Review of A Burning By Megha Majumdar
March 29, 2021
A Burning is a compelling book for a few reasons. It fuses political themes with an engaging story and idiosyncratic characters. I appreciated the focus on the unintended consequences of a powerful platform like Facebook and how it can create an explosive type of mob rule that is not possible without social media. Putting a personal story to such a new problem is powerful in making the issue stick in the reader's mind. The thread in the story that I thought was most well portrayed was the need of the people to have an explanation for the attack, even if it was wrong. The people had an extreme discomfort with the idea of the attack being unexplained. Therefore, they grasped at any ounce of evidence that would implicate Jivan. The exploration of this dynamic shows the power of such a demand for justice and how laws and customs can be bent in such situations.
A Burning also stressed the issue of political corruption in India to me. PT Sir's journey shows that even those with good intentions can get sucked in by the allure of power and influence. His path showed how one looking to get ahead in a corrupt system has to erode their morals slowly. This results in cumulative changes that are only apparent after a long time.
While the conclusion of the novel was unsatisfying and sad, I think it was the only fitting way to end the story. A surprise triumph or victory would lessen the emphasis on the issues discussed in the book and leave the reader less worried. Majumdar leaves the reader with a bad feeling, and this makes the story all the more impactful.
Overall I would recommend A Burning to anyone looking to understand the psychology of social media better and how this has implications for things like law and politics. In many ways it highlighted things I already knew, but also shed light on how topics such as trans issues and the film industry or political corruption and education can intersect.