Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 April 29 : autograph manuscript signed.

Noting that "one hour from now, the Delhi premiere of B.T. ["Bombay Talkie"] will start," and that neither she nor Jennifer will be attending-- "MIP will be represented by Shashi, Jhab, Pincho [Kapoor] and Usha Iyer"; telling him "I don't regret the decision [not to attend] but I do feel moody and upset"; saying she just received his letter dated April 25 [see MA 23840.852] and "never was a letter better timed, more desperately needed"; recounting how, last night, "Shashi said that Jennifer and I were disowning the film and that we were ashamed of it; whereas he himself was proud of it and proud to stand up there and say yes, I made this. [...] But I can't do that-- it comes on me another way so that I want to say yes I made this and you're not worthy to see it so I don't want you to. But unable to prevent them from seeing it, I withdraw instead"; adding that Shashi sent her flowers this afternoon; admitting that it's not just the premiere that's making her feel upset-- "no, it's everything really, larger questions of what have we done, why did we do it, what are we going to do, what can we do?"; noting that "Shashi, I think, still thinks there is a future for all of us in India, but there is not"; repeating her conviction that they don't have enough of an audience in India for their work, that their (Jhabvala's and Ivory's) sensibilities are Western and "Western audiences do understand us fundamentally," although "they don't understand the terms in which we express ourselves. How can they [?] When those terms are based on Indian conditions of which the West (how should they?) know or care nothing. When by accident we express ourselves in terms that are comprehensible to them--as in S.W. ["Shakespeare Wallah"]-- then we were at least partly successful; other wise nothing"; commenting on the East Hampton screening Ivory described in his letter, and how the audience reaction bewildered her-- "I'm so entirely & dreadfully remote from any audience I could possibly count on (& I can count on none here). 20 years in India! Can you imagine what that means? How you lose every kind of foothold & are finally left stranded by yourself"; knowing Ivory must be "sick & tired" of hearing about this, but feeling it acutely at the moment; explaining the rationale behind the title of her latest short story collection-- "An Experience of India"-- which Ivory had expressed a dislike for in his letter, and noting that here "I come to the reverse side of my plaint [...] about the 20 years in India that have so unfitted [underlined] me [...] in all respects, that is, except one-- that there is a real knowledge & feeling for India which surely, surely not all that many foreigners have been able to reach"; admitting that because of this she is feeling very confident about her novel, "which I can now see as a whole"; describing meeting a recently married young woman of about 20, and realizing that she understood the woman's experience-- "about how when you were small & the school you went to & your friends at school, your life at home & how they fixed up your marriage: all these things"; describing how her daughters' lives have allowed her to witness "(not once but 3x) an Indian childhood & adolescence"; feeling that "this novel is infinitely superior to all my others" and noting the profound influence their film work has had on it, both good and bad; observing, "Just now I love my novel! But this euphoria may well not last"; telling him, "How I long for you to read it, and how I dread your doing so"; allowing that "there are still many months to go before a respectable MS stage," so he has time to decide not to read it.