The Valley of Masks
Tarun Tejpal
Harper Collins Publishers India. First published 2011
Tejpal conveys a message in the book, which he summarizes right at the end - 'Doubt.' he says. 'That should forever alternate with faith...' In leading up to this, he describes an idealistic group of people who gather around a visionary leader called Aum, and build a disciplined, self-sacrificing cult. Located in a secluded valley in the Himalayas, the followers of the cult seek to eliminate the self, the ego, and become pure followers of the spirit according to the teachings of Aum. After the passing of the leader and, soon thereafter, of his immediate disciples, the sect is run by successive anonymous groups of elders. At the time of the narrative, the elders are a set of men who have deposed of the previous leaders in a bloody coup, after accusing them of deviating from the true path of Aum. The sect is hierarchical. At the top, of course, are the leaders. The next layer consists of a band of warriors who fiercely school their bodies to be perfect fighting and killing machines. Then come those who serve these groups - the farmers, the artisans, the working class. Women have no place in the first two levels, except to sexually serve the warriors and the elders, and to bear their children. The boys are brought up communally with no attachments to father or mother being allowed to form; the girls are trained, again communally, to serve the men in their turn.
The story is narrated by one of the best warriors of the group, who suddenly realizes the corruption and the rottenness into which the ideals of the sect have gradually transmuted. He deserts the sect and descends from the valley into the plains. He now waits for the inevitable, to be followed and killed. And he tells his story as he waits.
Tejpal conveys a message in the book, which he summarizes right at the end - 'Doubt.' he says. 'That should forever alternate with faith...' In leading up to this, he describes an idealistic group of people who gather around a visionary leader called Aum, and build a disciplined, self-sacrificing cult. Located in a secluded valley in the Himalayas, the followers of the cult seek to eliminate the self, the ego, and become pure followers of the spirit according to the teachings of Aum. After the passing of the leader and, soon thereafter, of his immediate disciples, the sect is run by successive anonymous groups of elders. At the time of the narrative, the elders are a set of men who have deposed of the previous leaders in a bloody coup, after accusing them of deviating from the true path of Aum. The sect is hierarchical. At the top, of course, are the leaders. The next layer consists of a band of warriors who fiercely school their bodies to be perfect fighting and killing machines. Then come those who serve these groups - the farmers, the artisans, the working class. Women have no place in the first two levels, except to sexually serve the warriors and the elders, and to bear their children. The boys are brought up communally with no attachments to father or mother being allowed to form; the girls are trained, again communally, to serve the men in their turn.
The story is narrated by one of the best warriors of the group, who suddenly realizes the corruption and the rottenness into which the ideals of the sect have gradually transmuted. He deserts the sect and descends from the valley into the plains. He now waits for the inevitable, to be followed and killed. And he tells his story as he waits.
The writing is taut and gripping, though at times overblown and breathless. The description of the cult is as a mixture of the Hindu fundamentalist sects, groups like the Al Qaeda and ISIS, the Nazis, and the Maoist extremists. The book becomes somewhat preachy, especially at the end, and much of the gruesomeness described at various points in the narrative seem exaggerated for sensation. (Tejpal is after all the founder of Tehelka the 'investigative' journal.) The overall impression I have of the book is that it is somewhat superficial, not really serious, but a reasonable read over a couple of days.
Shashi Tharoor called this book a universal fable. I am wondering how one could write a fable for four hundred pages. The book is a total recreation of a new world and writes the evils of human perfection in a subtle manner.
ReplyDelete