Devesh Verma was associated with TV journalism for over twenty-two years before he turned to fiction writing. In 2004, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his translation, from Urdu to Hindi, of
Sakhtiyat, Pas-Sakhtiyat Aur Mashriqi Sheriyat, an important literary and cultural theory text. His first novel,
The Politician, was published by Penguin Random House India in 2021.
Ram Mohan, an ambitious man in newly independent India, refuses to let his humble origins define him. On a mission to build a political career, he realizes that the only way to live a respectable life is to hold some kind of power.
When the Congress high command vetoes Ram Mohan’s inclusion in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet, Saansad-ji, the state’s chief minister, appoints him as member, UP Public Service Commission, Allahabad. Though non-political, the position has a high social status, and Ram Mohan quickly takes a shine to it. Meanwhile, the JP movement continues to challenge the Congress regime, surging through large parts of India and setting the stage for Indira Gandhi’s downfall.
A sequel to the critically acclaimed The Politician, this new novel, set in the 1970s to 1980s north India, provides a captivating, vivid view of the political battles of that era, and captures the spirit, manners and social conditions of a transformational phase in Indian history.
From Jawaharlal Nehru's subtle handing over of the political mantle to his daughter Indira Gandhi to BR Ambedkar's fight for the untouchables, or his proposed Hindu Code Bill being seen as "wicked interference with the age-old Hindu personal laws of divine provenance", there is hardly any political event of significance that has escaped Verma's attention. . . . The gentle and effortless unravelling of these complex minds, and the timelessness of this tragic-comic novel by Verma, who won a Sahitya Award for a translated work in 2004, deserves praise.Devesh Verma's debut novel, The Politician, though, exquisitely upends this dominant model of the political novel that oscillates between fact and fiction and highlights the success and skulduggery of corrupt and ruthless politicians. With well-fleshed-out characters, Devesh Verma weaves a gripping narrative around a flawed hero's quest for unbridled power.
