Dug deep
Patrick Marnham
Family Web Sarah Hobson (John MurraY £5.95) The first lesson taught by contact with the Third World is that the struggle to eat, find shelter and reproduce is so exhabsting that it dominates all other aspects of experience. Morality, politics, religion — all have to be assessed in this new light. We usually lea° this lesson within hours of first arrival anr where between latitudes 350 North and South. The second lesson, which is almost never learnt by people of temperate ell' mates, is that we should resist the notion that, by conceiving of life in these regions as specially problematical, we are therefore somehow equipped to offer assistance. Sarah Hobson spent three months living with a family of peasant farmers in aa Indian village. Her account of this titn,e when she shared their work, overcame the distrust and picked sides in their squabbles, (she was For the Women) is a triumph 01 reporting, and equally unusual for its clear grasp of the above principle. SignificantlY her narrative only falls below its own he standard with the arrival of a BBC Oxfanl film crew which had been sent to investigate family planning in rural India. The rela‘ tively banal details of the confrontation
between these battle-scarred warriors of the International media and the villagers are very funny, but they distract attention from the quiet understanding which had begun to grow between her and the community.
It would be slightly unfair to dismiss the visit of the film unit as an interruption since it was television money which enabled the author to be accompanied throughout her stay by an interpreter, and so made her Journey worthwhile. The family she describes were exceptional in the degree of their working cooperation. Like so many Indian peasants they were heavily in debt but even this was kept within the family since the loans were arranged by the eldest son who had been sent to the city to become an accountant. Miss Hobson's chapter on this much-feared figure is one of her best. His legs were frail and delicate for the Weight of his body; he was broadshouldered and full-chested, and his stomach revealed indiscreetly his softer life In the town'. On the question of education the accountant was magisterial. If a man Could `earn a salary, if he's educated like Me, it's alright. Then he can give his children medicine, he can give them horlicks, etcetera'. Towards the end of his meeting With the author the accountant seems to have become slightly over-excited by her presence and started to address her as Mrs Gandhi or President Ford or Mr Mao. But Miss Hobson kept her head. He 'broke a match and scraped his teeth. One was Chipped and another was capped with gold; they were crooked and turning grey at the gums'. Fortunately the accountant never suspected the effect of his gallantry.
Men amuse Miss Hobson; as readers of her last book, Through Persia in Disguise, Will recall, she has a withering eye for the ridiculous. But when it comes to women her Concern for their condition turns to anger. ,Her description of the treatment suffered °Y the women of the family is distressing but ?ne cannot help feeling that it is incomplete. 't was naturally through the women that the author was best able to penetrate the peasant life. She was welcomed into the embattled conspiracy of those who were treated as their husbands' possessions and who fretInently had to put up with neglect and brutality. The men of the village were not accustomed to speak frankly to women and they generally refused to assist her. Her judgetnents are therefore a little unbalanced and It Is only towards the end of the book that she attempts to correct this by conceding !hat the men too faced insuperable prob!erns and made regular efforts to overcome them and were capable of great devotion ;Ind affection. But if the women of this vii1age were held in their subjection by simple ,lorce it would be so untypical of the way 'hese matters are arranged elsewhere in the World as to need fuller explanation. , When the men were eventually interviewed (by the men of the film unit) they gave a clear account of the politics of the village and they told the true story of the accountant's domination. But this, though
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