In this his fourth novel against a setting of India, John Masters
has chosen an almost contemporary period, shortly prior to the
recognition of the independence of India, for another novel of
violence. Cutting deeper below the surface of India's own tragedy
of internal insecurity in her antagonisms rooted in caste and blood
strains, Masters has created one memorable character, the lovely
half-caste, Victoria Jones, daughter of a railroad engineer, two
thirds English, and a native mother. Victoria is an officer in
Army, and- home on end leave, hopes to be accepted without
apologies on her own, without reference to her Anglo-Indian status.
The three men who love her in the tumultuous days that follow drive
home the differences rather than the likes:- Patrick, whose similar
heritage has emphasized all the worst characteristics of both
races; Colonel Savage, white, trying to persuade himself- and her-
that she would be accepted as his wife; and Sikh Ranjit, who is
readopting his Sikh tradition and religion and asking her to do the
same. That their personal challenges come at the same time as an
upheaval of violence within their India makes for melodrama colored
emotionally and evocatively with the feel and sense of India
itself. It is a harder thing to do in today's setting than in the
period background of Nightrunners of Bengal and its successors. But
once again, for those to whom Masters is in a way today's Kipling,
Bhowani Junction will carry immense appeal. Book of the Month for
April means it is off to a good start. (Kirkus Reviews)
Bhowani Junction is set in the wake of the partition of India, as
the British prepare to withdraw from the newly independent country.
Evoking the tensions and conflicts that accompanied the birth of
modern India, the characters struggle to find their place in the
new India that is emerging. In the last hectic days of the British
Raj, Victoria has to choose between marrying a British Army officer
or a Sikh, Ranjit, as she struggles to find her place in the new,
independent India. One of John Masters' seven novels which followed
several generations of the Savage family serving in the British
Army in India, it is Masters' most famous novel, and was made into
a film in 1956, starring Ava Gardener and Stewart Granger.
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