36
Chapter- II : The Early Phase: Genial Comedy:
The Mystic Masseur
37
Chapter -II : The Early Phase: Genial Comedy: The Mystic Masseur
''We never are what we want to be ... but what we must
be' '(The Mystic Masseur 75).
''Because of its endurance, the Caribbean spirit can be
comic'' (Walcott and Baer 171 ).
The Mystic Masseur (1957) is the story of Ganesh
who from a failed school teacher, through a continuous
adaptation of several different roles -- of a masseur, an
author and a mystic -- ultimately becomes a member of
Trinidad's legislative assembly. In the words of the
narrator, the story of Ganesh can be taken as an allegory
of the "history of our times": "I myself believe that the
history of Ganesh is, in a way, the history of our times''
( 14 ). Set in Trinidad, the novel highlights displaced
individuals not of high genius, but individuals of medium
merit, in pursuit of societal recognition and success. And
the emphasis on this 'displacement' in the overall
structure and texture of the text is of immense importance
as it underlies, almost all the time, the thematic concerns
of the novel; it is manifest in the characters, their dress
and food, religion and habits, time and place, action and
language. It adds one important dimension to the reading
and subsequent analysis of the novel whereby it can still
be held as a hilarious comedy; at the same time it becomes
38
an ironic comment upon the essential tragic plight of an
exile -- the absurdity of his search for an identity in an
alien land. Here, in this novel, much source of fun and
laughter have been the mischievousness and trickiness of
characters but the complexity of this laughter -- the
seriousness behind it -- that it conceals something which is
serious and sad in nature, is accepted as well as asserted
by the author himself. In an interview V.S.Naipaul was
asked, "Your earliest books are hilarious, then they
become progressively more serious, then very grim
indeed. Why?" Naipaul's reply was: "Even my funniest
books were all begun in the blackest of moods ... " (News
week, 18th August, 1980:38). In spite of this, the book is a
bright comedy, an amusing, humorous comedy where
Naipaul by using his sense of humour makes close and
compassionate observation of individuals entrapped in a
umque situation. In a gentle, sympathetic and
compassionate tone, Naipaul gives a balanced criticism of
the characters and their activities iri this humorous
comedy.
It IS the characters' consciOusness of being
displaced, being caught between the two Indias- the one
far away 'there', governing and dictating the rituals,
habits, the way of life and the 'mimic' one 'here' in
Trinidad - that torments them all along in the novel. Yet
this sense of displacement has been harnessed to create the
uniquely tinged comic flavour of the book. The Place
names - Port of Spain, San Fernando, Fuent Grove,
Fourways, Trinidad, Swampland, Parrot Trace, Penal,
Arima, Debe, Princes Town, Chaguanas, Rio Claro,
Couva, Para, Georgetown, Carapichaima, Cunarigo, St.
39
Clair, Woodford Square, Lorimer's Park are constant
reminders to the characters that they are not in India, but
in Trinidad. The same purpose is served by the elaborate
topographical details of each of these places. In the very
first chapter, the narrator, now placed in London, recalls
his childhood memory of driving the long way to Fuent
Grove. ''There was no hint of a fountain anywhere, no
hint even of water. For miles around the land was flat,
treeless and hot. You drove through miles and miles of
sugarcane; then the sugarcane stopped abruptly to make
room for Fuent Grove. It was a sad little village with only
one tree" (8). He remembers that in "the hot and dull
village of Fuent Grove"(l3), he has noticed that
''someone had tried to scratch a little garden into the hard
and dusty front yard, but nothing remained now except the
bottle-borders and a few tough stumps of hibiscus"(lO).
Ganesh's father was able to send his son to the college
because of the royalties he got from his "five acres of
waste land" (15) near Fourways. Later, when Ganesh
comes to settle at Fuent Grove, once again the narrator
describes the hostile topography of the place; the place is
''so wretched'' ( 63)! ''In the dry season the earth baked,
cracked, and calcined; and in the rainy reason melted into
mud. Always it was hot ... ''(63). The villagers, working
at their vegetable gardens seem to forget the reality, ''that
sugarcane was the only thing that could grow in Fuent
Grove .... Once a year, at the 'crop-over' harvest festival,
when the sugarcane had been reaped, Fuent Grove made a
brave show of gaiety" (63). "It was like the gaiety of a
starving child"(64). The simile is eloquent one. It
highlights the way in which sadness underlies all that is
40
apparently comic in this novel. Lillian Feder correctly
observes that the simile "exceeds its immediate context,
suggesting the quality of much of the humour of this
novel"(167).
This 'quality' of humour infonns the many
detailed touches; for instance, Ganesh as a Hindu Brahmin
boy undergoes initiation ceremony. It is part of the ritual
that Ganesh should be asked to go to Benares to study
there. But when asked Ganesh starts walking and
continues until Dookhie runs up to stop him. The episode
is amusing but, as the narrator says, "significant" (21) as
it highlights the irony that is latent in the situation.
Though these Indian characters perform the traditional
Hindu initiation ceremony, they are reminded that they are •
not in India but in Trinidad. In this context the Stewart
episode acquires a special significance. Stewart is by birth
a British but he claims to be an ''Indian Kashmiri Hindu
too"(32). Stewart is only another version of "Hollywood
Hindus"(112; 155). He covers himself "here and there in
a yellow cotton robe like a Buddhist monk"(32). In
response to Ganesh's question "So why for you wearing
this yellow thing, then?"(32), Stewart is perplexed and
asks him "It isn't the right thing, you mean?"(33).
Ganesh replies, "Perhaps in Kashmir. Not here"(33). The
characters are very much conscious of this reality of living
'here' and not 'there', the reality of living in exile but still
they try to go on living a life of make-belief. Later Ganesh
dedicates his autobiography to Stewart and in the
dedication of his autobiography remembers him as
"Friend and Counsellor of Many Years"(37). Stewart has
never been a counsellor to Ganesh but his significance lies
41
elsewhere. Ganesh sees parity between his search for an
identity in a faraway country, and Stewart's absurd
attempt to identify himself with an alien culture and
religion.
In relation to his own exilic experience Naipaul says
in his Nobel Lecture: "Half of us (Indians) on this land of
the Chagunes (in Trinidad) were pretending - perhaps not
-perhaps only feeling, never formulating it as an idea -
that we brought a kind of India with us, which we could,
as it were, unroll like a carpet on the flat land'' (7). The
same can be said, about the displaced Indian characters of
this novel so far as their names, daily food, dress code,
habits, maintenance ·of past customs and rituals are
considered. The list of the names of the characters of this
novel - Ganesh, Ramlogan, Soomintra, Leela, Beharry,
Suraj, Dookhy, Bisson, Basdeo, Partap, Purshottam,
Sookhoo. Gopal, Narayan, Gowrie, Ganga, Doolarie,
Phulabassia, Sookram, Indarsingh etc. - shows that in
Trinidadian Indian Community people still continue
having names of Indian origin.
Similarly, they are still Indians or rather Hindus so
far as their daily food is concerned. What constitute their
daily food are - rice, "dal"(95), tea, "roti" (128),
coconut "chutney"(84) etc. Ganesh organizes a free
distribution of food at the "Bhagwat" he holds, and there
also we see the menu consists of ''rice, dal, potatoes,
pumpkins, spinach of many sorts, karee" and such "other
Hindu vegetarian things" (198). Still they do wear their
"good, Hindu clothes" (78) - "dhoti", "koortah"(119),
"sari" (135). For instance, Leela wears "sari" and
Trindad' s famous mystic Ganesh Pundit, wearing "dhoti"
42
and "koortah" postulates the appearance of a "pukka
brahmin''. Then, the cuisine and eating manners -
polishing the plate with one's fingers (97), drinking water
in the "orthodox Hindu way" (1 03 ), their habits -- the
loud washing of hands and mouth, rejection of food
offered by a non-Hindu -- all these speak of the
characters' attempt to cling to their past. At this stage they
still maintain almost all the past customs and rituals, the
details of which are as faithfully performed as possible in
accordance with the remembered norms of Hindu religion.
The maintenance of the initiation rites of a brahmin boy
(17), daily morning "puja", elaborate rituals of funeral
which seemingly ''replaced grief' (26), rites of a Hindu
marriage- the narrator speaks of "Hindu wedding songs"
( 49), "details of the night long ceremony" ( 49), and all
the other aspects of their life and living show their
adherence to the cultural memory of a lost place.
Hinduism and Indianness are the two facets of life
which these characters do not want to lose. That they still
seek necessary spiritual sustenance from Hindu religion, is
evident in the book. There is a picture of the goddess
Lakshmi on her lotus in Ganesh's room. Spare inches of
the local magazines are filled up with quotations from the
"Gita" or the "Upanishads" (158). The taxi driver on the
road to Fuent Grove sings a ''Hindi Song'' ( 141) in
between his talking and driving and where other taxi
drivers hang up their tariff he has "a framed picture, ... of
the goddess Lakshmi standing, as usual, on her
lotus"(142). As Ganesh prospers, he decides to build a
temple and "an Indian architect came over from British
Guiana and builds a temple for Ganesh in proper Hindu
43
style" (149). Knowing the religious leanings of the
Hindus, on the occasions of his political meeting Ganesh
sits "on a low platform below a carving of Hanuman, the
monkey god. He recites a long Hindi Prayer, then uses a
mango leaf to sprinkle water, (supposedly Ganges water)
from a brass-jar over the meeting" ( 181 ). In the week
before the polling day Ganesh holds a "Bhagwat" (198),
a seven-day prayer meeting which is still common in rural
India. In relation to the books of Suraj, Beharry's son, the
narrator notices that "amidst this strange assortment the
'Gita' and the 'Ramaya1,1a' have sneaked in"(64). During
the days of the World War Ganesh and Beharry discuss
war and then "Beharry was full of quotations from the
'Gita', and Ganesh read with full appreciation, the
dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna on the field of
battle" (108). It becomes Ganesh's habit, on examining a
new book, ''to look first at the index to see whether there
are references to India and Hinduism or not. And if the
references are complimentary he buys the book" (168).
All these evidently show the characters' deeply felt love
for their ancestral homeland. Even in their day-to-day life
the characters show their fascination for the great leaders
of Indian independence movement. Sumintra calls her son
Jowharlal "after the Indian leader", and the daughter
Sarojini "after the Indian Poetess". She has already
decided that the baby in her womb would be named after
Motilal or Kamala depending on the gender (80). The
newly affluent man puts up on his drawing room wall ''a
photograph of a simpering Indian film-actress"(l51).
Ramlogan proudly reads out from Ganesh's first book:
"Who is the greatest modem Hindu? ... Mahatma
44
Gandhi ... who is the second greatest modem Hindu?
... Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru'' (96). Ganesh sends a copy of
his first book·to Mahatma Gandhi. Being thrown into an
unpleasant situation caused by the increasing attacks of
Narayan, the journalist, Ganesh asks Beharry: ''what
would Mahatma Gandhi do in a situation like this?"(! 53).
Narayan, the president of the Hindu Association of
Trinidad sits at the table "draped with the saffron, white
and green Indian tricolour"(188). Both Ganesh and
Narayan send cables respectively to All India Congress.
When Ganesh plans to put up his own paper, his partner
Pratap says to him: ''If I did ever start up a paper, I would
dedicate it (the first page) to Mahatma Gandhi"(l69).
Ganesh is only interested in the prestige that Mahatma's
name is supposed to bring to them. In their local political
squabbles, Ganesh and Narayan try to strengthen their
position by flaunting their correspondence with the great
Indian leaders. The act of sending cable to any leader in
India, thus becomes cause for boasting. As the President
of the Hindu Association of Trinidad, Narayan sends cable
to Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and the All-India
Congress. And every time he sends a cable to India it is
reported in Trinidad Sentinel. Later, as the President of the
same association Ganesh sends cable to All-India
Congress. He cables: "KEEP MAHA TMAJI IDEALS
ALIVE STOP HINDU ASSOCIATION TRINIDAD
WITH YOU INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE STOP
BEST WISHES "(192). All of these clearly manifest their
attempts to maintain their links with their lost homeland.
But in spite of the characters' genuine attempt to
maintain their past traditions, in the book there are
45
illustrations how these traditions gradually fade away
when the Indians are increasingly exposed to foreign
culture. Actually the broad theme of the novel is the
creolization of the Indians -- the process and stages by
which they adjust, to the Caribbean society, the displaced
community's attempt towards acculturation. There are
elements of grotesqueness in the portrayal of Indarsingh
and Narayan. Irrespective of the hot climate of Trinidad I
Indarsingh always wears an "Oxford blazer"(l98). While
he is among Indians, Narayan says his name is Chandra
Shekar Narayan but while with non-Indians, he says his
name is Cyks Stephen Narayan (168). lndarsingh,
Narayan, Mr. Primrose whose monocle falls into his soup,
are the 'mimic men' whose mimicry of the West turns
them into funny characters. Naipaul also satirises the
Hindu community for its ritualistic mode of behaviour; for
instance, the narrator observes how at Ganesh's father's
death, rituals seem to replace grief (26). Naipaul satirises
the materialistic tendencies of the Trinidadian Indians; it
is evident when he satirises the grubby shopkeeper
Ramlogan. Furthermore, he satirises the society that is
marked by moral degradation and lack of standard at
almost every level and thereby facilitates the rise of the
quacks and the knaves. Baidik Bhattacharya observes:
''Ganesh's deliberate manipulation of Sanskrit texts, his
self-promotional pamphlets, and his newspaper columns .
like 'A Little Bird Tells Us,' endorse· the derelict
intellectual and political atmosphere of the island where a
trickster like him can become a local hero by flaunting his
dubious 'learning' and 'knowledge' of
books"(Bhattacharya 253). But the fact to be noticed is
46
that here satire and mockery produce fun. For instance, the
way Ganesh and Narayan use their respective newspaper
columns to attack each other, contributes to the comic
aspect of the novel. Naipaul comically satirises the
materialistic tendencies of the Trinidadian Indians; it is
evident when he satirises the shopkeeper Ramlogan and
his son-in-law Ganesh. However, the scene where Ganesh
extracts dowry from his would-be father-in-law is
outrageously comic. In the kedgeree-eating ceremony
Ganesh refuses to take the meagre amount of money that
Ramlogan pleads him to accept. The calm and detached
manner in which he sits quietly without even looking at
the kedgeree has been rendered in a superb mock -heroic
manner: "Still Ganesh sat, serene and aloof, like an over
dressed Buddha"( SO). Comedy arises out of the contrast
between Ganesh's greed and Buddha's ideal of non
attachment. Ganesh leads Ramlogan to a miserable plight
- he is almost near to crying -- as he extracts a handsome
dowry from him. But, the way he tries to hide his
depression or misery before the assembled crowd of
relatives and friends is funny. Quite comically he starts
pretending that both of them - Ganesh and he, were
having only a joke. At the end of the kedgeree-eating
ceremony, he says again and again "The boy and I was
only having a joke ... He done know a long time now what
I was going to give him. We was only making joke, you
know"(52). Ramlogan hides his discomfiture behind the
fac;ade of fun.
Further, there are occasions or sources of real fun
and comic laughter which are unstinted by any amount of
irony or satire. The name of the central character -
47
Ganesh, has some comic implications. The Hindu God
Ganesha is supposed ·to help one who has undertaken a
journey or a trade and he is worshipped for his wisdom.
The reader should not miss the comic irony of it that
Naipaul's protagonist is named after the elephant God
Ganesha. The comic effect arises out of the incongruity
that lies between his real nature and what his name
implies. Leela wishes to have two stone elephants
installed on the roof of their house and Ganesh himself
designing the elephants, fall into the pattern. The character
of Ramlogan is mildly satirized but Ramlogan with his
sense of melodrama, his versatility and unswerving
confidence in his "cha' acter and sense a values" ( 46, 51)
becomes one important source of comedy in the novel. No
less comic is Great Belcher's burps that intervene her
speech almost at regular interval.
The language of the common folk, in contrast to
the ''lucidity and the silken run of the author's own voice,
which has a near-Latin order and assurance" (Walsh
1973: 5), has been a constant source of comedy in the
book. The contrast of the two often leads to an explosion
of fun; for instance, the confusion in using 'be' verbs:
''You is a man after my own heart, You and me going to
get on good" (10); repetition of words: "prutty, prutty
things"; "he thinking, thinking all the time"(27);
compressions: "two three months" (21) etc. The folk
language shows amusing adoption of English words into
the syntax of Hindi language. Leela's use of English
language is summed up by the narrator: ''She used a
private accent which softened all harsh vowel sounds; her
grammar owed nothing to anybody, and included a highly
48
personal conjugation of the verb to be" (155). Ganesh's
effort to improve her English is no less interesting:
Leela, is high time we realize that we living in
a British Country and I think we shouldn't be
shame to talk the people language good .
. . . All right man:
We starting now self, girl.
As you say, man.
Good. Let me now. Ah, yes. Leela, have you
lighted the fire? No, just give me a chance. Is
'lighted' or 'lit' girl?
Look, ease me up, man. The smoke going in
my eye.
You ain't paying attention, girl. You mean the
smoke is going in your eye (71-72).
In spite ofher 'improvement' of English which goes along
with a growing snobbery and preoccupation with material
possessions and social prestige, Leela continues in her
state of blissful chaos regarding the alien language. As she
says to Suraj Mooma, ''This house I are building. I
doesn't want it to come like any erther Indian house. I
wants it to have good fumitures and I wants everything to
remain prutty prutty. I are thinking about getting a
refrigerator and a few erther things like that" (150).
Ganesh's embarrassments at his inability to handle cutlery
and to learn European eating manners causes much
amusement in the episode describing the dinner at
"Government House"(201-204). Leela is shy to tum up
but she finds a suitable excuse. The narrator notices that
Leela pretends as having an instinctual inhibition against
"eating off other people's plates". Ganesh, however, is
49
"secretly relieved" at this, that is, at her unwillingness to
attend the party. But, the way he himself, ignorant of
European eating manners, tries to learn the ''drill'' from
Swami, is amusing. The comicality of the dress-up of the
M.L.C s has been finely brought out at the dinner party.
The narrator notices:
The dinner was a treat for the photographers.
Ganesh came in 'dhoti' and 'koortah' and
turban; the member of one of the Port of Spain
wards wore a khakhi suit and a sun helmet; a
third came in jodhpurs; a fourth, adhering for
the moment to his pre-election principles, came
in short trousers and an open shirt; the blackest
M.L.C wore a three-piece blue suit, yellow
woolen gloves and a monocle. Everybody else,
among the men, looked like pengums,
sometimes even down to black faces (20 1 ).
Such confusion regarding their best and most suitable
dresses to appear at the dinner party is comic. The comedy
results from the characters' desperate attempt and obvious
failure to imitate successfully the manners of the West.
And here is a comic rendering of this mimicry. In a fine
comic scene the M.L.C's monocle falls into his soup and
that makes him aggressive. Naipaul' s caricature of Mrs.
Primrose produces fun. Like the other men and women
her appearance is also ''disconcerting''. She appears in a
"floriferous print frock" and a "hat with floral design"
(202). During her conversation with the Governor's lady,
the way she tries to mimic the style and etiquette of the
woman ofhigher social strata is funny. Most of those who
are invited here are Indians and Negroes who find
50
themselves in an embarrassing situation. The narrator
notices that throughout the party Ganesh feels "alien and
uncomfortable"(209). He takes soup for meat and
dismisses the idea of eating it. The man in jodhpurs is to
pretend that he does not have a good appetite as he
declares: "I ain't so hungry today" and the readers are
increasingly amused when Mr. Primrose's monocle falls
into his soup. But there is sadness beneath what is 'comic'
here as the narrator notices: "The meal was torture to
Ganesh. He felt alien and uncomfortable. He grew sulkier
and sulkier and refused all the courses. He felt as if he
were a boy again, going to the Queen's Royal College for
the first" (204). When Ganesh returns home, he mixes
and drinks some Maclean's "Brand Stomach Powder",
gets into bed and reads some Epictetus.
Ganesh, however, pretends pomposity to hide the
sense of injury. His injury is caused by the wound his
exilic self receives there. The pathetic condition of this
exilic life is that they must go through continuous
transformation of selves. Though it is difficult for him,
Ganesh has to constantly adjust himself to the foreign
cultural frame, Westernized behavioural patterns and it
makes him heavily imitative in nature. Elizabeth
Hardwick observes that the novel is a comedy of a
''peculiarly modem pretension. Pretension trying to float
above its ignorance, fear and confusion as it expresses
itself in dialogue, commands, apologies: all of the
language of eloquent misapprehension" (The New York
Times May13, 1979). The comedy is a comedy of false
appearance, an acrid and grotesque vision of a fragmented
world where in the life and living of displaced individuals,
51
mockery pervades everywhere, making the attempts of the
individuals to survive, an absurdity, a folly. Naipaul
makes mockery of these characters' mimicry of the West.
According to Paul Edwards and Kenneth Ramchand ''The
episode dealing with the dinner at Government House (pp.
201-204) is ill-judged and aesthetically unsatisfactory:
comedy based upon such embarrassments as people's
inability to manipulate cutlery, or their ignorance of
wines, seems snobbish and unfeeling''(lntroduction to The
Mystic Masseur vii-ix). It seems that Naipaul is satirical of
the characters' attempts to acculturate to the new cultural
realities around them. But as he comically portrays the
colonial mimicry of these characters, the deep sadness that
marks their lives is also traced. Critics question Naipaul's
motive here while saying that it seems curious that
Naipaul, who managed to escape the enclosures of
Trinidad, should ultimately not be empathetic to the
protagonists who are also similarly trying to escape the
pathetic conditions of their life. But it appears that when
Naipaul comically portrays those who inhabit a previously
colonized society and mimic the so called superior culture
of the earlier colonizers, the description is not
"unnecessarily cruel" but "is relevant to portray the
contradictions in which the characters are trapped"
(White 66). It should be noted that this theme of 'colonial
mimicry' is one of his chief concerns in his later novels
where his depiction of mimicry no longer produces wide
laughter but a kind of grim mirth.
Naipaul not only brings our attention to this aspect
of a colonial exile's life, but he also depicts the other
dimensions of exilic experience as well. The complex
52
experience of exile includes also the exile's, the marginal
man's awkward yearning for the centre. In The Mystic
Masseur, as in his other novels, aspiration for freedom
from his (an exile's) social reality- marginalized position,
or in other words, search for an identity remains Naipaul's
theme. As Edward Said puts it, '' ... the exile refuses to sit
on the sidelines nursing a wound, there are things to be
learned: he or she must cultivate (not indulgent or sulky)
subjectivity" (Said 184). But that search for identity, that
quest for self-realization and fulfilment has to negotiate
with many frustrations as the fragmented self -
fragmentation results from the conflict between two
patterns of culture, one inherited and the other imposed on
him -- does not get necessary sustenance from the alien
soil and ultimately deteriorates into disruptive emotional
and moral degeneration. Ganesh Ramsumair' s search for
identity takes him to various stages of transformation and
ultimately when he attains success, he is no longer a
Hindu Brahmin Ramsumair but is G. Ramsay Muir. Here
lies the essential sadness of his situation. Even his
attainment of success turns to be of a paradoxical kind.
The name is no longer his own and in his profession he is
ultimately a puppet. Ganesh spreads a story at Queen's
Royal College that his name is really Gareth and not
Ganesh but ironically his accent remains too clearly that
of an Indian from the backwater. The way Ganesh extracts
money (his dowry) from Ramlogan is an early hint that he
is tenacious in applying any amount of cleverness and
trickery to realize his goals. He seems to be always aware
of his own potential greatness. In response to the Great
Belcher's appreciation of his reading and writing Ganesh
53
says: "I did always feel I had something big to do" (112).
He is, in the opinion of William Walsh, ''dutiful, devious,
unscrupulous -- each where it is necessary to give his
greatness a chance to shine out" (Walsh 1970: 67). All the
qualities of Ganesh are not really on the virtuous side and
the way he tackles every critical situation with success,
shows that he has plenty of common-sense and that he
does first what puts him in an advantageous situation,
· rather than what is right. Perhaps in case of any individual
of medium-merit and marginal social position, it is mostly
needed to succeed in that exilic society of a farflung
Caribbean island. After an unsuccessful temporary job as
a school teacher, Ganesh fails to see any direction which
his life should take and he starts to tum the coincidences
in his life into providential pattern. But it is because of the
all permeating comic vision of the author that Ganesh
ultimately does not find his life altogether a mess. It is to
be noticed that in the case of Naipaul' s later protagonists
who have similarly believed in destiny or chances, like
Salim, Willie's father and Willie, life turns sour. It
signifies the growing darkening -vision of Naipaul.
However, having inherited his father's property, Ganesh
starts a cultural Institute at Fountain Grove. But soon on
the advice of his aunt and father-in-law he takes up the job
of a masseur. But disappointed in that masseur's trade,
soon he turns to writing which is at once hoped to
compensate his disappointment in having no children. He
produces "A Hundred and one Questions and Answers on
the Hindu Religion" which is merely a brochure and in the
words of Basdeo at printing place has the appearance of a
pamphlet, not even a booklet. But Ganesh tackles the
54
situation by saying that it is just a primer, because the
people of Trinidad are "just like children" (94).
However, the first book is not an immediate success and
that failure and resultant frustration lead Ganesh to take up
the role of a mystic, after going through a thorough
preparation for it. Ganesh becomes popular and dear to the
people of Trinidad as he starts making no demand for his
help but accepting only what is offered. And Ganesh is
successful, in the words of the narrator, to elevate ''the
profession by putting the charlatans out of business ... the
people of Trinidad knew that Ganesh was the only true
mystic in the island" (134). Ganesh is successful as a
mystic by raising mimicry to the ultimate level of
perfection. This time Ganesh writes a number of books on
psychological and philosophical subjects such as The
Road to Happiness, The Soul as I See It, The Years of
Guilt, What God Told Me. That here Naipaul makes a
comic rendering of Ganesh's story, is evident in his
description of the impact of his book What God Told Me
on the population of Trinidad. The book is said to have set
a fashion as many people in various parts of Trinidad start
claiming to have seen God. Among them the story of
Man-man is extremely comic. And it is amusing when just
after two months, Ganesh, a bit confused, shifting from
God to the practical problem of evacuation, writes another
book named Profitable Evacuations. But Ganesh has an
awareness of the world, intelligence and an excellent
presence of mind and by utilizing these, he takes decisions
quite appropriately so that his achieved success is
sustained for long. Ganesh writes these books to be
popular among Trinidadians, to attain success as a writer.
55
But when he finds that these books are likely to make
negative impact on his career as a mystic he closes
"Ganesh Publishing Company Limited". Naipaul
highlights not only his pragmatic wisdom, but also his
fraudulence. It is told that Ganesh has fifteen hundred
books in his library; books published by Everyman,
Penguin etc. But in reality he has neither seen nor read
them. To focus his mysticism and to deceive people he
starts wearing "dhoti" and "koortah" (119) but he
prefers wearing European dresses on other occasions. His
house has a Hindu exterior but the interior has all the
modem European household gadgets. H.S. Mann notes
that "Ill-prepared for the changes thrust on them by
World War II with its economic boom and by universal
adult franchise in 1946, Trinidadians tum to trickery, and
to the imitation of England and America" (Mann 171).
Patrick French holds: "It was not rare in Trinidad for
people to remake themselves, to change their name or
adjust their background. The 'smart-man' who managed
to deceive others cleverly was much admired in
Trinidad ... "(French 53). However, Ganesh 1s self
conscious of the withering consequences of such
adjustments. He pathetically says: "We are never what we
want to be ... but what we must be" (75).
After attaining fame as a mystic Ganesh discovers
himself as a "Philosopher and arbiter" (156). He is then
often invited by village 'Panchayats', councils of elders,
to give judgment on several diverse issues or to address
Prayer-meetings. The narrator's description of his arrival
at such meetings: "He came out of his taxi with dignity ...
and shook hands with the officiating pundit. Then two
56
more taxis came up with his books. Helpers fell upon
these taxis, grabbed armfuls of books and took them to the
Platform. The helpers were proud and busy people then,
and looked almost as solemn as Ganesh"(l56) and of his
appearance there: "Seated on the platform ... surrounded
by his books, Ganesh looked the picture of authority and
piety" (156), highlights how Ganesh gets success by
pretension and imitativeness. Thus, Ganesh's life comes
by extension to serve as an illustration of imitativeness, a
characteristic of the people of former colonies, and this is
also how The Mystic Masseur comes to reflect the history
of our times. However, as a politician he seems to
combine in himself as many contradictory traits as
spirituality, materialism, secularism, Indian orthodoxy,
modem revolutionary ideas and is able to highlight any
one of these, depending on the need of a situation. Ganesh
successfully imitates all the roles that suit him. He can be
called first in the line of Naipaul 's 'mimic men'. His
imitativeness reveals his helplessness; for at any cost he
has to establish his own identity and the task is more
challenging as he lives in a foreign land. Ganesh becomes
a member of legislative assembly by virtue of his mystical
character for he has understood correctly that the voters
are not politically so conscious and would vote only
evaluating personalities without bothering for issues
raised by them. Actually, through the characterization of
Ganesh, the author also criticizes the money-making,
middle class picaroon society that appreciates such
success as that of Ganesh.
According to K. Ramchand, the place and the
milieu inform the process to a large extent. It is in this
57
"fossilized Indian community as well as the larger static
Trinidadian society in which Ganesh's predominantly
fortuitous drift to eminence takes place'' (Ramchand 7). It
is this society that facilitates his success. As illustration,
Ganesh is clever in' climaxing his political campaign by
organizing a seven-day recitation of 'Bhagwat' because he
. knows the religious leanings of the citizens. During the
prayer-meeting he also organizes free distribution of food.
He manipulates his Indian heritage to secure political
success. He safely depends on his· audience's favourable
reaction to a speech that is calculated to inflate the Indian
ego: "it is more likely that the Greek got the idea (about
the transmigration of souls) from India ... '' ( 194 ). Even he
tries to strengthen his position and to increase his
popularity among the Indians, by showing his
association's connection with All India Congress or any
great Indian political leader. But after getting political
success by inflating the Indian ego, he kicks it away and
changes his name to G. Ramsay Muir, this time to retain
that success in long term. This is how he begins as a
politician: ''He was a terror in the Legislative Council. It
was he who introduced the walk-out to Trinidad .... He
never went to a cocktail party at Government House ....
He exposed scandal after scandal .... And he was always
ready to do a favour for any member of the public, rich or
poor" (207& 208). And ''In Colonial office reports
Ganesh was dismissed as an irresponsible agitation with
no following"(209). When the strike breaks out in a sugar
estate, Ganesh tries to make an amicable settlement.
Unfortunately he fails and is rejected as a leader of the
labourers. But soon Ganesh learns to attain importance as
58
a politician. He condemns the labour movement of the
people by supporting the British colonialist: " ... his
defence of British colonial rule is memorable"(214) and
"In1953 Trinidad learned that Ganesh Ramsumair had
been made an M.B.E."(214).This is nothing but
opportunistic politics. But once more we see that what
more causes the change in Ganesh as a politician, is his
need to survive. By entering into politics, he puts himself
at a vulnerable position. Now in order to be popular as a
politician, he must show his allegiance to colonialist
mentality. The narrator notes that Ganesh calls a Press
conference and says: ''From now on .. .I pledge my life to
the fight against communism in Trinidad and the rest of
the free world. He expanded his views in a last book, Out
of the Red (Government Printer, Trinidad. Free on
Application). It was left to Indarsingh to note the
'capitalist mentality inherent in the title' ''(213). From his
earlier dismissal Ganesh learns the lesson to change
himself according to the need of the situation. Ganesh is
now deeply anglicized. He is now G. Ramsay Muir.
Patrick French notices that "It was necessary to have a
public face, since whatever your ethnicity you could be
sure that aspects of your home life, the familiar indoor
world, would be culturally alien to those you met
outside"(French 53). Ganesh, from the very beginning,
yearns to do "a big thing" (112). But in his attempt to
have an identity on an alien soil, one day he has to change
his name in order to be still in the move. This is what
invests the novel with its deep comic pathos. Naipaul
accepts that an awareness of the dark and tragic aspects of
59
life mark his writing here as he says: "I did The Mystic
Masseur with great unhappiness"(French 160).
However, thus from a masseur Ganesh becomes a
mystic and from a mystic a politician. His knavery only
comes to the surface when we see him to rapidly
incorporate various contradictory traits in his character.
The character deteriorates, is deracinated. But the story of
deracination acquires comic perspective when the
character, even after so much activity and movement
throughout the book, does not find the freedom he seeks,
from his societal reality. Through the central comedy of
this book, this sadness can be seen. Ganesh's struggle is
"pathetically comic" (Feder 167). The comic sap is
squeezed from the deceptions, pretensions, mimicry and
lies he uses to comfort himself, in his frustrated attempt to
survive, being separated from his roots, in a faraway
country. The Mystic Masseur is a bright comedy, a
delightful comedy that makes us cheerful as it is full of
life and gaiety. Michael Thorpe holds: "Naipaul exploits a
universal comic theme, a strategy reminiscent of such
English humorists of the rise of the underdog as Wells and
Bennett." But, as he further says: his "handling of the
theme is more detached'' (Thorpe 11 ). As a comedian
Naipaul has much sympathy for the mankind. But at the
same time it is this detachment that enables Naipaul to see
life comically. And as a comedian Naipaul does not
overlook the ironies of life. The book is an ironical one.
And the irony that permeates this book is mainly
situational irony. The characters are trapped in a unique
situation. They do not wholly belong either to their past or
to their present. Rather, they belong to a world that is
60
somewhere in between these two worlds; at this stage they
appear to be ridiculous and funny while undergoing the
process of adaptation. Naipaul does never harshly satirise
the characters; rather he employs comic ironies to portray
the characters' desperate attempts to learn the new cultural
realities around them. And while portraying the
characters, for instance, the character of Ganesh, nowhere
Naipaul is found to withdraw his sympathy from Ganesh,
the victim of situation. Here in place of anger, Naipaul
seems to be inclined to acceptance. Landeg White
observes: any indignation at Ganesh's activities "is
tempered by recognition that, he too is a victim of
displacement" who embodies his society's contradictions
(White 72). The Mystic Masseur is an amusing comedy
where, by employing his sense of humour, comic irony
and mockery, Naipaul gives a balanced criticism of the
protagonist's character, at once depicting the virtues and
the negative traits of this character whereby he appears to
us as both a hero and an anti-hero. Though he satirizes at
times, his tone is always gentle and compassionate and
such is his sense of humour that his mockery produces a
genuine, hilarious comic effect. And his usage of irony
encourages a ''tolerance, an affection for wit and style,
while it does not rule out assessment, definitely rejects
contempt or indignation"(White 73). So, it can be said
that The Mystic Masseur is a warm, humorous comedy by
Naipaul who writes from an all-inclusive comic vision, the
vision of a comedian who sees the sad aspects of life no
less than that of a tragedian but by using the comic
elements veils them differently.