BEND IN THE GANGES Paperback

"A Bend in the Ganges" by Manohar Malgonkar is an epic historical novel that vividly portrays the tumultuous period of India's struggle for independence and the brutal Partition of 1947. The narrative follows the intertwined lives of several characters, including Gian, a Gandhian pacifist who commits a murder, and Debi-dayal, an ardent revolutionary, both of whom find themselves in the harsh Andaman penal colony. As the novel progresses through World War II, the Japanese occupation of the Andamans, and their eventual return to a nation on the brink of division, it powerfully depicts the clash between ideologies of violence and non-violence, the breakdown of communal harmony, and the immense human cost of political upheaval, painting a devastating picture of a country in transition.