Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul

About author

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born to a Hindu family in Trinidad in 1932. He was

educated at Queen's Royal College in Trinidad. After winning a government scholarship, at

the age of 18 he left his native country for England and studied at University College, Oxford

(Contemporary Writers). After completing his studies at Oxford V.S. Naipaul settled in England

and began his career as a writer. The author of numerous novels (e.g. The Mystic Masseur,

The Suffrage of Elvira, The Mimic Men), short stories (e.g. A Flag on the Island, In a Free

State) and works of non-fiction inspired by his travels in Africa (A Bend in the River), Asia

(An Area of Darkness) and America (A Turn in the South) has been awarded a number of literary

prizes. In 1990 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth and in 2001 V.S. Naipaul won the Nobel

Prize for Literature (Nobelprize.org).

5 Mr Biswas's Children at School

Mr Biswas sends his eldest daughter Savi and his only son Anand to mission school. Anand hates

it and tries hard not to go there, but he is always flogged. Once, after coming home Mr Biswas

finds little Anand kneeling for punishment because he messed up himself at school. And

the reason? Anand was frightened to ask the teacher permission to leave the room and then he

was afraid of using the school toilet, because it was a nasty and stinking place.

Teachers were highly respected persons and parents often sent them small gifts to gain their

favour, as Shama once sent an orange by Savi. Moreover, the naughty children were flogged not

only at school, but also at home where they scarcely found sympathy. Parents started to be

aware of the importance of education for the future of their children. "[E]veryone had to

fight for himself in a new world [...] where education was the only protection" (Naipaul 436).

There were more schools in the cities, often attended even by children from the country.

The change is also quite obvious in Mr Biswas's life. While he, as a little boy, was the only

literate person in his family, his sister's son and all the children in the Tulsi family go to

school.

Most families were poor and they hardly made both ends meet, so they had nothing to leave