Prisoners of Hate by C.V.Murali.

     One of the rare books that I have read, Prisoners of hate as the title suggests rightly shows how much of hatred and revenge the characters feel for one another is balanced by the end of the novel which shows unity among the same characters both Hindus and Muslims. The narrative technique used is a mixture of both first person and third person narration which makes the story crisp and readable. The story line is strong and the plot is a mixture of both descriptive and contradictory to some extent otherwise the story is simple and easy to understand.
Farhan Rasool is a sunni Muslim lives in a plush flat in Prabhadevi with his 3 daughters. His father Ghulam Rasool migrated to Mumbai from a village called Meerut. He is the first character in the novel. The author narrates a few incidences that take place in India right from the Quit India Movement, The Salt Satyagraha that took place in the Gandhian Era. This is revolved around Ghulam Rasool's life. Babri Masjid the terrorist moments and the Bomb explosions which revolve around Farhan's Life. Thus the author connects the political situations in India to the characters in the novel.
     The other characters in this book are Madhav Karve and Sanjay. The author is trying to portray in the lives of his character the Hindu-Muslim hatred and the riots caused because of this hatred. The author points out the cultural and religious differences in the country. Madhav Karve was born in the same year as Farhan. He was born in a nursing home near Dadar railway station. He belonged to the Chitpavan Brahmin community. His parents were Narendra Karve and Malati Karve. Madhav's father Dattaraya belonged to the era of swadeshi movements and the non violence or ahimsa movements of Gandhi.
   Sanjay was born during Gandhiji's quit India movement his father was Mayank Dhave. He was born during the independence movement and grew up to take part in all the political activities in free India. Sanjay is a reporter and lives to tell the story. Whereas the other two characters Madhav and Farhan die in a bomb blast. There is Hindu-Muslim hatred shown in the story which the author wraps up by showing that at the end there is unity among the Hindus and Muslims. And his character Sanjay falls in love with a Muslim girl named Nafisa and marries her.
     The author swings from one extreme of hatred to the other extreme of inter religious and inter caste marriages between the Hindus and the Muslims which acts like a contradiction among conservatism.
    The storyline is very strong and convincing, makes the readers to think twice about issues like political disharmony, ego clashes, religious prejudices and narrow-mindedness of the people in our country.
   The plot is intertwined and difficult to guess the future incidences in the story but speaks loud about the ethics like unity in diversity and loving our neighbours who belong to different religions. This book is a sure read. And should be included in the curriculum of the students of literature.
   In the epilogue the author tells how the story creates an aura of getting rid of hatred specially, religious and cultural, which makes us the prisoners of hate. The author feels its a death knell which rings loud and clear, which creates disharmony and division among the people of the nation. The message is clear that each one should give up hatred towards other religions and culture and not to be prisoners of hate.