Most historians are agreed that the British Raj in India terminated in 1947. However, many publishers in England as well as in India are aware that an Indian Raj rules in Britain these days. It began in the early 1970s, probably with the BBC Radio 4 series entitled Plain Tales from the Raj, and the published evi¬dence of this post-occupation shows no sign of abating. At either end of the old P & O voyage route, publishers are busy making hay while the Raj is replayed. While in England publishers are putting out original works, in India reprints, authorized and other¬wise, seem to be the order of the day (or of the decade). Curry & Rice belongs to the latter category. Even at just over two rupees per page, it is a splendid job of book-making. The sepia reproduc¬tions of the original water-colour illustrations obliterate the glaring colour conscious¬ness of the reading matter; these plates are visually matched by the brown ink on natural-shade paper of the text, which is set in elegant expanded type. Under the laminated dust-jacket (which tends to curl up superciliously if left alone) there is gold-letter printing on front and spine of the dark maroon silk-cloth binding. Neither silly nor lavish enough to be regarded as a coffee-table book, we may—given its title—call it a dinner-table distraction.
Sept-Oct 1983, volume 8, No 2