Unraveling India through the Travel Trilogy of V.S. Naipaul

Literature has been instrumental in interpretation of past and thus attains a social importance. Travelogue is a genre of reflections, replications of contemporary socio-cultural and ethnic aspects of societies in which they are rooted. Naipaul and the Third World are entangled. Conceptually, the Third World looms large in the body of his works. His interest in ancestral homeland led him to rediscover India especially through the Indian Trinity listed as: An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now.The trilogy talk of Naipaul¿s journey to India and present the process of changing attitude (subjective reality) towards his land, cultural heritage and the larger process of the nation¿s development over a span of thirty years. Naipaul has used brilliant techniques in transforming the travelogues into texts. As he moves from one work to another, he allows real Indians to speak in their everyday language, often in dialogues. Each character has a voice to articulate a view. Through this heterogeneity of voices, the objective reality of India is directly expressed. The works help unravel his idea of India. They compel the reader to look for more.