![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It is amongst this chaotic, tense and highly charged environment that Paul Scott sets into play his tragedy, The Jewel in the Crown, the first of four novels that comprise The Raj Quartet, often called an ‘Anglo-Indian War and Peace’. In response, some rioting and violent protestations broke out, arguably worsened in the absence of the leadership that may have been able to control the crowds. On approving the Act, the membership of the Indian National Congress – some 60,000 people – were promptly arrested without trial and imprisoned for the duration of the war. In mid-1942, shortly after the collapse of British Burma and with the threat of the Japanese army reaching the Indian border, MK Gandhi launches the Quit India campaign calling on the British to leave India ‘to God or anarchy’. Through the story Scott explores powerful themes of racism, class and colonialism in a complex environment at the Empire’s darkest hour. Paul Scott’s 1966 novel, the first in his masterpiece series The Raj Quartet, is a story of doomed love across a racial divide. ![]()
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