Major Themes
Paul Scott's 'Raj Quartet' explores the socio-political ramifications of the British presence in South Asia. In this quartet, desire and duty repeatedly intersect. The outcomes are always dire. But this has more, or rather, just as much, to do with Scott's Freudian preoccupation, as it does with the constrained desire, and unbounded resources, of colonial elites and British bureaucrats. Scott's preoccupation is (the play on 'Manners' aside) the long history of India, and the real place of the British in it.
Read more about this topic: The Jewel In The Crown (novel)
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