“The detective figure is a largely Western concept a myth of supremacy featuring a white male figure, superior in strength and intellect to those around him, who will save the world or the day. Ashok Banker, one of the first Indian crime fiction novelists in English, is a bit miffed about what he considers an import. “At some point, readers and writers will be looking over their shoulder and comparing themselves to international names,” says Rose. Not the shadowy figure in a trench coat but one entrenched in an Indian landscape.įor those who write in English, is the existing canon overwhelming? Writer Madhulika Liddle and publishing consultant Jaya Bhattacharji Rose say the burden of the tradition of detective fiction can be onerous. Since 2004, when Stieg Larsson gave us a specifically Swedish Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander, the dysfunctional duo who dealt not with individual crime but deep-rooted corruptions and bigotry, major Indian publishing houses have been hot on the trail of a detective. British writer-journalist Tarquin Hall’s Delhi-based Punjabi detective Vish Puri has solved The Case of The Deadly Butter Chicken, but Indian readers will have to wait for the resolution till July.
Malaysian-born Shamini Flint’s Inspector Singh, after touring South Asia, has arrived in India with Inspector Singh Investigates: A Curious Indian Cadaver. Kalpana Swaminathan released I Never Knew It Was You in mid-March, the fourth in her detective Lalli series. Local suspects have presented themselves for cross-examination. Sure, there are other major flags on our mystery map but none are homespun.
Is human nature the same everywhere, as Miss Marple said? Or is truth revealed through order and method, as per Poirot? Each series embodied a place and a personality so familiar, it subsumed the foreign.
As mysteries graduated to murder, Agatha Christie’s characters became the lens to nascent worldviews. Young Indian readers could choose their own adventure identities - intrepid like George or canny like Fatty? With adolescence, we split along the gender lines of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. THE STORY began with Enid Blyton’s defining detectives. Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple imprinted our imagination, but where is their literary heir? Aradhna Wal tracks the clues to the great Indian sleuth
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