Some Inner Fury

‘You belong to one side, if you don’t you belong to the other. SOME INNER FURY It is as simple as that . . . There is no in between. You have shown your badge, you have taken your stance . . . it was there in your face, the colour of your skin, the accents of your speech, in the clothes on your back.’ Kamala Markandaya’s Some Inner Fury is the story of Mirabai, a young woman from a partly Westernized Hindu family in pre-Independent India. Previously confident of her place in society and her love for her country, Mira begins to question beliefs when her brother Kit returns from Oxford bringing with him a new lifestyle and his friend Richard. Mira’s love for Richard grows as the country’s agitation against the British gains intensity. Caught in the crossfire are Kit, now a district magistrate, his wife Premala and Govind, Kit’s and Mira’s adoptive brother, who is rumoured to be the mastermind behind the anti-British violence. Events come to a head when tragedy befalls the family and Mira is forced to choose between her love for Richard and duty towards her country. Some Inner Fury is Kamala Markandaya’s assertion of how no one can stand apart, undecided, when a country is divided.