‘MOTHER INDIA’

Mr. Clark Blaise, who reviewed my book “Mother India: A Political Biography of Indira Gandhi” on April 26, at great length, fails to disclose his personal ties to me.

His wife, the novelist Bharati Mukherjee, is related to my wife by marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Blaise have both stayed at our home in New York as overnight guests, and in turn my wife and I have enjoyed the Blaises’ hospitality in New York. For a while, they and I were represented by the same literary agent. And on at least one occasion, they sought--and received--a major professional introduction from me at a small dinner party at my home, when I introduced the couple to Mr. A. M. Rosenthal, who was then the executive editor of my former employer, the New York Times.

There were numerous other social meetings between the Blaises and us, and also discussions about works by both Mr. and Mrs. Blaise. In fact, Mr. Blaise read a portion of the manuscript of one of my earlier books, “Vengeance: India after the Assassination of Indira Gandhi,” when he and his wife stayed at my home, and commented on it. Mr. Blaise also presented me with a copy of one of his novel “Lunar Attractions,” in which he inscribed a warm message acknowledging his family ties to me.

If these facts had been fully disclosed by an ethical reviewer, your readers may have had a fair and full opportunity to wonder whether Mr. Blaise’s association with me colored his views as expressed in his highly--and surprisingly personal--negative review.

The review was freighted with factual errors and with considerable venom. Ironically, one “error” that Mr. Blaise attributes to me is, in fact, an error on his own part: He faults me for associating the name of the Maruti car (which Mrs. Gandhi’s late son Sanjay promoted) with the monkey-god Hanuman of the Indian epic, Ramayana. (Other letters to June 14 Book Review pointed this out.) Either Mr. Blaise is ignorant of the fact that Maruti is one of many names for Hanuman, or is deliberately misleading your readers.

While it may be common for scholars with the same area of interest to run into each other, Mr. Blaise’s relationship with me extends considerably beyond mere social ties. This alone should have disqualified him from an assignment to review any book by me.

PRANJAY GUPTE, Editorial Director, Earth Summit Times, NEW YORK