G. V. Desani

G. V. Desani (1909-2001) was born in Nairobi (Kenya) and brought up in India until 18, when he left for England and was accepted at the British Museum for a readership.

He worked as a journalist for The Times of India and also as a BBC broadcaster. Also famed for his oratory, he lectured on the topic of Eastern philosopy and culture. He styled himself as a seeker of religious truth, and his encounters with gurus and sages are reflected in his one and only novel.

All About H. Hatterr was published to immediate acclaim, earning praise from T. S. Eliot and Anthony Burgess, and became something of a cult object in Indo-Anglian literature. It’s protagonist, H. Hatterr, is a hybrid of the East and the West, a theme close to Desani’s heart. The book earned him enough fame and royalties to allow him to study Buddhism and Hinduism in India and Burma in seclusion.

Later, in the 1970’s, G. V. Desani joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin and became a Professor Emeritus. There, he taught courses on yoga and Eastern mysticism. He died in Dallas in 2001. Indian writers such as Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh acknowledge the seminal influence of G. V. Desani on Indian writing in English.

Works

• All About H. Hatterr
• Hali and Collected Stories