for a year (1983-84), he found the small village interesting enough to make it into his notes. It is only several decades later Luc Leruth decided to conjure up a fictional story that unfolds in Palanpur using Jean's notes. Wrapped behind this beautiful cover, Rumble in a Village is a witty and humorous story about a whole range of characters, each carrying his/her own unique trait. Although fictional, Luc has succeeded in projecting a sleepy village's life appropriately. Through this story, he highlights how caste and power plays an important yet unfortunate role in villages. The contrast in power between the higher and lower classes of people are shown vividly. Rumble in a Village may be funny on the surface but also highlights an underlying sense of political and social norms of a society.
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Anil, a banker in the States receives a phone call informing him of his uncle's murder in Palanpur. Having previously visited the village as a three year old child, he doesn't have many memories to recall. Reluctantly, he makes his way to India to sort out property details that he will now be inheriting. His father who moved to America decades ago, leaves behind an incomplete fictional novel set in Palanpur which Anil uses to understand the nature of this tiny village. Upon his arrival in India, he immediately senses how curious people are to have an NRI amongst them, their questions only increasing in fervour as he makes his way to the village. The other aspect that he quickly understands is the unfairness with which Dalits are treated in remote places and in his case, Neetu, an old Dalit woman who is imprisoned as his uncle's murderer. The villagers know that Neetu is a timid woman, barely having the strength to hold or even own a rifle. But it's often easier to wrongly accuse Dalits and so they do exactly that.
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Anil's stay in Palanpur is both amusing and adventurous and with Babu, a Dalit as his sidekick, he sets about exploring the place. The story shifts between 1872 and 1984, as Anil reads his father's story while thinking of his own experience amidst this eclectic set of people. Although life may seem simple in a village, it also has it's dark secrets. The father's story which is set during the pre-independence era, has funny and interesting instances about how the British introduced railways in this quaint village much to the amusement of the villagers and how it boosted their financial situation. The power held by Thakurs and other higher caste people and the manner in which they misuse it applies even in the current situation. Rumble in a Village was a riot at times but most of the story felt dragged, like a rubber band that is stretched to it's maximum capacity. It is here that it lost couple of points from me.
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Rating : 4.1/5.

[Contemporary_literary_threads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rumble in a village creates a mystery hook from the beginning when Anil Singh, a banker working in London, finds out that his uncle has died in Palanpur, a village in north India, and that he is the sole heir. He travels to India to take charge of the property and know more about the village.

It is not the whole story, though based on real-life anecdotes by the author, Jean Dreze, an economist by profession who resided in Palanpur for a year (1983-84), with Luc Leruth co-wrote this book bringing the simple village life to light. The story shifts between pre and post-independence periods drawing strings around the caste system, Britishers laying down railway tracks in the middle of the village is put forward in both an amusing and adventurous manner or mocking the simpleton nature of the villagers.

As the synopsis of the novel tells, the mystery is just one thread of this book, and soon my interest in the book struggled to finish it. I enjoyed the parts where Anil, with his sidekick Babu, one of the villagers, explores the village and its nuances. I particularly had expectations from the mystery part, but it fell flat and was just a hook to read this book. I feel if it was published as narrative non-fiction, the book would have gotten more readership.

Rating it 3🌟/5🌟because of its writing which is just as simple as village life.

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jean Dreze is person I deeply admire, so when I saw his name on a work of fiction with an eye-catching cover, I had to pick it up. I am glad I did. Though the book is written by two academicians, and the themes are heavy, the book is an absolute delight to read.
Imagine a village in the middle of nowhere, with a railway tracks cutting past the landscape. A village demarcated along rigid caste lines. The people knowing their place, yet, striving to improve their lives with limited or no opportunities.
Into this village comes an NRI, accompanied with vague memories of a trip to the village when he was three, and the notes which his father intended to covert into a work of non-fiction, but didn't. With no knowledge of how caste works, he bumbles through, thinking he is making a difference, but actually being played along by virtually everyone.
The author(s) employ self deprecating humour to make a point about casteism, misogyny and corruption. The book is full of harsh truths, but put forward in a way that neither preaches nor accuses.
Palampur can be any village, anywhere. The cast of characters too.

[Ashis Sahu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humourous take on the Indian village dynamics encompassing class, caste and gender. Then there is a murder mystery waiting to be solved.

[Prakash Loungani · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much messier Malgudi