Book Review: Holmes of the Raj

The long annals of Sherlockiana, as the Americans call the writing of fan fiction related to the Master, that immortal creation of Conan Doyle, has seen many a strange tale. As long as back as 1974, over 6000 instances of Sherlockiana were extant. The number has only grown since then, and the recent Guy Ritchie film will surely bring a new generation of fans, not that the interest in Sherlock Holmes has died down ever since the stories were published in late 19th century Victorian England.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle disliked the adulation, feeling it overshadowed his other literary works, but didn't mind the adaptations, writing to the American actor William Gillette, who asked if he could give Holmes a wife in his play, that "You may marry him or murder him or do what you like with him."

A new addition to the extended Canon of Sherlockiana is Vithal Rajan's Holmes of the Raj. This brings Holmes to India for a variety of cases and has him deal with a variety of notable characters - real and fictional. This is not the first time Sherlock Holmes has encountered India, having dealt with Tibetan issues in The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, the exquisite Laurie King novel The Game and being familiar with Dr. Watson's service in Afghanistan.

Holmes of the Raj is a good book in many ways, some of which will be evident only to true Sherlockians, as we fans call ourselves. The book is richly researched and has a strong sense of contemporaneity - the scenes are redolent of the Raj era, with familiar characters, food, social traditions, etc. Familiar Holmes traits are played upon, such as Sherlock's tendency to keep Dr. Watson in the dark until the very end, and the good doctor's gallantry and sense of fairness.

The cases themselves have more historical significance than being intricately plotted mysteries. Each seems designed to provide a vignette into Raj events of note. The book begins with the Case of the Murdering Saint, wherein Holmes and Watson are asked to help resolve an intricate matter concerning the murder of the accountant of a Tamil monastery, purportedly by the Shankaracharya, who has confessed to the crime. The duo encounter various tropical threats, meet notables such as Madame Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society and the Rev. Dr. William Miller of the Madras Christian College. They play cricket with the members of the Madras Cricket Club and Dr. Watson sees the ravages of the tsunami of 1883, which had wreaked much havoc and led to 'disaster capitalism' of the modern kind, with German and English missionaries proffering donations in exchange for souls and trading rights.

Once the case is disposed of, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travel to Hyderabad on a matter of some urgency, as the young son of the Nizam is suffering from malaria and Dr. Watson's medical services are of need. Not as much a murder mystery as a medical one, this story is centered around Dr. Watson as he tracks the cause of malaria to the anopheles mosquito, leaving his notebooks to a young Dr. Ronald Ross, medical Resident of Bangalore, who would later go on in real life to be recognized for this discovery and receive a Nobel Prize.

They also make the acquaintance of a journalist down from Central India, Rudyard Kipling who accompanies them to the region as they are called on to address a crisis that could rip the Indian empire asunder - the manifold tribes of the hills were rumoured to be coming together against the depredations of the Raj, not dissimilar to modern Maoist movements.

This complicated case behind them, the duo repair to Nainital where they encounter various luminaries including Motilal Nehru, Capt. Francis Younghusband, and Kim of Kipling's fame, not to mention a certain mysterious American who goes by the name of Clark Gable. This is a truly enigmatic case and one can sense the author hinting at greater matters than he reveals which could have some significance for Indian history.

The penultimate case brings Holmes and Watson to the capital of British India, Calcutta and an old enemy, who is the last they might expect.

The slim volume wraps up with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson called out of retirement, the former from his beekeeping in the Sussex downs. They are faced with a modern threat to the British Empire, circa 1913, with India riven by terrorist plots, a unified Congress, and dark conspiracies in the halls of power. Sherlock Holmes must take a hand in history, not for the first time, and leave a lasting mark on the refined barrister Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who until then had striven for Hindu-Muslim unity and the rightful place of India in the commonwealth of the Empire.

Copious notes follow the cases, giving them a richer context and being the norm for Sherlockiana, as we have seen with the masterful The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, both by S. Baring Gould and the recent one by Leslie Klinger. One can only hope the author has more lost annals of Sherlock Holmes to discover and bring to us, as that would be a treat indeed.