Raj Quartet summary

Its some time since I watched Jewel in the Crown or re read the Raj books, but I remember it well. It has echoes of EM Forster's Novel, Passage to India where a young English lady accuses an Indian man of molesting her and the trial starts off bitter anger between the British and the Indians. Then the trial collapses because Ada, the young woman, withdraws her claim of sexual assault. The Raj Quartet begins with a similar situation, in that Daphne Manners is actually raped by Indian men. However she does not accuse her Indian boyfriend Hari Kumar of doing anything to her. She and he made love but then they were attacked by a gang of peasants who were excited by the situation of a white girl making love with an Indian man. Daphne tries to protect Hari but she dies in childbirth. Hari is sent to jail, and Ronald Merrick who investigated the case continues to show his bigotry and violent streak in his police work. He is a self hating homosexual, who hates Hari for being better educated than he is, and he has to believe that Indians are inferior beings. Scott himself had a drink problem and could be violent at times and while Merrick is an unsympathetic character Scott could see bits of himself in the man he created. He found India dirty and overwhelming when he first went there, but grew to love it. The character Guy Perron also has some echoes of Scott. Like Scott he went into the army as a private at the start of the War. Scott was commissioned as an officer and worked in Army intelligence. Guy becomes a sargeant. He is a liberal, supporting Indian independence as Paul Scott was. The tension between Scott's "Merrick side" and his more liberal side makes the books what they are. Merrick is not likable, but as we understand his problems, his hatred of his sexual feelings, and his anger that he, a white man, is less well spoken and well educated than the young Hari Kumar, we can see that he is both twisted and vulnerable. He resents the British army officers and political officers who have a public school education and who have the security of a comfortable life in England when they retire while he had to work his way up from a lower middle class childhood to the Indian police and then the Army. The Raj quartet has many women characters who are vital and interesting even though they are limited by their sex. Sarah is intelligent and tempted to show more liberal beliefs than the usual army daughter, but she does good work supporting her family and she tries to protect Susan against Merrick. Mabel Layton, Col Layton's elderly step mother, is not approved of because at the time of the Amritsar massacre, she gave money to a fund to help the Indian victims, while most of the army wives supported General Dyer who had caused the massacre.

Raj quartet IX

Guy is shocked but not really surprised. He always thought Merrick was sinister and he attracted trouble. His involvement in the Kumar case has angered Indian nationalists who have been trying to get at hime for years. And he was idealistic about the Raj, believing that the British would avenge him, whereas they were just keen to get out of India and leave it to its own devices. He came from a relatively poor family, and for him, the Raj was a family, whereas the other members of the colony were better off and had connextions in England to go back to. THe Laytons are planning to go back to England very soon and buy a small country home. Bronowski is pleased that the Prince's daughter Shiraz has become more westernised under Sarah's influence and that she has attracted a suitor Ahmed Kasim. Kasim is the son of a well known Indian politican who has been fighting for Indian independence all his life. Ahmed was something of a playboy and a bit of a disappointment to his father but in recent years, he has developed a sense of responsibility and is working with the Prince and Bronowski. He looks like a suitable husband for Shiraz, and his father is very pleased that he is making a success of his life now. Guy notices that Sarah seems very close to Ahmed, but she too plans to go home to England, so he presumes it is not a serious love affair. He hopes that she may turn to him when they go home. Indian independence is now very close, but the partition of the country is in Guy's view a disaster which will lead to hatred and violence. He blames the British rulers for encouraging divisions between Muslims and Hindus - feeling that they used this to weaken the Indian independence movement, but now are making a fast getaway and leaving the problems to be solved by the Indians. The Laytons are due to leave. Susan has her Ayah to look after her son, and she is carrying Ronald's ashes in an urn. Col and Mrs Layton have gone on ahead to find a house. Ahmed is escorting them and he gets on the train into their carriage (which does not please the other British) . However the compartment that he is travelling in has been marked, and Hindu activists are aware of where this prominent Muslim is sitting. After a time, the train is held up and a gang call for Ahmed to come out. Everyone is bewildered as they have not yet formed a strategy for dealing with these attacks. Ahmed goes out and is killed. So are many others. Sarah tries to nurse the injured and she feel angry and helpless that she is reduced to this feeble English memsahib role of trying unsucessfully to help when she knows it is useless. She and Guy go home to England, and she tells him that she loved Ahmed but she wasn't in love with him. But she is angry that he has died and she could not do anything to prevent it. Her country caused the trouble and divisions and they then leave it to the Indians to suffer the consequences. They get married and Guy becomes a well known academic historian - and India is just a part of their past.

Rough Music By Nadine Sutton

This is a long story, available on Amazon. It is set in the 1970s and based on the lives of country and country rock musicians of that era. Its about 2 men who are good friends, and are trying to get their band from the small time to the big time. The constant touring and hard work puts strain on both of their marriages and annoys the other members of the band. Its not a Happy ever after story, but I hope people will like it.

Raj Quartet VIII

Bronowski tells Guy that they had to cover up about Merrick's death, since it would lead to dangerous riots. He has often been taunted by Indian nationalist activists who have followed him about, because of his part in the tormenting and abuse and imprisonment of Hari Kumar. Hari is not interested in any of this, he has become a fairly reclusive man, making a living teaching. But Merrick has had people drawing pictures of bicycles (A bicycle was involved in the Kumar case) or attacking his car. He became rather paranoid about this in recent months, and threw himself into his police work. Susan was away for a time with the child, and Ronald was alone. He had a fall from a horse, and claimed that a man had startled his mount and caused the fall. Bronowski goes on that he beleives Merrick was a self hating homosexual (He himself being gay) and that he was attracted to young Indian men but his racism and self hatred made him angry and unhappy because he wanted what he could not have. He abused Hari Kumar because he was attracted to this young man whom he thought of as inferior. Guy has talked to "Sophie" Dixon about Merrick earlier and he'd worked out that he had homosexual feelings but could not tolerate them in himself. He also learns from what he has found out that Merrick was snooping in the army psychiatrist's office, to look at his files, because the psychiatrist was seeing Susan about her nervous problems. He read the confidential data, and was able to give Susan the impression that he understood her very well instinctively, and she was so fragile that it made her fall for him. Susan has told Guy that Merrick used to have to go in disguise into the bazaars to find out what was happening among the Indians and that there were a lot of young men coming to the house looking for a job, but Merrick did not usually offer any work to them. Guy is sceptical about this, and Bronowski tells him that there were boys who came, who might have been activists who were planning to punish Merrick for his part in the Kumar Rape case - but that he doubted if Merrick really went about in disguise to hear what was being said in the town. It seems that Merrick did finally allow a boy who had come looking for work to stay, and Bronowski believes that he finally gave way to his own homosexual urges and slept with him, and the whole experience upset him, because he could not admit that he was attracted to boys and to Indians whom he considered inferior. He was found dead in his bed and Bronowski and the police covered it up, saying that he had been injured in the riding accident and that he died from those injuries a little later. Bronowski says that he felt sure Merrick hoped that the British would avenge his death and kill Indians, and generally make him a hero in death, but the Raj were eager to cover it up and for the British to get out of India without too much trouble.

Raj Quartet Part VII

Susan and Merrick get married... He is a good stepfather to her son, young Edward, and he seems to keep Susan calm. The Laytons are close to retirement and thinking of going home to England. Then Merrick is offered a job as police chief in the Princely state where Susan was married. The Princes advisor is a Russian emigre, Count Bronowky, who tries to help the prince to modernise the state, but who worries about unrest and violence which is beginning to happen all over India, as the state prepares to become Independent of British rule. He admires Merrick and thinks he can do a good job of controlling riots and violence. A couple of years after the war, Guy Perron goes to India to cover the granting of independence..and he finds to his surprise that Merrick has just died after a riding accident. Sarah is staying at his house, and she has become friends with the princes daughter Shiraz. Guy is pleased to see her again, but when he asks her what happened to Merrick, she is reluctant to talk about it. He learns the story from Count Bronowski.

Raj Quartet VI

THe war is close to an end by now and Susan has been released from her hospital but she's still nervy and not very stable and she is seeing a psychiatrist. Sarah finds that by now Merrick has weaseled his way into their family circle and she's afraid of him. In the course of his work, he drives an Indian soldier to suicide, taunting him that he had abandoned his oath to the King, when captured, and shamed himself and his regiment. Sarah meets another young officer, Guy Perron who went to the same school as Hari Kumar, and joined up as a private soldier. He has now become a sargent in Army intelligence, and he comes into contact with Merrick. He too dislikes Merrick and thinks he is sinister. Barbie has had a breakdown, and is now in a hospital. Sarah likes Guy Perron and wonders if someone like him could tell her something to Merrick's discredit, so that she could use it against Merrick. She can see he's courting Susan and its scary that she seems to be taken with him and may well marry him for security. Guy and Sarah spend time together and he tries to wriggle out of having Merrick as his boss. Through family influence, he manages to get an early discharge and he's soon to go home to England, where he hopes to become a historian. He and Sarah make love, but she is committed to looking after her family. Her father is released from his POW camp and returns to India, and Mildred and Susan both need her help.

Raj quartet V

Merrick recovers from his injuries, but he has to have an artificial arm. He gets a desk posting where he can use his police training to investigate Indian Prisoners of War who were captured in Burma and who were persuaded by their captors to renounce their allegiance to the British empire and join the Japanese. He has a natural taste for bullying and questioning. Meanwhile Hari has been questioned by the British, as he is detained indefinitely under a wartime Security act. He tells them that he was sexually assaulted by Merrick. Horrified, they cover this up but it takes time before Hari is finally released. He is alienated now from the British and his fellow Indians and expects to lead a lonely life, with the loss of Daphne and his child being reared by Lady Manners. Ronald spends some time in hospital having treatment, and there he meets a British OR soldier called "Sophie" Dixon, a gay man who likes joking and camping, but is a kindly nurse to the soldiers in hospital. He likes Merrick at first, but finds out that he ill treated a young homosexual soldier, who has just been coming to terms with his sexuality.