Mehta had written fiction and non-fiction juxtaposing tradition and modernity, fact and fiction, East and West, often exposing the reality in as much as she synthesizes the roots of Indian culture, tradition and peoples’ aspirations of contemporary India through the thesis and antithesis of various dimensions of Indian Socio –political Paradigm. Present paper endeavors to look into India’s socio political and cultural values and its dilution or deterioration in modern time. Four major works have been chosen which examines her observations since independence to modern time while referring India’s deep cultural and spiritual values of five thousand years. Karma Cola speaks of influx of foreigners to India during the rise of Hippie culture of 1960s and the degeneration of values thereof. Raj, a fiction reveals how life was lived in a princely state under colonial period through the eyes of an Indian woman. In A River Sutra the focus shifts towards Indian culture, its diversity, Indian religions and myth. The novel clarifies Indian spiritual values. Snake and Ladder satirizes the deplorable socio-poetical condition of the country. Methodology adopted is analytical and contrastive study of the facts and fiction to have a right assessment of contemporary India in its socio-political paradigm.

Keywords: Culture, Corruption, Dynasty, Freedom, Karma, Politics.

[1] Joshi, Vishwas A., “The image of India in the works of Gita Mehta”, Shodhganga.

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/40924

[2] Mehta, Gaeta, “Karma Cola”, New York: Simon and Schuster pub, 1979, Print.

[3] Mehta, Geeta, “Raj”, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989, Print.

[4] Mehta, Geeta, “A River Sutra”, New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1993, Print.

[5] Mehta, Geeta, “Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of India”, Nan A. Talese (New York, NY), 1997, Print.

[6] Mehta, Gita, “1943. Contemporary Authors”, 16 Oct 2020, https://www.encyclopedia.com

[7] Patel, PR., “The Fictional World of Gita Mehta: A Study”, Shodhganga.

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/44125.pdf.Accessed 18 Oct 2020.

[8] Sandhaya, PV., “The novels of Gita Mehta A thematic study”, Shodhganga.

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/85148/6/06_chapter%201.pdf

[9] Vivekananda, Swami, “Thoughts on the Gita”, The complete works, p.63, Advaita Ashram Publication, 2018.

[10] ‘Sanatan Dharma’, Blog, November 5, 2017, Vivekananda. 

https://hinduism365blog.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/%E2%80%8Bswami-vivekananda-on-india.

[11] Translation of song he mor chitto punyo in English, http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/rs-h/hey-mor-chitto-punyo-english-translation.html