Book review: Thorns in the Crown by Tanushree Podder

Three lives intersect in this sweeping saga.The trials and tribulations of those lives are mirrored in India’s struggle for independance. The main characters, Peter, Indraneel and Olivia are sharply drawn in this historical drama.

They are very different people.Peter is an Anglo-Indian orphan.Escaping the terrible privations and abuse of a missionary school, his path crosses that of Indraneel.Indraneel is a passionate revolutionary completely involved in the wave of nationalism sweeping the country.These two men form an unlikely friendship.

Olivia, the hapless daughter of a British officer, also forms a tenous bond with them.

Circumstances dictate the course of their lives.Peter being an Anglo-Indian is confused about his identity.Considered an outsider by both the British and the Indians, he strives to belong.This struggle makes him an opportunist.He seizes whatever chances he gets to make a living and survive.If this means working for the British, he is game.He feels no loyalty to any cause save his.It is only when he is able to settle into a career he loves and starts a family that he becomes rooted.The opportunist turns into a patriot.

If Peter’s choices are governed by a lack of options, this is not true for Indraneel.He is very clear from a very young age that he wants to free India from the yoke of  British Rule. As an activist, he takes up arms.It results in him being on the run from the British and leads to imprisonment and torture in the Cellular Jail. There is more adventure and suffering in store for him including an unpleasant stint in the INA and a daring escape from them.His life experiences are very hard.All of this changes him.Later in life, joining a political party gives him a chance to reinvent himself.The passion and fire in believing and fighting for a cause is doused.Indraneel the revolutionary is transformed into Indraneel the self serving politician.

Olivia is marked internally by the loss of her mother and brother and externally by a pock marked face.Her life is determined by decisions taken by her father.Her attempts to break free of his shackles and carve a life for herself leads to a friendship and a relationship.However, if Peter and Indraneel are able to shape the course of their lives to an extent, Olivia is unable to.Hers is a dreary lonely existance.There is very little solace granted to her.

There is a neat melding of the political events and the personal lives of the main characters in this story.The prevailing politics impacts all three.The book is divided into four parts and the author gives a broad historical overview before each part.This also throws light on the how it affects the happenings in India at that precise period.The author’s  evident research pays rich dividends in how well she describes the different places that appear in the book.There is keen period detail.

Events move at a brisk pace in the narrative.Though this makes for absorbing reading, a little pause in some areas would have served it better.It is ultimately an easy pleasing read.

Thorns in the Crown by Tanushree Podder. Bloomsbury India. 241 pages.599 rupees.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/2023/nov/05/the-lives-of-others-2629453.html

This ran in the Sunday Express Magazine of 5 November 2023.

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