The grasshopper's run by Siddhartha Sarma
Bloomsbury, 2011. ISBN 978 1 408809402.
When the Japanese army invades India in 1944, self obsessed and
deranged Colonel Mori orders the wholesale slaughter of the entire
population of an innocent and unsuspecting village. Justifying the
massacre on the pretext that the village could be hiding units of
the British Army, Mori is in reality driven by vicious cruelty and a
lust for military power and recognition.
Uti, a village youth who survives the initial attack, lies in wait
and kills soldiers before being subdued and then horrendously
tortured.
Siddhartha Sarma then introduces the character Gojen who has been
Uti's close companion throughout his life, to the degree that they
considered themselves brothers, having shared tribal ceremonies,
education and family interaction.
As a gifted sportsman and academic, Gojen has enjoyed great success
whilst studying at a European college in Bengal and is not troubled
by any sense of inequality amongst his Colonial peers.
When he learns of the village's fate and the death of his soul
brother, Gojen returns home traumatised and seeks to assist in
avenging Ut's death by providing information gathered from British
Military Intelligence. The boy practices target shooting and the
reader appreciates that he is an accomplished long distance marksman
who naturally desires to apply his skills against the Japanese.
Gojen's father is relatively wealthy as an indigenous noble and
forbids his son to join the foray into a battleground where the
defending British are frantically mustering reinforcements against
the seemingly unstoppable Japanese might.
Defying his father, Gojen sneaks out and joins other villagers
intent on seeking revenge. The journey to find Mori is slow and many
cultural relationships and local references are introduced, making
the narrative difficult to follow for those unfamiliar with Indian
social history.
In the turmoil of battle, the story gathers pace and the reader
understands that the local Indians act in spite of, rather than in
support of, the British who they still regard as an occupying force,
albeit a more benign and constructive one compared with the
Japanese.
Gojen wrestles with his own fear and Uti's spirit as events unfold.
Rob Welsh