Quarterlife by Devika Rege review – an ambitious debut of the new India

This acutely portrayed reckoning with contemporary Indian sociopolitics traces the faultlines of caste, class and religion

Devika Rege’s debut is not a definitive state-of-the-nation novel. Nor can it be characterised as the next “great Indian novel”, although it holds greatness within its pages. This chorus of the collective contains a multitude of ideologies and perspectives.

It is 2014, and the Bharat party – a thinly veiled version of the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP – is newly in power. It was a choice between “the weak governance” of the preceding ruling party, synonymous with decades of corruption, “and fascism”, and India has voted in favour of the rightwing party promising to clean the Ganga river, holy to the Hindu majority.