Social, Political and Religious Issue of India in Vikram Seth’s “A Suitable Boy”

Vikram Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy’ is an effective thought on life. He describes contemporary reality and portrays the four upper middle class families of India in 1950s:  Mehras, Chatterijis, Kapoors and Khans. Brahmpur is the fictional town in the novel and the main action is located. Seth has composed the chorography of this town keeping in mind and the historical associations typical of larger north Indian provincial towns. Each family has a plot and there are some sub-plots here to help the main plot, the search for a suitable by. The sub plots of the novel: The academic skullduggery, the political parallelism between Nehru and Tandon, on the one hand; the political rift between L.N. Agarwal and Mahesh Kapoor, on the other hand. Mrs. Mehra is in search of a suitable boy for Lata. Dipankar is in search for a spiritual base. Mahesh Kapoor is in search of a political base and the Nawab is in search of his feudal stability. All these searches are cantered in the period of 1951-52, the period of newly-free country, embarking on the path of finding a permanent footing, internally and externally.