India: The Land of Dreams and Romance

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"This is indeed India! The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition, whose yester- days bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations-the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peas- ant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined."

"You soon find your long-ago dreams of India rising In a sort of vague and luscious moonlight above the horizon-rim of your opaque consciousness, and softly lighting up a thousand forgotten details which were parts of a vision that had once been vivid to you when you were a boy, and steeped your spirit in tales of the East. The barbaric gorgeousnesses, for Instance; and the princely titles, the sumptuous titles, the sounding titles,-how good they taste in the mouth! The Nizam of Hyderabad; the Maharajah of Travancore; the Nabob of Jubbelpore; the Begum of Bhopal; the Nawab of Mysore; the Ranee of Gulnare; the Ahkoond of Swat's; the Rao of Rohilkund; the Gaikwar of Baroda. Indeed, it is a country that runs richly to name."

Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is one of writers. Born 30, 16.5 America's best and most beloved writers. Born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Mark Twain "came in with the comet" and as he predicted "went out with the comet" passing April 21, 1910, the day after Halley's Comet.

Twain will always be remembered first and foremost as a humorist, but he was a great deal more-a public moralist, popular entertainer, political philosopher, travel writer, and novelist. He acquired international fame for his travel narratives, especially The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on the Mississippi (1883). and for his adventure stories of boyhood, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). "A gifted raconteur, distinctive humorist, and irascible moralist", he transcended the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public and literary figure. His popularity is not only due to the memorable characters he created and his witty insights into social life, but also because of the manner in which he used humour and satire to comment incisively on serious topics like race relations, the Civil War, religion, imperialism and public education.

Twain was practically bankrupt in 1894 due to investing heavily into a failed Page Compositor. In an attempt to extricate himself from debt, he undertook a tour of the British Empire in 1895 at age 60, a route chosen to provide numerous opportunities for lectures in English. Following the Equator is a non-fiction social commentary in the form of a travelogue published in 1897. The first edition of this book was illustrated by Dan Beard, A.B. Frost, B.W. Clinedinst, Frederick Dielman, Peter Newell, FM Senior, C.H. Warren, A.G. Reinhart, F. Berkeley Smith, and C. Allan Gilbert, many of whom had previously worked with Twain. In England the book was published under the title More Tramps Abroad.

Throughout the travelogue. Twain uses the opportunity of visiting the various locations on his tour to espouse perceptive descriptions and discussions of people, climate, flora and fauna, indigenous cultures, religion, customs, politics, food, and many other topics. The book contains a significant amount of social commentary, although much of it is done in a satirical manner. Although this social commentary is a great import of the book, it is notable that Twain also included a number of fictional stories in the body of what is otherwise a non-fiction work.

It was in 1896-97, that Twain travelled to India, at the height of the British Raj, and wrote about what he saw here. American visitors to India at the time were rare; and mostly took their cues from British orientalists. However, the perceptive Twain went beyond the usual oriental tropes and noticed and commented on issues such as public education, religion, slavery and interracial relationships, always with his characteristic mix of pathos and satire. This is not to say Twain did not indulge in much of the usual fare that Western writers dished out. He usually referred to Indians as "natives". His travelogue contains many hackneyed observations: "This is indeed India! The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence...." However he didn't stop there like other Western orientalists. He noticed and observed details that others chose to ignore and this is what makes him special.

**Contents and Sample Pages**