RICH LIKE US
Rich Like Us is a historical and political fiction novel by Nayantara Sahgal. Set in New
Delhi during the chaotic time between 1932 and the mid-1970s, it follows the lives of two
female protagonists, Rose and Sonali, and their fight to live in a time of political upheaval
and social re-organization.
The novel brought its author the 1986 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, by the Sahitya
Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.[1]
Title
[edit]
Rich Like Us takes its title from a brief meeting at the beginning of the novel that Dev and his
wife Nishi have with a businessman named Mr. Neuman, who reflects that all he has been
told teaches him that if the poor of India would "do like we do, they’d be rich like us," yet
seeing the poverty in the streets in person, he finds this hard to believe. The book’s title
brings up this question of why the fat of society refuses to "trickle down" to the masses. This
issue affects both protagonists, as Rose continues to question the tactics of her stepson Dev
and Sonali sees first-hand the extravagances of the ruling party. Wealth is certainly not
portrayed as the way to happiness in the novel, as the elite main characters seem trapped in
a web of corruption, power and money from which they both stem. However, the plight of
the handless beggar that hangs around Rose’s home certainly does not glamorize the lives of
the Indian poor. Rich Like Us is a phrase introduced as a question, and continuing as such
throughout the novel.
Plot summary
[edit]
This historical fiction entwines the fate of two upper-class women, Rose, a British immigrant
and wife to powerful native business man Ram with Sonali, a highly educated young civil
servant. The former struggles to find a sense of home in this foreign society, filled with
ancient customs, including the sati, and exotic social standards. She is entangled in a three-
pronged marriage, as she is the second wife of Ram’s. Rose suffers to understand the Indian
culture, and its ramifications on the female spirit. As Ram’s health deteriorates, she realizes
her rights as wife are in question. Dev, Ram’s son from his other wife, Mona, schemes to take
all Ram’s assets by disposing of Rose. In fear, Rose turns to Sonali, her friend and niece.
Sonali is an anomaly to the average Indian, aristocratic woman. She deals with the living and
working in New Delhi during the political upheaval of the Emergency and is divided between
two worlds, one representing her ideals and longing for progression and the other that
embodies her upper-crust, conservative culture. From these two characters branch off
numerous other tales, which provide a deep and thorough overview of life for all people
during this critical historical period. At root of these stories lies the duplicitous role of
women in the dynamic, chaotic, new India of the mid 20th century.
Structure
[edit]
The structure of Rich Like Us involves a number of chapters that are narrated in turn by a
third person omniscient narrator and the character of Sonali, the chapters moving freely
back and forth through the more distant past and the recent past of the story’s current
action. Sonali tells the reader about the current events of the story, sometimes pausing to
read back into the far distant past of her paternal ancestors, while the narration that follows
Rose (and briefly Nishi) focuses on the early years of Rose’s marriage to Ram, moving on in
chronological progression as though they have only just gone by. The different time periods
are kept separate by the barriers of the chapters in the book, but their stories are still told
side-by-side through the text’s ability to exist in different planes of time.
Major themes
[edit]
Political corruption (absolute power corrupts absolutely, etc.): The Prime Minister declares a
state of emergency, allowing her to have supreme and autocratic control. During this time
the country is in a state of disarray. The wealthy seek to profit, while commoners are
crushed by the impending globalization. The government's power grows to such an extent
and begins to force men who are low in the caste system to have vasectomies.
Political Ideology & Its Repercussions: Ravi embraces communism in his youth and will only
accept the exact following of the doctrine. This near-sighted view of politics shapes his
future narrow-minded and misguided involvement in the Indian government. Ravi is swept
up by the autocratic ideals of a ruler like Indira Gandhi and quickly integrates himself in the
current extremely volatile and dangerous regime.
Colonialism: India's long history as a British colony has had numerous side effects. Those
growing up within this period feel both Indian and British, This novel details the complicated
effects colonization has had on this country and its people. Rose, although born and raised in
Britain, feels just as much British as Indian, her home since her marriage to Ram over 30
years prior. Sonali, although raised in India, her experiences in the UK while studying and her
constant interaction with British people has left her also confused, to whom should she
show her allegiance?
Women as Objects vs. People: Both Rose and Sonali engage in external and internal conflict
with this distinction. Sonali's past experience has consisted mainly of seeing women in
submissive roles that deny their true selves, as when her friend Bimmie gets married: "But I
was hypnotized by Bimmie's nose ring, the sandalpaste dots on her face, eyes downcast, and
those manacled hands resting submissively in her red silk lap. This was never Bimmie." (48)
Sonali is thrilled to shuck off the chains she feels bound by as a woman when she goes off to
Oxford. Rose also feels this conflict raging around and within her: as Ram's second wife, she
will have very few rights when he dies, and may end up like just another piece of furniture
for Dev to throw away. She also struggles within herself about whether the role she has
chosen fits her, whether she has become submissive to Ram's will and should not have
settled for second wife.
Wealth’s Ties to Power: This connection seems inevitable, even inseparable, in the novel.
The elite have everything: the good Scotch whisky, food on their tables, even a political
regime that will turn a blind eye to certain illegal acts. The poor, however, are likely to be
arrested and tortured for the barest hint, even a fabricated hint, of committing any crime
against the reigning power.
The Power of Love: This theme asserts itself most prominently through the character of
Rose, who loves her husband Ram so dearly that she is willing to leave behind her home and
everything she knows in England to take a position she can hardly even justify to herself, his
second wife. She is willing to sacrifice everything to be with him. The young Sonali is not any
man's bride, but she finds herself unable to stop caring for Ravi Kachru, her childhood friend
and later lover.
About : Nayantara Sahgal is a novelist and political commentator who has published nine
novels and eight works of non-fiction. One of the first Indian writers in English to make a
mark on an international readership, she won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia) in
1986 for Plans for Departure, while Rich Like Us won the Sinclair Fiction Prize in 1985 and
the Sahitya Akad i Award in 1986. Born into the first family on Indian politics - the Nehrus -
Sahgal saw at firsthand India ergence as an independent nation under the prime-
ministership of her maternal uncle, Jawaharlal Nehru, and her cousin, Indira Gandhi rise to
power. She was a member of the Sahitya Akad i Advisory Board for English, till she resigned
during the ergency of 1975; she has been a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars, the National Humanities Center and the Bunting Institute, USA. She also
served on the jury of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1990 and 1991. In 1990 she was
elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1997 she was awarded an
Honorary Doctorate for Literature by the University of Leeds, and was given the Alumna
achievement Award by Wellesley College in 2002. Honoring her for bravely confronting
authority in defense of the world largest d ocracy, the award acknowledged her as an ardent
and eloquent writer whose bravery and passion have inspired all of us as we seek freedom
through just democratic governance.
