Sriram

Sriram is the main character and protagonist of Waiting for the Mahatma. It is revealed in the opening chapter that he is an orphan; both his parents have died, his mother in childbirth and his father in Mesopotamia as a soldier for the British Army. More than a decade of military pensions from the British government have left Sriram, by the time he inherits his money, a relatively wealthy young man.

Sriram evolves over the course of the novel from a slothful and largely apathetic young man into a political active (yet still, in his own way, ambivalent) supporter of the Independence movement. Sriram’s politics and his specific relationship to Gandhi’s independence movement are complicated and, at times, ambiguous. For example, he initially gets involved with Gandhi’s movement because he is sexually interested in Bharati, one of his young supporters. While over time he grows...