Coasting Masters' Savages - The Roots

A savage is a person whose way of life is at a very early stage of development. John Masters, a twentieth century English novelist, wrote a series of novels set in India at various historical times. The novels' protagonists, the Savages, all come from the same family. In this case, Savage is just a surname.  

But, to the Europeans who sailed forth to other continents at a certain point in history, the scantily-clad peoples of some warmer lands appeared as savages as they did not display much pride in their culture. Apart from a fanatic set of taboos and elaborate ritualistic behaviours. 

So, it is perhaps natural that the Europeans then regarded themselves as masters. And, perhaps, we can see that such an attitude would be fairly normal in anyone. However, why was there such a lacuna in the first place?  

For one thing, most of these lands had not passed through the then modern trend of revolutions. In many of the regions that the Europeans of that time encountered there was already a steep unchallenged hierarchy where cultural worth was forever out of the reach of most.  This rather savage view has coloured narratives from the colonial times. 

To counter the trend, some decided that the way out was to put these accounts out of sight and mind. Unfortunately, as with all such initiatives, it has not only not been too helpful in eradicating certain behaviours but it has helped create generations of real savages - people deprived of any thought of any cultural worth. 

Creators of cultural worth are rarely anything but extremely free in thought - which is anathema to those who hold morals above culture. Morals are unreliable artefacts of humanity's struggle towards humanism. Many a moral value has had to be challenged by cultural representations until some barbaric moral behaviour was forced to change. Social change has often had to tussle with existing moral bias to establish more humane principles. It is only when we examine world classics of cultural worth to help us process the past, voraciously, and without prior moral bias, that we can begin to evolve humane principles. 

Now, John Masters is not a writer of great literary merit but, because most of his novels focussed on India across history, they ought to be of interest to us. Given that most of us in India have a less than basic idea of our own history, it becomes more vital to set off in search of our past with whatever exists. Of course there are better books for the purpose but Masters is quite juicy and, once the novice mind is engaged, we can look more deeply, on our own, at the times of which he writes. Today, as we read on various apps, it is easy to quickly dive into the Net in search of further information.  Revisiting this novel that I read in my early youth, I had a delightful time exploring India in the seventeenth century via the Web.  

For me, John Masters was a reading hand me down. My father regaled us with snippets from Masters' Nightrunners of Bengal and The Deceivers. His words served to fill the rustling night outside with delicious dreadfulness. Along with Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham and others, the novels of John Masters brought to life the Western concept of an exotic Orient. Once we accept them as fantasy, such exotic writings can be entertaining.

Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) - The Fort of Vellore in the Carnatic, India - 732241 - National Trust, public domain

Though I began with family recommendations, I soon homed in on the first in the series and the fifth in order of publishing. In Coromandel! we enter the Savage saga in the 1620's with young and illiterate Jason Savage. In the general savagery of the times, his life takes an unforeseen turn when he has to flee for his life, boarding a ship that is off to the Orient. After onboard adventures, he's washed ashore with a map that claims to show where treasure is buried. 

Hand-coloured aquatint engraving of the "A picturesque voyage to India, by the way of China" / by Thomas Daniell, R.A., and William Daniell, A.R.A. Wikimedia Commons

The tale will ring many bells to those who have read Robert Louis Stevenson and Lobsang Rampa and, of course, the others we've mentioned above. And there will be love and passion and beautiful 'native' women and magic. Enough adventure and action to prove the right read for the indoor season when endless rain imprisons us.

It is a ridiculous novel but might trigger a hunger in the reader to know about the area, once called the Coromandel Coast, in the seventeenth century. For those who already consider themselves masters of the history of the region it could help more reasonably savage Masters' Savage accounts.

So, why not try Coromandel! with hot chai and snacks!