Raag Darbari is Sahitya Academy award winning novel of noted Hindi writer Shrila l Shukla portraying power struggle

in rural landscape of post Independence India in a satirical vein that has gone somewhat ignored by the English speaking lite rati of New Delhi. Yet, no English novel comes close to capturing life in an ord inary north Indian village as this one from every page of which emanates the ear thy smell of India s villages. The story spans over a short span of six months in Shivpalganj village of Oudh region in Uttar Pradesh during which a post-graduate from the city comes to spend a sabbatical with his maternal uncle, Vaidji, who is a power-broker manipulating the village s social and economic activities. Translated by Gillian Wright, it exposes the nexus between politicians, business men, criminals, and policemen, and highlights the way in which they collude to e xploit society for selfish reasons. The protagonist, Ranganath, who comes to the village with an idyllic vision of rural India and enthused by ideals and moral values instilled by the Western liberal education, discovers that all village po liticians, including his uncle, misuse their positions of power to manipulate th e village people. As he scrutinises the social undercurrents in the day-to-day v illage life, the difference between myth and reality become glaringly obvious. RAAG DARBARI Politics and government are the two main themes of the novel. Uttar Pradesh is I ndia s most politically dominant state and it s often said that politics is the stat e s main industry. Shrilal Shukla describes politics at the grass roots, but much of the factionalism, nepotism and behind-the-scenes manipulation he portrays is familiar to anyone who follows events through the national press. The state s bureaucracy, the author s other main target, is satirised for its irrele vance to the common man, inefficiency and close connections with politicians. Co ntrol over the co-operative union, the village council and the college is key to controlling the village s economic and political life because in the early Sixtie s, education, co-operatives and panchayats were the three main planks of village development. The main characters happen to be Brahmins because in much of UP, the dominant ca stes in villages were, and to a large extent still are, Brahmins and Thakurs. Th e title itself reveals the political emphasis of the plot. Raag Darbari is the n ame of one of the most difficult raagas of Indian classical music, but Shrilal S hukla has taken its meaning literally the melody of the court. In the novel, it re fers to the tune sung by the courtiers of a local raja, that s to say a village po litician. The expanding readership of the novel is proof of its continued releva nce. It has also been adapted for stage and television.