Critical conversations about V.S. Naipaul often discount the centrality of his Hindu Brahminism to his anglicized authorial persona. This gap is partly due to Naipaul’s own articulated distaste for Hindu religious practice as obscure and archaic. Examining his first travelogue set in India (An Area of Darkness, 1964), this talk argues that Naipaul's rejection of Hinduism does not necessarily imply a rejection of caste. Rather, he transforms his caste identity into a modern, global product by...