This Time Of Morning Analysis

There are umpteen “novels” which figure in the “must read” lists of books on the city of Delhi- among which Nayantara Sahgal’s This Time of Morning occupies a pre-eminent position. It belongs to the period of the birth of the nation India and yet another re-birth of the city of Delhi as its capital. Marked by violence and dislocation of the partition on the one hand, and establishment of government machinery and national culture on the other, study of this period is indispensible to any exploration of Delhi’s foundations and culture. Government Delhi of Sahgal’s is characterized by the nexus of political expedience, British Raj converting to Minister Raj, power culture of self validation and self preservation performed by state machinery, buildings,
The democratic republic engenders a new political breed and creed. New missions and visions rise on the horizon and many people and philosophies lose their relevance to more exigent imperatives. The most defining change in the political climate of self governance is that the Congress party finds itself transformed from a revolutionary party to a political party. The Nehruvian idealism itself gets mitigated by a frenzy to get things done. The ends gain primacy over the means and thus the scrupulosity of men like Kailas Vrind, Abdul Rehman and Prakash Shukla becomes an encumbrance to be jettisoned for men of action like Kalyan or men of acquiescence like Arjun Mitra. This new breed is backed by an overworked Prime Minister who is losing patience in the face of interminable delays and paperwork and this, in turn, breeds and feeds the money mafia, which is on the prowl to seize new opportunities of profiteering in the post-independence political economy. The unholy nexus developing between political expedience, incompetent politicos accessing power through money and the unbroken lineage of servility in government service where British Raj quietly gets replaced by Minister Raj forms the backdrop of clashing ideals and aspirations in the India immediately after independence which the novel