Jewel in the Crown (Scott)

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Jewel in the Crown

1. Describe Daphne Manners. What kind of person is she? How does Daphne feel about British attitudes in India? What is the symbolic/ironic play on her name?

2. What about Hari Kumar? What does Daphne mean when she says Hari is "an English boy"? Is he Harry Coomer or Hari Kumar? Exactly where does he fit within Raj society—within the Indian or British culture? (Raj means "reign," so Raj society refers to the British rule over India.)

3. What motivates Ronald Merrick's anger and especially his hatred of Hari Kumar? What does Hari represent to Merrick? Is Merrick genuinely attracted to Daphne Manners? Is Merrick gay?

4. How does Hari act (and why) at Lady Chatterjee's party, the one where he first meets Daphne? What makes Lady Chatterjee wary of Hari and his attentions to Daphne?

5. In what way do Lady Chatterjee and Hari Kumar blur the Anglo-Indian social and ethnic distinctions so carefully established by the British? Actually, what are those distinctions—and why is Lady Chatterjee more secure in her position than Hari is in his?

6. After Mr. Chaudhuri's murder, Edwina Crane tells Ronald Merrick that "there is nothing I can do." What is the larger implication of that remark? And in what way does the sentence reverberate with other characters in the book?

7. Why does Miss Crane take down the portrait of Ghandi in her classroom? She replaces it with the painting, The Jewel in the Crown. What is the allegory in the painting? Discuss the significance of the painting in terms of its meaning both regarding British rule over India and the title of this book.

8. Talk about the incident on the cricket patch with Hari Kumar and Colin Lindsey? What was the relationship between the two young men...and how has it changed?

9. After the brutal rape and attack, why does Daphne make Hari promise not to reveal his presence at the scene? And what makes Hari keep his promise to her (i.e., what code is he operating under)?

10. In this story, a child is born through violence. How might this be seen as symbolic of the history of British colonialism in India and India's eventual independence?

11. Scott uses many points of view, different characters, to tell his story. Did you find the variety of perspective engaging, or would you have preferred a seamless 3rd-person narrative? Why might Scott have chosen to structure his novel this way?

12. At the time the book was published, one reviewer wrote the following assessment. Read it and decide whether you agree...or not, and why.

Mr. Scott is not bitter. He knows that he is not writing just about callous or insolent or arrogant English men and women, or about noble and resentful Indians. He is writing about many kinds of people involved in a situation they did not make themselves, conforming to traditions of long standing, and acting according to their natures and innermost convictions. There are some unpleasant individuals satirically viewed...but no villains.   —Emanuel Perlmutter - New York Times (7-29-1966)

13. What is the role of women in the novel? How does each woman impact the plot, drive it forward? What position do British women in particular occupy in the British Raj?

14. Comparisons of this novel to E.M. Forster's A Passage to India have been made many times over. In fact, it seems Paul Scott had Forster's book in mind with the rape of Daphne (ah...there's a mythical allusion in that event, come to think of it....) with the imaginary rape scene in Passage. Have you read Forster's work, and if so, how to you compare the two novels?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page (summary)