Nampally Road
In this semi-autobiographical novel, set in Indian during the civil unrest of the 1970s, a young English teacher named Mira returns from school in England to take a teaching job in Hyderabad. The plot develops around the arrest and torture of an innocent bystander, Rameeza, whose plight inspires the local activists, one of whom is Mira's boyfriend and fellow teacher, Ramu. Meanwhile, Mira's mentor, Durgabai, resists oppression by ministering at a local shelter to victimized women. Mira wonders how to reconcile the world she lives in with her job teaching English Romantic poetry and eventually leaves the school to help free Rameeza; she aligns with Durgabai and rejects the type of nationalism that sees victimized women as opportunities instead of as people.
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