Social Concerns in Shashi Tharoor's the Great Indian Novel: An Analytical Study

Shashi Tharoor is a social critic. He exposes the Indian society in which a semblance of loveliness in social circles is maintained. As a novelist he exhorts the people to get rid of their social malpractices. In The Great Indian Novel, he expresses his concerns on the burning issues of society and addresses several social concerns through the recreation of characters of The Mahabharata. He turns The Mahabharata into a mirror of the contemporary political scenario in which parallels are drawn between the persona and events of the grand epic and those of contemporary society. He delineates the social conditions of the country in which all the evils in society are practiced by the people openly and shamelessly. He expresses his disappointment at the loss of all noble values of ‘dharma’ and social greatness after independence. In The Great Indian Novel he exposes the weak nature of the present society and condemns pseudo superficial facade and the wicked hidden reality. In The Great Indian Novel, has presented his social-moral vision by expressing his concern for the social conditions in which there is a lack of conventional values and ethics in contemporary times that have undergone a huge change due to the advent of materialism resulting in the restlessness and anxiety of the people of our society.