Empire of the Soul: Some Journeys in India

Pradip Sarbadhikari is a professor of political science at Lakehead
University in Thunder Bay.

In this book, Paul William Roberts travels great distances in space and
time as he traverses through rich textures of Indian civilization into
the contemporary India of political upheavals, civic decay, and economic
hope. Despite an incisive, iconoclastic pen (which is equally harsh on
the British Raj and on Mother Teresa), Roberts displays an empathy for
India that is rooted in his love for India’s philosophical heritage,
land, and peoples and that is tempered by a certain anxiety. Hence, he
chides the imperialists, saying that “the Partition stands as the
cruelest memorial of those whose interests in India were and are almost
entirely self serving,” while adding, “India has now turned outward,
preoccupying itself more and more with the West’s materialism.” This
is more than a book on India’s past and present; it is written with an
eye toward “thinking” sophisticated travelers and their armchair
counterparts. There is a collage of images—Bombay in the 1970s,
Calcutta in the 1990s, mystics and maharajahs, hotels and palaces,
Victorian nostalgia, poignant and humorous human experiences.

Although at times there is a “pop” quality about the narrative,
with superficialities hiding deeper truths and knowledge, Empire of the
Soul is, overall, an attractive and balanced look at India.