V.S.Naipaul: A Critic of Cultures

This book is an exploration into how literature can be a means of investigation of a culture and how anthropology and sociology differ from literature as the means of cultural exploration. This study is accomplished with reference to the nonfictional works of V.S.Naipaul. Naipaul is more impressive as an explorer of cultures than an anthropologist. An anthropologist associates various traits of the cultures to the past and finds out how various rituals and customs evolved with the passage of the time. Naipaul has his unique method to probe into the culture of the societies. He relates the present condition of the people with history, the ideology of the leaders, the scriptures, the geography, the economy of the nation etc. Anthropology is an objective science and prescribes nothing for the better future, but a man of literature Naipaul often gives judgment and states how different traits of the culture are detrimental to progress of a particular society. One can understand the people deeply by reading Naipaul than reading any book of history. Naipaul has imparted a higher status to literature as a domain of knowledge, not only pleasure.