Nayantara Sahgal is one of the most prolific writers in India today. The niece of Jawaharlal Nehru and cousin (and political enemy) of the late Indira Gandhi, Sahgal is known to have insisted, "being Nehru's niece or Madame Pandit's daughter has neither been a help or a hindrance---it has simply been my inheritance and background---but being Mrs. Gandhi's cousin as well as critic is another matter. It has given me a glimpse of how intolerable establishments reduce their critics to non-persons." Much of Sahgal's later fiction has dealt with the politics of post-Independence India and the changes in lifestyles and attitudes that beset the urban elite. Sahgal's sardonic and evocative descriptions of contemporary India and its corrupt politics have won her wide acclaim in India, where she is also well known as a political journalist and civil liberties activist.
