India becoming more tolerant, says ‘The Revised Kamasutra’ writer

NEW DELHI - His book “The Revised Kamasutra” created a flutter when it was published 20 years ago, but former IAS officer Richard Crasta says after a relaunch, a “more tolerant” India has now opened up to his work. He feels the urban young today have “considerable sexual freedom”.

“Change is taking place, but slowly. I am happy that India has become more tolerant that readers can walk into a bookstore to buy my book at last,” Crasta, a Mangalorean who divides his time between India and the US, told IANS in an interview.

“The Revised Kamasutra”, a poignant insight into the great American dream of freedom by third world Indian dreamers, became a runaway success back then, pitching the author to instant fame and controversy - ruffling conservative Catholic feathers, the faith Crasta was born into.

“The New Leader - an official Catholic newspaper published from Madras, as it was then called, - advised Catholics not to buy my book. My own pious brother and sister have not read the book,” Crasta said.

Many parents, religious communities and schools also advised against reading the book.

“But many cosmopolitan Catholics have loved it and praised it for depicting the Mangalorean Catholic culture and life with accuracy,” he added.

The writer said he had captured “a time, a culture and an innocence that was quickly passing away because of modernity”.

“It would be difficult for anyone, even for me, to write this novel today,” he said.

Twenty years on, as the book was relaunched in a brand new reprint by HarperCollins-India last week, the story of the naive south Indian migrant Vijay Prabhu and his journey to the land of new Kama Sutra - the US - is still hailed as a classic, finding an echo in many a young Indian’s quest for freedom in the land of Campbell’s cream of chicken soup.

The book was originally published by Penguin-India.

Crasta, who threw up his job to pursue his dream in the US, said “reprinting the book was the right thing to do”.

“We Indians talk of RTI - the right to information. Let us also respect the people’s right to read any book of their choice and let us treat any work of literature as an independent entity and a common cultural heritage - and let no group or individual restrict that right on any ground,” Crasta said.

The writer said India today presented “considerable sexual freedom for the urban young”.

“The youngsters today have sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll or rave parties, as the case may be. The rich have access to Russian call girls in the metropolis - and orgies, as a Debonair magazine survey said some years ago,” he said.

“But the vast majority is still repressed because hypocrisy and moral confusion still tyrannise us,” he added.

“America is still the land of creativity and opportunity built on idealistic principles. It continues to be a magnet for immigrants from all over the world,” he said.

In India, the major social detriments are “corruption, limitless greed, lack of idealism, widespread cynicism and complete absence of concern for the downtrodden, except for lip service”.

“The mega-cynicism of the Commonwealth Games boggles the mind. Incredible India indeed!” he remarked.

Recalling the context of his book, Crasta said: “The novel frames a particular Mangalorean Jesuit institution at a particular time, and the experience of its protagonist, who no doubt represents many real-life cases.”

“I have no doubt that there are really good Jesuit colleges. However, generalisations are no consolation to a suffering child. If a child is beaten, it is miserable,” he added.

Vijay Prabhu, the protagonist of “The Revised Kamasutra”, escaped because he was a rebel, Crasta said.

The book was based on the American dream of “freedom, equality, justice for all, brotherhood, the colour of skin not mattering, of free love”, Crasta said.

Crasta said all “his books have in common a yearning for freedom, a hatred of injustice and the distrust of the authority”.

The writer has authored three books, “Beauty Queens, Children and the Death of Sex”, “Impressing the Whites: What We All Need” and “The Killing of an Author”.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)