The Jewel in the Crown

I've had a long-standing interest in, uh, kind of, uh, feminism, uh, women's organizations, and, uh, the struggle for women's rights more broadly in the context of, uh, kind of struggles for social justice.

But I think my first introductions to India was, interestingly enough, really through historical fiction, and it was through classic books such as Passage to India and, uh, of course, The Jewel in the Crown being one of Paul Scott's, uh, Raj Quartet, um, which dealt with the nationalist movement in India, of course, written by, uh, ki- British authors, um, but gave a very interesting and intriguing picture for me on, uh, kind of the nationalist movement, the struggle against British colonialism, and the very sort of complex dynamics and relationships between British citizens and, uh, Indian subjects.

And then a bit later, I started to read, uh, fiction by Indian authors such as The God of Small Things, which, uh, gave me insight into caste discrimination.

And of course, being a South African, you know, the question of race discrimination has really defined, um, our country as well.