Urbaniak i
Brittany Urbaniak
Mrs. Richardson
British Literature
17 November 2008
Ganesh in The Mystic Masseur
Thesis: As Ganesh struggles to find his place in the changing culture of Trinidad, he moves from
the Indian culture to the British culture; his transformation is shown through the use of a
narrator, shown through the influence of other characters, and shown through Ganesh himself.
I. Use of the narrator
A. Gives an overall view of Ganesh
B. Shows how Ganesh changes
C. Shows how Ganesh is a manipulator
II. Other characters influenced Ganesh
A. Minor characters
B. Leela
C. Ramlogan
D. Beharry
III. Ganesh himself
A. His series of coincidences
B. His many occupations
C. His methods for reaching his goals
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Ganesh in The Mystic Masseur
The Mystic Masseur by V.S. Naipaul tells the story of Ganesh, a Hindu trying to find
where he belongs in a society split between the Indian and British cultures. Ganesh is living in a
time where Great Britain still has a major influence over India, and Trinidad, the country where
he lives, is caught between the two cultures of the countries. Ganesh sees this separation
between the two but does not know to which country he should belong. He is torn between the
Indian culture from which his father was a part of and of the British culture that could allow him
to learn, since at that time, attending college was seen as a part of the British culture. The story
develops as Ganesh changes his career; with each different one he moves closer to accepting the
British culture. As Ganesh struggles to find his place in the changing culture of Trinidad, he
moves from the Indian culture to the British culture; his transformation is shown through the use
of a narrator, shown through the influence of other characters, and shown through Ganesh
himself.
The narrator is used to show how Ganesh changes throughout the novel. The novel starts
with the narrator’s meeting Ganesh when he is a masseur, a medical practitioner who uses
mysticism in his treatments, to have him heal the narrator’s swollen foot. The narrator uses this
beginning to show how he met Ganesh and to later show how he comes to write the
autobiography. He says, “I myself believe that the history of Ganesh is, in a way, the history of
our times” (Naipaul 8). The narrator believes that Ganesh’s history shows the changes in
Trinidad’s culture. Each time that Ganesh moves to a different career, it marks a shift in the
culture of Trinidad. The narrator sees this throughout the novel as he retells the story of
Ganesh’s life. N. Ramadevi says, “In the course of presenting the life story of a man who keeps
changing roles in the Caribbean community and meets with sufficient success of imperial
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distinction, the narrator touches upon…public success and private fulfillment” (26). Ganesh
serves as representation of life in Trinidad and every time he moves to a different job he is
showing how he is fulfilling public sentiments as well as his own personal ambition for success.
Ganesh starts substituting for a teacher, moves to different careers, and ultimately becomes a
politician. The narrator expands the focus of the novel then to show that the people see Ganesh’s
success as something to strive for after they read Ganesh’s novel The Years of Guilt, an
autobiography of Ganesh. Ramadevi notices the narrator’s knowledge and comments, “[T]he
narrator who maintains a neutral tone is an intelligent observer who understands the whole
situation well” (25). The narrator knows all of Ganesh’s life before he writes the novel and uses
this to know when to expand his view to show the correlation and differences between the
people’s views and Ganesh’s views.
One critic says, “Through his [the narrator’s] timely comments, juxtapositions, humorous
deflation, he exposes the gap between the masseur’s version of events and what really
happened…” (Ramadevi 26). The narrator uses some quotations from The Years of Guilt to
show Ganesh’s views on issues and how he attributes his success only to the will of Providence,
a British term, when in reality had a lot of help from other people. The narrator points this out
when he says, “Ganesh was undoubtedly inspired by the Hollywood Hindus but what he says
owes nothing to them” (108). Here Ganesh is manipulating the real version of events with the
version he wants everyone to see. He excludes references made to the Indian culture and only
allows the references to the British culture to be mentioned. The narrator says, “Ganesh had
begun to find his mystic career an embarrassment” (201). Ganesh did not want his mystic career,
an Indian cultural career, to be associated with him now because he wanted to fully embrace the
British culture and to be seen as having followed that culture all along.
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At the end of the novel it is seen that Ganesh is totally integrated into the British culture
and has rejected the Indian culture. The narrator says, “‘Pundit Ganesh,’ I [the narrator]
cried…‘Pundit Ganesh.’ ‘G. Ramsay Muir,’ he said coldly” (208). Ganesh rejects his Indian
name and adopts an English name to go with his political career. By addressing him as Pundit
Ganesh, the narrator unintentionally reminds Ganesh of his Indian culture which he refuses to
acknowledge. Shashi Kamra asserts, “Ganesh’s gesture of non-recognition [of the narrator] and
denial reveals…his suppression of all sense of loyalty to his past in a desire to fill out a role”
(60). Ganesh so desperately wants to embrace the British culture that he is willing to ignore the
narrator even though he had healed the narrator’s foot at the beginning of the novel. The narrator
sees this and is surprised by Ganesh’s reaction to being called pundit, another name for a
masseur. It is by this reaction that it can be fully understood how much Ganesh changes
throughout the novel. In the beginning Ganesh is a masseur who uses his Indian culture to heal
people and then at the end he is a politician fully ensconced in the British culture.
While the narrator sees the changes Ganesh undergoes to embrace the British culture, the
narrator also shows how other characters influence Ganesh. A minor character only mentioned
at the beginning of the novel was Mr. Stewart; he “pretends to be a Hindu mendicant, [but] is in
reality a disaffected English millionaire” (Ramadevi 28). He chose to give up the British culture
in order to embrace the Indian culture; he “takes a particular liking to Ganesh” (Bhattacharya
257) and uses his own transition between cultures to influence Ganesh. Mr. Stewart says, “One
day you may even bring it all out in a book….One day you may go to London….[and be]
involved there [in politics]” (30). Ganesh ultimately follows the advice of Mr. Stewart and
chooses to follow career paths that Mr. Stewart was afraid to get involved in because these paths
were ones that lead to the British culture. Ganesh does write his autobiography, Years of Guilt,
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and at the end of the novel Ganesh travels to London after he enters the world of politics.
Another minor character who helps Ganesh is his aunt The Great Belcher, named so because she
belches a lot. She is associated with the British culture in the novel because she takes care of a
woman named King George. She “stands alone in her timely visits to advise Ganesh as to the
best moves at crucial points in his career” (Hamner 221). He meets her after he marries Leela
and she gives him marriage advice. While they are talking he mentions that he wants to massage
people, but she quickly tells him that there are too many masseurs in Trinidad so he should find
something else. He then mentions that he wants to write books and she immediately latches onto
the idea. The Great Belcher says, “Once you put your mind to it, you could go write nice nice
books” (48). She is hinting that he could become wealthy from writing books and that she thinks
that this is a good career path for him to take instead of being a masseur. The Great Belcher
knows that a masseur is only in the Indian culture but writers can be found in any culture like the
British culture.
Throughout the novel, Leela, Ganesh’s wife, is seen as a major influence on his life.
Leela has received an education which has made her realize what kind of opportunities are
available for people. After she marries Ganesh, she notices that he does nothing but think.
When she asks him, “‘Man, why you ain’t writing…[a] book….Ganesh replied, ‘Leela,…you
can’t see that I thinking, thinking about it all all the time.’ He never wrote the book” (65). It is
the way of the Indian culture that allows a man to be able to think without earning money
because “in India,…people coming from all over the place, some bringing…food, some
bringing…clothes” (77). The people of the Indian culture would not have allowed them to do
without food or adequate clothing if Ganesh was not earning money, but in Trinidad nobody
bothers to help the poor because of the British culture arising in Trinidad. When Leela leaves
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him because she is tired of being poor, Ganesh decides to write the book in order to bring back
his wife.
Leela wants Ganesh earn a large salary because she is jealous of her sister’s wealthy
husband. Robert Hamner says, “As [the] jealousy…gain[s] in strength….[s]he instigates a
scheme…[to] monopolize the taxi service that transports clients to the mystic [Ganesh]” (220).
Taxis drove the clients to Ganesh so they could receive his help in curing them of whatever ailed
them. Unbeknownst to him, Leela and Ramlogan, her father, charge an outrageous price for the
clients to use the taxis. Ganesh is very angry when he finds out and buys the taxis from
Ramlogan in order to run the taxi service for free, but Leela convinces him to charge four
shillings for the ride, a lot cheaper than the price Ramlogan is charging. In this way Leela is
pushing Ganesh to become more like her sister’s husband who has adopted the British culture in
order to live extravagantly. She is tired of the Indian culture where women have to work every
day and submit themselves to the will of their husbands; Leela wants to be able to take vacation
and travel but cannot do this so long as Ganesh is embracing the Indian culture.
Ramlogan and Beharry in their own way also manipulate Ganesh and influence his move
towards the British culture. Ramlogan “always looks out for his own best interests” (Hamner
220) and uses Ganesh as his tool to achieve his “best interests” (Hamner 220). Ramlogan
convince Ganesh to take his daughter Leela in marriage for a cheap bride price, but Ganesh sees
this maneuvering and decides to get as much money from Ramlogan as he can. After the
wedding when Ganesh was about to eat the kedgeree, he sat there until he had “got from
Ramlogan: a cow and a heifer, fifteen hundred dollars in cash, and a house in Fuente Grove”
(45). It was tradition that the father gives money to the groom until he eats the kedgeree, and
Ganesh uses this Hindu tradition to swindle Ramlogan. Ramlogan is shocked by Ganesh’s
actions because Ganesh had said, “When it come to eating the kedgeree, I go eat quick” (40),
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which meant that he would eat the kedgeree quickly so Ramlogan would only have to pay a
small bride price. By making Ramlogan pay more for the bride price than was originally agreed
on between them, Ganesh is moving away from the Hindu tradition. Ramlogan’s ploy had failed
but worked to influence Ganesh’s ultimate decision to discard the Indian culture. Beharry
continues what Ramlogan started. Beharry is a traditional character who subtly influences
Ganesh. When Ganesh decides to run for a political office, Beharry was the main person who
influenced Ganesh’s decision. Beharry brought The Hindu, a local newspaper, to Ganesh to
read; in it was an opinion column devoted to “a little bird” (140) in which someone wrote
degrading remarks about Ganesh. Beharry brings every newspaper with the remarks each time
the paper was released and encourages Ganesh to retaliate against the little bird. He is pushing
Ganesh to take up a political stand because they both knew the bird was Narayan, who is jealous
of Ganesh’s fame from being a masseur and wants to show Ganesh that Narayan, too, could
become famous by becoming a politician. Ganesh finally decides to run for election to appease
Beharry and Leela and the Great Belcher who had both also taken offense at what the bird was
saying in The Hindu. A politician is a not a part of the Indian culture but is an aspect of the
British culture where politics run the government. Once he becomes a politician, Ganesh is fully
established in the British culture.
While the characters influence Ganesh’s change greatly, the transformation of his
character is best shown through Ganesh himself. On day that his father dies, Ganesh decides to
quit his teaching job. Later he writes in The Years of Guilt, “My father had died that Monday
morning…just about the time…when I …was deciding to give up my teaching job. I was much
struck by the coincidence” (21). Ganesh believes that he was supposed to give up his teaching
job at that moment because he was destined to do something far greater in his life. After his
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father dies, Ganesh inherits oil royalties given by England from his father. These royalties last
until after Ganesh is married to Leela and has received the large dowry from her father. Ganesh
sees this as a sign “that big things were ahead of him” (56), when in reality it is only coincidence
that the oil royalties ran out at the time he married Leela. These two accidental occurrence fuel
Ganesh into believing that he is to take every chance he is offered to change his career and move
closer to the British culture.
Ganesh begins movement to the British culture by being a teacher but then decides to
write a book. Divya Sood suggests, “[W]e see a distinct departure from the Ganesh who aspires
to be the British intellectual to the Ganesh who, after acquiring a British education, uses the
English language to write a book on the Hindu faith” (99). Ganesh did not like the profession of
teaching and decides to go back to his home; but he has had a taste of the British culture and
incorporates it into the novel he writes on the Hindu faith while still maintaining his Indian
culture. He then tries to fully embrace his native culture again as he becomes a masseur. As a
masseur though Ganesh feels as if the people who come to him are really only people who have
deluded themselves into believing that something is there that is not. His British education does
not allow him to believe in the mysticisms that a masseur employs to treat clients and so
“Ganesh rejects his mystic identity altogether and… [is] reborn as a British politician” (Sood
100). Ganesh changes his career to that of a politician so he could move away from his Indian
culture and into the British one.
Ganesh uses dubious methods to become a part of the British culture. He is “an
ambitious and independent man” (Kamra 60) and uses this ambition to drive him to move
through his different careers to become a politician. Ganesh “asserts his independence of
thought again and again, rejecting his superstitious, materialistic and garrulous society” (Kamra
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61). His rejection of his Indian culture allows him to fully embrace the British culture. He does
not want to be associated with the superstitions the Hindus believe. His career as a masseur
showed that the people would believe anything that he said so long as there was an air of
mysticism to his words or if he chanted in the Hindu language. When a mother brings her son to
Ganesh for him to banish a threatening cloud, only her son could see, from her son, Ganesh he
chants in Hindi and has Leela interpret him. The son soon begins to believe that the cloud is
gone and believes that it is all of Ganesh’s doing that has saved him from the cloud. Leela later
asks Ganesh, “‘Oh, man, don’t tell me you use a trick on them.’ Ganesh didn’t say” (125).
Ganesh had only seemed to banish the cloud; he had tricked the people into thinking that he
could chase the cloud away, when in reality he had only convinced the boy that the cloud was
not there. He uses the Indian culture to help the mother and son, but it is seen by his silence to
Leela’s question that he no longer believes in the culture. It is after this incident that Beharry is
able to convince Ganesh to become a politician. Gordon Rohlehr says, “Ganesh, who poses as a
defender of Hinduism while it is politic and profitable to do so, completely rejects his Indian
dress and changes his name to G. Ramsay Muir once he becomes a successful politician” (180).
After Ganesh becomes a politician he decides to accept the British culture wholly and reject his
Indian culture because that culture would not earn him the money that he was making as a
politician.
Once Ganesh fully embraces the British culture, he is no longer the man torn between the
two cultures in Trinidad; his has decided which culture he likes the best. He goes from the
masseur to an accomplished politician, both encompassing one of the cultures while neglecting
the other. The narrator and the characters in the novel served as a background on which Ganesh
could be evaluated and influenced. Ganesh himself also helped the transition with his inherent
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ambition for success and his belief in the coincidences that happened in his life. The Mystic
Masseur by V.S. Naipaul illuminates the transition of Ganesh into the British culture by the use
of the narrator, the use of the characters, and the use of Ganesh himself.
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Works Cited
Bhattacharya, Baidik. "Naipaul's New World: Postcolonial Modernity and the Enigma of Belated
Space." Novel: A Forum on Fiction 39.2 (Spring 2006): 245-267. MLA International
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host-live>.
Hamner, Robert. “Character and Setting.” Critical Perspectives on V.S. Naipaul. Ed. Robert D.
Hamner. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents, 1977. 208-39.
Kamra, Shashi. The Novels of V.S. Naipaul: A Study in Theme and Form. New Delhi: Prestige,
1990.
Naipaul, V.S. The Mystic Masseur: a Novel. New York: Vintage, 1957.
Ramadevi, N. The Novels of V.S. Naipaul. New Delhi: Prestige, 1996.
Rohlehr, Gordon. “The Ironic Approach: The Novels of V.S. Naipaul.” Critical Perspectives on
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Sood, Divya. "Empire, Power, and Language: the Creation of an Identity in V.S. Naipaul’s the
Mystic Masseur." Atenea 27.1 (June 2007): 93-101. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO.
Mississippi U for Women Lib., Columbus, MS. 25 Sep. 2008
<http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=27946019&site=ehos
t-live>.