The Coffer Dams by Kamala Markandaya
Clinton, founder and head of a firm of international engineers, arrives in India to build a dam, bringing with him his young wife, Helen, and a strong team of aides and skilled men. They are faced with a formidable challenge, which involves working in daunting mountain and jungle terrain, within a time schedule dictated by the extreme tropical weather. Setbacks occur which bring into focus fundamental differences in the attitudes to life and death of the British bosses and the Indian workers. A timely reminder of the British contempt for Indian lives and for nature.
Author Bio:
Kamala Markandaya (1924 – 2004) was born in Mysore, India. She studied history at Madras University and later worked for a small progressive magazine before moving to London in 1948 in pursuit of a career in journalism. There she began writing her novels; Nectar in a Sieve, her first novel published in 1954, was an international best- seller. Reviewing the republication of The Nowhere Man in 2019, Booker prize-winner Bernadine Evaristo wrote; ‘For the last 20 years of her life, Kamala Markandaya couldn’t get published and went out of print. Generations of readers lost out in reading this gem. Now I hope it will find its place in literary history.’
Review
This book is about more than building a dam in the middle of the jungle in South India. It’s a text that shows the divide between groups in India just after independence. It’s shows the contempt that the majority of British workers had for the locals. It should be a seminal text to show the racial tensions between the old ruling class and the newly independent Indians. I honestly don’t know how this book became out of print.
Yes, there is a lot of talk about dams and rivers and other technical things but the beauty of the prose is underneath this and needs to be read. The main characters of Clinton, Helen and Bashiam all reflect different aspects of the new era in India. Clinton, who is in charge of the dam project represents the staid Raj era. He doesn’t mind when locals are misplaced to build houses for his workers, he doesn’t take advice from the Indian engineers and he doesn’t really care about the locals or his servant Dai at all. Helen, Clinton’s wife, is the personification of someone who has come to learn about the place she is living in. She challenges Clinton about the locals but to no avail. She wants to become involved in local life and learn about their culture and language. However, even this is a reflection of the Raj as she feels that this should be open to her as an option. Maybe the locals don’t want to be studied but they still feel indebted to the British and allow it to occur. Bashiam is the representation of a bold new India. It gave him the chance at education even though he was born poor. He is now an engineer one of the few that is in fact Indian. But he was forced upon Clinton, who in fact didn’t want any native engineers. All his local knowledge is ignored, even when describing the local weather systems and his experience of the river in general. It’s the arrogance of Clinton that believes his reports over the local man. Of course he knows best. What I found sad about Bashiam character was it reflected how India is trying to embrace the west and trying to emulate behaviours and lifestyles. Bashiam was even trying to distance himself from his humble beginnings as they were a source of tension with the other workers calling him jungle wallah. India has definitely changed as a country since independence. It’s probably like night and day in urban areas, but even now you can see the problems that are highlighted in this book.
During the book numerous tragedies occur and it’s the reaction to these that forms the basis of the narrative. How even though in an independent India there are still well maintained class structures as a leftover from the Raj. I am not going to lie this book was a hard going one. It took me awhile to read it but it was worth it in the end. Please go and read as it deserves to be read once again.
