Refuge

Gopal Krishna Gandhi was born in 1945 and did his master’s in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1968 and served in Tamil Nadu. He served with the Vice-President and the President of India before taking voluntary retirement in 1992.

Thereafter, Gandhi saw diplomatic service in London and was head of India’s diplomatic missions in South Africa, Lesotho, Sri Lanka, Norway and Iceland. He was Secretary to President K.R. Narayanan from 1997 to 2000. He was Governor of West Bengal from December 2004 to December 2009. He is married to Tara and they have two married daughters.

Set in the tea estates of Sri Lanka, Refuge evokes the plight of the downtrodden Tamil labourers working on them. Their lives are a sharp contrast to the lives of the urbane, whisky-drinking managers in their clubs and mansions.
Slender, doe-eyed Valliamma, a Tamil labourer on one plantation, is in love with Soma, a Sinhala fish vendor and the father of her illegitimate son. Valliamma is exploited by individuals, a brutal social and economic system and, ultimately, the politics of a state. Her fate symbolizes the dilemma and tragedy of her community, the so-called ‘Indian’ Tamils of Sri Lanka. Struggling for a place in the land of her birth and that of her child, caught between issues of race and language, Valliamma is denied the shelter and refuge she seeks there. The novel ends as a journey begins, once more in search of refuge.

‘This sensitive, disturbing novel compels one’s concern for individual human tragedies being played out in Sri Lanka . . . A moving novel’ —The Independent

ISBN: 9780143068532
Author: Gopal Krishna Gandhi
Published by: Penguin Books India
For more information, please visit www.indiabookmart.com