Rich in period detail, this is a steadily unfolding look at individual life stories
Dr Margaret in Delhi is the second book in Waheed Rabbani's series (the first being Dr Margaret's Sea Chest). It continues her journey from Canada via the Crimea to India, and presents a colourful and varied picture of Indian life of that time, mostly in the Delhi area. I had not read the first book, so had some initial anxiety as to whether I would be able to follow this one. It is clear that there will be at least one more book to follow. It is a lengthy book (nearly 400 pages in the print equivalent) and a lengthy series to become absorbed in.
This story is almost entirely set in India of the 1850s. It follows Dr Margaret of the title (Margaret Wallace) as she travels from Calcutta - modern Kolkata - to Delhi, and experiences life in Delhi itself. This part of the book is easily read with no prior knowledge, as the circumstances of Margaret's earlier life are well explained in various stages. However, there is a short frame story set in present-day Canada, and I found this harder to make sense of. I assume that the first story gave some context for the various actions going on there.
But with so much of the story set in mid nineteenth century India, this is where I shall focus. At this time, the British presence in India was changing from its original mercantile base, claimed by the East India company, towards direct rule as a colony, enforced militarily. It was also expanding from a few major entry ports towards assimilating the whole nation. At this time, British leaders were largely acquiring territory by playing off one local ruler against another, and negotiating settlements which appeared fair, but actually favoured British interests and the rapidly growing ambition for empire. India, divided into a dense network of local principalities, alliances, and rivalries, was proving highly vulnerable to this divide-and-conquer strategy, and was beginning, far too late, to realise the inevitable outcome. The political situation leading up to this state of affairs is explained in considerable detail through the book.
So Margaret Wallace arrives into this setting, the child of missionary parents, and medically skilled by training. She is also recently widowed, carrying her husband's unborn child as the story opens. Waheed Rabbani has avoided the stereotype of a strident fundamentalist; Margaret's family are liberal in their faith and keenly interested in the diversity of religious expression in India, which allows her to interact successfully with many different people. She comes over as a caring and compassionate person, eager to practice both her medical skills and her ability to teach in all manner of situations. However, she is also lonely, rather naive, and often seems to have no real moral compass to guide her in difficult situations. Her responses to personal or sexual threats are driven more by social convention and personal likes and dislikes, rather than a clear assertion of right and wrong. She is quite luke-warm in her reaction to both pleasant and unpleasant turns of events, and the difficulties of being a single woman in a male dominated culture are in the foreground.
The fascination of the book comes, I think, from its focus. Rather than write an action story describing the military actions of this era, or a political drama looking at the equally fierce deals and betrayals, we are led to walk alongside Margaret as she pursues her own course. With lavish attention to detail of culture, language, custom, religion, food, and so on, the turbulence of the Indian setting is kept for the most part in the background. We have a personal view, not a national one.
However, try as she does to keep away from the conflicts of the rulers, new and old, this proves impossible, and Margaret is caught up in a web of betrayal and false accusation. It is not always clear why some people are so doggedly intent on blocking her progress - perhaps explained more in the first book - but there is something rather insanely determined about the antipathy of her adversaries.
This brings me to what I think is a central theme of the story - the playing out of karmic relationships between people, resulting in constant attraction or antipathy. In terms of Margaret's own Christian perspective, this would be described as reaping what you sow. Certainly her consistent and generous actions towards Indian communities, regardless of wealth or poverty, stand her in good stead in her own hour of need. But whatever the underlying explanation, the dogged way in which those who dislike her seek to ruin her life and reputation is a source of constant distress. Perhaps she will find resolution in book 3, but as reader, you will have to wait a while before you can find out about that.
Definitely a book to read if you like to be immersed in the details of a past society. The book is set in a time of major transition for India, but the book focuses away from those, in order to explore the transformation of individual lives.
This review was originally written for The Review Group,
