Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup

Reading Vikas Swarup’s murder thriller Six Suspects this weekend was a treat. Following the debutant success of Q&A, which was made into Oscar fame Slumdog Millionaire, Swarup continues to highlight India in this book. The thriller element of a murder mystery may not have been the greatest strengths of the plot, but the portrayal of India is indeed riveting. Without giving away the ‘mystery’ in the plot, here are a few things about Six Suspects that stand out.
The plot is set around the murder of Vicky Rai, son of a politician and six people suspected of his murder. The suspects include a corrupt bureaucrat, a famous Bollywood actress, a tribal from Andaman Islands, a petty mobile phone thief, a politician aspiring to become the C.M. and a young American ‘dude’. It is through the experiences of these six suspects that Vikas narrates the story of India; story of what is good, bad and ugly in Indian society. Many incidents in the plot may strike readers (especially non-Indian readers) as illogical but these bring to light some most bizarre episodes taking place in India almost on a daily basis.
Three reasons for which I loved this narrative of India.

First, thinly veiled references to real-life incidents in India are impressive. Names and incidents like Ruby Gill’s murder in a bar (the Jessica Lal murder case), instance of a politician’s son driving his car over the homeless sleeping on the pavement, reference to news anchor and reporter Barkha Das bear chilling resemble to real India. From the Bhopal gas tragedy to Kashmiri militants, from bomb blasts to numerous trick-thy-neighbor incidents, from sex-tapes to state of eunuchs in India, Six Suspects is more a work of social anthropology rather than friction.
Second, the book shows the prominence of stereotypes in India and exposes the flaws in these socio-psychological categorizations. An American is expected to be great at communication skills and well-versed in anything to do with ‘Google’, a tribal from Jharkhand has connections with Naxals and Bollywood actresses sleep around with the powerful and wealthy – Swarup subtly challenges many such stereotypes dominant in India.
Third and final reason why this book would have a lasting appeal is that despite the corruption, greed, innocent deaths and injustice everything falls into place in the end. The American guy gets to marry his dream girl- the Bollywood actress, a poor Muslim thief wins over a rich Hindu girl along with dream role in a movie, a Rajput lover successfully fulfills his promise and the politician secures his spoils. Even though characters like Eketi (the tribal) stand out as the ‘collateral damage of the revolution’, it is a happy ending for other characters.
Six Suspects tells us what most Indians know about their country, but in a way that few could communicate. Here is an example and my favorite. The opening lines read: “Not all deaths are equal. There’s caste system even in murder.” Poignant, enthralling and a must read.