Revenge of the Naked princess : Ready to Serve Controversy

Crossword Book Store at Dynamix Mall, Juhu, Mumbai  was the venue for release of ‘Revenge of the Naked Princess’,(Leadstart Publishing) penned by  Oswald Pereira. It  is a   chronicles of how nebulous the lines between religion and carnage can be. This novel tells tales of forced conversions from the 16^th century.

 Oswald Pereira is a veteran journalist, worked at number of prestigious publications including Times of India and Outlook, he also teaches journalism. His first work of fiction 'The Newsroom Mafia', was about the nexus among the politicians, underworld and media,  it received lot of accolades for its bold treatment.

In ‘Revenge of Naked Princess’ , Pereira choosen a very different subject, tried to trace the chain of event that triggered forced conversion in name of Jesus Christ. When asked how this subject has come to his mind. He says , ‘I suspect the story was sitting somewhere inside me … perhaps in my subconscious. When I started writing it, the words flowed like they were coming out from some subterranean spring. Perhaps , the seed for the story, was sowed by my grandmother when I was a child. But I had then laughed off my grandmother’s tale as an old woman’s yarn or some bedtime story. Yes, the title of the book is appealing and intriguing, and I assure you that the story is captivating and will keep you hooked to the book. The story is set in sixteenth century India, which in the context of my book, I would describe as ‘The Dark Age of Forced Conversions.’

Talking about, the lead character of the novel, he says that  a tribal princess, the central character of novel  is only 18 years old, brave and beautiful and  she fights back  a Portuguese brigade of hundreds of soldiers armed with a monstrous cannon and scores of firearms and other weapons like spears and swords .And this princess has strong conviction some ace archers’ poison arrows and a small army of soldiers, The brigade was despatched by the Portuguese King and the Pope set out to spread Christ’s message of love and compassion, but they leave behind a deathly trail of murder and mayhem She doesn’t have guns and her soldier’s swords and spears are not as gleaming as the invaders. She resists forced religious conversion and sees no sense in accepting the new God and a so-called new heaven offered by the raiding brigade. I don’t want to disclose more of the story, but the readers will love the princess for her bravery and their hearts will go out to her'.

Oswald oppose the very idea of supremacy of one religion. He calls that when he was in his school, the father used to tell them that only faithful christians will go to haven. He as an innocent boy used to ask him in that case his Hindu will not be there !    

Story goes like , on a hot, humid morning in May 1545, a joint conversion brigade of the Portuguese King and the Pope set out to spread Christ’s message of love and compassion, but they leave behind a deathly trail of murder and mayhem. Armed with a monstrous cannon and scores of firearms, the brigade raids Princess Darshana Kamya Kathodi’s  palace in Tana, carrying for her and her people the King’s inviolable conversion order… sealed by the Pope’s promise of a new heaven. The beautiful, 18-year-old tribal princess fights back with her ace archers’ poison arrows. Revenge of the Naked Princess shows how brutal, forced conversions can blur the line between religion and carnage.

I asked him, how the Christian community in general and the Church in particular take  this kind of work .

Perreira says, ‘ I have tried to put a kind of mirror before the community. Many people in my community welcomed , but here are many  have opposed to it. I feel that the community should know that what has happened in the name of conversion in the past.

On this occasion Swarup Nanda, Chairman and CEO of Lead Start publication noted character  artist Smita Jaykar, Actor Anshuman Jha,  Spiritual Guru, Dr Rajshri and Celebrity Author of 'Rozabal Line', 'Chanakya Chants' and 'Krishna'  Ashwin Sanghi were also present..