~ Stealing Green Mangoes, by Sunil Dutta ~
Two brothers, of whom one grows up to be a cop and one to be a criminal. It sounds like a Hindi film script, indeed. But this dichotomy is just one of the astonishing parts of Sunil Dutta’s memoir, Stealing Green Mangoes, which touches on Partition, refugees, Khalistan, terrorism, star-crossed lovers, US immigration, and the LA police.
Sunil Dutta and his brother Raju grew up in poverty on the outskirts of Jaipur. Their family were among the Partition refugees who suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the border in 1947. Many were killed, and the remaining few who fled to India were scattered to the point that some never met again.
In the last two decades, many novels, films and nonfiction writing has emerged about the horrors of Partition. They are largely written by and about the victims but there is little about or by the perpetrators (understandably enough). Dutta’s memoir takes a different approach: he describes his family as both victims and perpetrators in the massacres of 1947. Years later he asks his granduncle about the violence.
“Do you think that the people you killed were also poor innocent refugees who were trying to escape to Pakistan?”
Ziai turned away from me, put his cigarette down, and paused. His eyes stared into nothingness. He slowly said, “Yes, those were also poor innocent people. I don’t know how many innocent people I killed. There must have been some sinners among them too.”
p54
Despite their identical life experiences, Sunil and Raju were headed in separate directions from the time they were teenagers: Raju started embezzling from his wealthy mentor, a member of the Bikaner royal family. He forged checks, stole passports, faked identities, and was wanted by the Indian police. Meanwhile, Sunil plodded through college in Haryana, trying his best to dissociate himself from his brother’s crimes.
A turning point in Sunil’s life came when he met Wes, an American teenager visiting India with her family. They fell in love, despite the opposition of his family and their conservative culture. Years of aerogrammes followed, and although Wes had other relationships in between, they eventually ended up married with Sunil moving to the US. Then came a PhD in biochemistry, and then a most unusual change of career for a scientist: he joined the Los Angeles Police Department.
Seventeen years later, two events prompted this soul-searching memoir: his brother Raju committed some ghastly murders, and Sunil himself was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
Readers may or may not agree with Dutta’s conclusions:
What could explain why our decisions and lives turned out to be so different? I believe a large factor is the cult of victimhood — claiming and convincing ourselves that we are victims and not resilient humans. We use our victimhood as a justification for our own flaws or our manipulation of others.
p235
His Washington Post article ‘I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.‘ is even more controversial, especially considering the many recent news stories about police killings. The prose in Stealing Green Mangoes is unremarkable, but the book is worth reading because he fairly explains how he came to this stance, and because of the quite incredible story.
Sunil Dutta passed away in May 2019
Stealing Green Mangoes, by Sunil Dutta. Harper Collins, 2019
Recent Comments