Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard Study Guide

Kiran Desai was born in New Delhi, India in 1971. Her mother is Anita Desai, who is also a highly successful author. Kiran studied at the prestigious Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai. She and her mother moved to England when Kiran was 14 years old, then moved to the United States a year later. Kiran studied and developed her creative writing skills at several American universities, including Columbia University and Bennington College. Her novels have earned her various literary awards such as the Man Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award, and the Betty Trask Award. Today, Kiran lives in New York City. She hasn’t published any more novels since The Inheritance of Loss in 2006, though she mentioned in 2017 that she’s working on a new novel. This future novel and her other works focus on India and its people. The Economic Times included Desai in their 2015 list of the 20 most influential Indian women in the world.

The novel’s narration never outright states when Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard takes place. However, based on context clues and the level of technology present in the novel, it can be assumed to take place at about the same time it was written: 1998. The 1990s were a period of heavy reform and economic growth for India, as more modern, liberal policies began to sweep the nation. In its depiction in the novel, the town of Shahkot seems late to receive these advancements, though the arrival of economic growth does affect the novel’s themes and characters. Sampath feels trapped by modernity itself, longing for a simpler time before so many career-related expectations and responsibilities were placed on his shoulders. In contrast, Mr. Chawla embodies this new wave of growth, as he embraces the idea of turning a profit through diligent work and shrewd business acumen. Through this lens, the novel’s central conflict stems from the political environment of India in the 1990s. As increasing modernization came to India, Sampath’s feeling of being trapped and stifled in urban life might have been an especially relatable point of view at the time.

While Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is largely a lighthearted and satirical work, Desai’s other published novel, The Inheritance of Loss, is much more serious and grounded. It also has a broader, more ambitious scope, focusing on both India and the United States, and how the two cultures interact and create conflict. Post-colonialism is a running theme throughout The Inheritance of Loss, as the Indian characters living in the United States feel that their cultural identity and ways of life are being lost. Other Indian characters even resent the old customs of India, actively hating the dying traditions of their own country. This novel demonstrates Desai’s versatility as an author and highlights an interesting thematic difference from Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Where Hullabaloo tends to satirize Indian traditions, customs, and expectations through comedy, The Inheritance of Loss seriously explores every facet of the complexities of those same traditions, and what it means when they begin to disappear. Another well-known Indian novelist who explores these themes (through satire and otherwise) is Salman Rushdie, author of Midnight’s Children. In this 1981 novel, Rushdie explores India’s transformation from an English colony to its own independent nation. He depicts this change through the lens of magical realism, using fantastical situations as an allegory for real social change in India. Rushdie has praised Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard for its rich and compelling portrayal of India. He’s famous for defending the rights of artists and authors like Desai to mock and criticize traditions through satire, no matter how sacred.