As the world remembers VS Naipaul, here's a list of the most offensive things he has ever said
Nobel prize-winning author V S Naipaul, known for his critical commentary on colonialism, idealism, religion and politics, has died at the age of 85, his family said early today.
Nobel prize-winning author VS Naipaul, known for his critical commentary on colonialism, idealism, religion and politics, has died at the age of 85, his family said on Sunday. To know more about his life, click here.
"He was a giant in all that he achieved and he died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour," his wife Lady Nadira Naipaul said in a statement.
Naipaul wrote more than 30 books of fiction and nonfiction. His first book was 'The Mystic Masseur'. His most celebrated novel, A House for Mr Biswas, was published in 1961.
His other works include the three stories in In a Free State (1971), Guerrillas (1975), A Bend in the River (1979), A Way in the World (1994), The Mimic Men (1967), The Enigma of Arrival (1987), Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples (1998), Half a Life (2001), The Writer and the World (2002) and Literary Occasions (2003), The novel Magic Seeds (2004) - a sequel to Half a Life - and In The Masque of Africa (2010).
He is the recipient of numerous honours, including the Man Booker Prize in 1971 and a knighthood for services to literature in 1990.
Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001.
In awarding him the prize, the Swedish Academy praised him "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".
However, despite all these accolades, Naipaul has been criticised for his stance on women, people from the African continent, and Islam. His comments, usually controversial, evoked harsh reactions from critics.
Here are some of his most controversial statements