G. V. Desani


Govindas Vishnoodas Desani, known as G.V. Desani, was a British-Indian journalist, lecturer, writer and educator.
Desani is best known for his novel All About H. Hatterr, first published in Great Britain in 1948, which cast an absurdist, comedic light on the plight of a common man in a multicultural, pan-ethnic world.
Hatterr is notable for its many revised editions and attendant reviews received over seven decades which describe the book as … "a genuine literary rarity, the lost-and-found masterpiece," "a lost classic", and, of the author, an "elusive talent of the Fifties."
Post 40, Desani became a seeker, devotee, adept, reporter and lecturer on ancient Indian traditions — including obscure mantric and tantric crafts — to Eastern and Western audiences.

''All About H. Hatterr''

The 1948 publication of Desani's mock-heroic novel, with its high-velocity East-West pitter-patter, attracted widespread attention. T.S. Eliot said of it, "… In all my experience, I have not met with anything quite like it. It is amazing that anyone should be able to sustain a piece of work in this style and tempo at such length." Orville Prescott, in a mixed review in The New York Times wrote, "... To describe a rainbow to a child born blind would not be much more difficult than to describe the unique character of All About H. Hatterr... as startling as a unicorn in the hall bedroom. Reading it issues dizzy spells, spots before the eyes, consternation, and even thought." Four decades later Salman Rushdie wrote "Hatterr's dazzling, puzzling, leaping prose is the first genuine effort to go beyond the Englishness of the English language."

Hali: ''A Play''

Desani's Hali: A Play was published and performed in 1950. It was described by Eliot as "completely different from Hatterr." Eliot and E.M. Forster contributed forewords to the 55-page lyrical tragedy. Eliot called Hali's imagery "... often terrifyingly effective," while Forster wrote, "... it keeps evoking heights above the 'Summit-City' of normal achievement." Other of their comments were less enthusiastic. Eliot added, "Hali is not likely to appeal quickly to the taste of many readers." And Forster observed, "It depends upon a private mythology – a dangerous device."

Hali and Short Stories

In 1991, Hali was re-published in Hali and Collected Stories.

Biography

Desani was born in Kenya into an Indian family that had a general store, specializing in wood fuel. The family moved back to Sindh when he was about eight. Desani described himself as a rebellious child. He ran away from home three times and was, at the age of 13, expelled from school. Fleeing an arranged marriage, Desani at age 15 or 16 caught a steamer for the UK.
He arrived in England speaking only Hindi but within a couple of years had mastered English to the point that he was befriended by several prominent Londoners. For example, he was recommended by George Lansbury MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, for admission as a reader to the British Museum Library.

Career

In the 1930s Desani worked as a film extra, an artists' model and as a correspondent for The Times of India, Reuters and the Associated Press, among others, contributing from both Great Britain and India. During World War II, Desani lectured in both English and Hindustani for the British Ministry of Information and the Imperial Institute.
He was also a regular BBC commentator. Recalling his popularity as a lecturer during the war, Anthony Burgess wrote, "Desani came to England, in fact, to demonstrate in live speech the vitality of the British rhetorical tradition, brilliant in Burke and Macaulay, decadent in Churchill, now dead."

Search for Spiritual Knowledge

Decades later, Desani recounted how — despite his achievements — he became increasingly unhappy. In 1952 he returned to India where he sought out a series of gurus and fakirs. These teachers, typically residing in rural Indian villages, assigned him arduous disciplines, often requiring months of intense Sādhanā.
Desani spent most of 1960 in Rangoon practicing Samatha-vipassana under Theravada Buddhist master Mahasi Sayadaw. Upon completion, he was asked to address the Burmese diplomatic corps on Buddhist ethics and techniques. The meeting took place at the Israeli embassy; Burmese Justice U Chan Htoon presided.

Social and political commentary

From 1962-67 Desani made frequent contributions to The Illustrated Weekly of India. His articles included short stories, and commentary on Indian social and cultural issues, ethics, religion and occultism. An unsigned weekly column entitled "Very High & Very Low" ran from 1964-66.

Academic career

In 1967 a Fulbright Program grant brought Desani to the University of Texas, Austin as a lecturer on Eastern Philosophy. In 1969 he joined the faculty as a full professor. From 1970-79, Desani taught courses in Theravada Buddhism and other yoga traditions. He retired in 1982 following a semester as a Boston University lecturer under the sponsorship of then B.U. president John Silber.
In his last years as a professor emeritus at UT Austin Desani hoped to write two more books: an autobiography and a book based on journal entries he made during his years investigating Nadi astrology and other occult crafts in India.
Desani died at the age of 91 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Principal Works

Novels

All About H. Hatterr First Edition; minor revisions
  • * Aldor Press, London 1948
  • * Saturn Press, London 1950
  • * Farrar, Straus & Young, New York 1951
  • * The Bodley Head, London, 1970
  • * Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 1970All About H. Hatterr with an eighth chapter.
  • * Lancer Books, New York 1972
  • * Penguin Modern Classics, Penguin Books, London 1972
  • * Penguin Books, King Penguin Series, Harmondsworth 1982
  • * Arnold Heinemann, New Delhi 1985
  • * McPherson & Co., New York 1986
  • * Penguin Books India, Ltd., New Delhi 1998
  • * The New York Review of Books 2007
  • * Aleph Classics, New Delhi 2018
  • * Alles über Herrn H. Hatterr, Büchergilde Gutenberg, Frankfurt 2020

Plays

Hali: A Play First Edition; minor revisions

Short story collection

*

Major Short Stories

A Border IncidentA New Bridge of PlentyAbdullah HaiiCorrespondence with Sister JayCountry Life, Country Folk, Cobras, Thok!Down with Philosophy 1979Gipsy Jim Brazil to Kumari KishinoGoan, Meet a Samoan! 1964In MemoriamMephisto's DaughterRudyard Kipling's Evaluation of His Own MotherSince a Nation Must Export, Smithers!Sutta AbandonedThe Barber of SahibsaraiThe Fiend Screams 'Kya Chahate Ho? 1967The Lama ArupaThe Last Long Letter 1967The Mandatory Interview with the DeanThe Merchant of Kisingarh 1983The Pansari's Account of the IncidentThe Second Mrs. was Wed in a NightmareThe Valley of LionsThis Shrub, This Child of God
  • ''With Malice Aforethought''

Columns

Notable Commentary

Varanasi: An Impression 1964Indian Affairs, an Appraisal in Two Parts 1964Jawaharlal Nehru: An Assessment 1965How Is the Inexpressible To Be Expressed? 1970An Indian View of God, Cosmos, Love, Marriage, Sex, etc. 1971Mostly Concerning Kama and Her Immortal Lord 1973I Believe 1969Rudyard Kipling's Evaluation of His Mother 1976Down with Philosophy, Boston University Journal 1979A Passage to Mid-West U.S.A. — Fly High to Chicago! 1979Peanut Cum Sale, Department of Religion, Boston University 1979India For the Plain Hell of It, The New Yorker, India Issue 1997JFK As I Saw Him, 1964Guru ParamparaThe Nadi ShastraMantra and TantraSri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa 1966A No-Image Image
  • ''The Incredible Baba Visvanath''

Published Lectures

India Invites New College, Oxford and Trinity, Cambridge 1941Patanjala Yoga Philosophy, Rhodes House, OxfordYoga and Vipassana Meditation, Israel Embassy, Rangoon, Burma 1961Certain Techniques of Yoga and Meditation Karachi Theosophical Society 1962Ethics, Nirvana and Sundry Items, Kishinchand Chellaram College, Mumbai 1968Indian Occultism, University of Chicago 1968The Benares That Was, ANON 1970Indian Cultural Values Versus the Western Cultural Values, Embassy of India, Moscow, U.S.S.R. 1970Techniques In All About H. Hatterr, University of Sussex 1970How Does Crisis in Civilization Affect India?, University of Texas, Austin 1971Bhakti Yoga, Southwestern Conference on Asian Studies, University of Houston 1975An Imageless Image, Symposium in Comparative World Humanities, Michigan State University 1976Difficulties of Communicating an Oriental to a Western Audience, Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, Jawaharlal University, New Delhi, January, 1977; Sterling Publishers, New Delhi 1978The Novel as Gesture, Sterling Publishers, New Delhi 1978A Marginal Comment on the Problem of Medium in Bi-cultures, Associations of Commonwealth Literature and Languages Studies, University of Malta 1978; University Press 1979Banares, City of God, Boston Institute of Religion and Philosophy 1979On Civil Disobedience , Boston University 1979Has India Anything To Teach to the United States, Boston University 1979

Anthologies

The Yellow Textbook of Theravada Buddhism, editor and contributor, Cedarbrook Press, Austin
  • * Instruction in Buddhist Technique of Mental Culture, G.V. Desani
  • * A Note on the Doctrine of Anatta and the Boddhisattva Ideal, G.V. Desani