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Novelist Sir VS Naipaul, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, has died at his home in London. He was 85. Sir Vidia, who was born in rural Trinidad in 1932, was known for works including ‘A Bend in the River ‘and his masterpiece, ‘A House for Mr Biswas’.
President Ram Nath Kovind has expressed grief on the passing of author and noble laureate VS Naipaul. In a tweet, Mr Kovind said, his passing away is a loss for the world of letters and for the broader school of Indo-Anglian literature.
Naipaul was critical of colonialism, but set himself apart from any social movements. He saw himself as a realist, cured of illusions, his outlook defined by the famous opening words of “A Bend in the River” that became the title of an authorized biography by Patrick French: “The world is what it is.” Naipaul was equally sceptical of religion and politics, of the idealism of any kind, whether revolutionary uprisings or of quests for paradise such as Sir Walter Raleigh’s search for the non-existent El Dorado.