This issue affects both protagonists, as Rose continues to question the tactics of her stepson Dev and Sonali sees first-hand the extravagances of the ruling party.
Wealth is certainly not portrayed as the way to happiness in the novel, as the elite main characters seem trapped in a web of corruption, power and money from which they both stem.
This historical fiction entwines the fate of two upper-class women, Rose, a British immigrant and wife to powerful native business man Ram with Sonali, a highly educated young civil servant.
The former struggles to find a sense of home in this foreign society, filled with ancient customs, including the sati, and exotic social standards.
She deals with the living and working in New Delhi during the political upheaval of the Emergency and is divided between two worlds, one representing her ideals and longing for progression and the other that embodies her upper-crust, conservative culture.
From these two characters branch off numerous other tales, which provide a deep and thorough overview of life for all people during this critical historical period.
Ravi is swept up by the autocratic ideals of a ruler like Indira Gandhi and quickly integrates himself in the current extremely volatile and dangerous regime.
Sonali, although raised in India, her experiences in the UK while studying and her constant interaction with British people has left her also confused, to whom should she show her allegiance?
Sonali's past experience has consisted mainly of seeing women in submissive roles that deny their true selves, as when her friend Bimmie gets married: "But I was hypnotized by Bimmie's nose ring, the sandalpaste dots on her face, eyes downcast, and those manacled hands resting submissively in her red silk lap.
Rose also feels this conflict raging around and within her: as Ram's second wife, she will have very few rights when he dies, and may end up like just another piece of furniture for Dev to throw away.
The elite have everything: the good Scotch whisky, food on their tables, even a political regime that will turn a blind eye to certain illegal acts.
The young Sonali is not any man's bride, but she finds herself unable to stop caring for Ravi Kachru, her childhood friend and later lover.
Sonali – the other protagonist of the novel is a young, female Indian civil servant who is struggling to find truth and logic in her ever-changing homeland, India.
But I couldn't understand why we had to keep cutting and pasting Western concepts together and tying ourselves to them forever as if Europe were the centre of the universe, and the Bible and Marx were the last word on mankind."
He continues to pull "teenage pranks" well into middle age, expects to be given everything in life without having to work for it, and most of all he greatly resents his stepmother Rose.
"…a leading example of India’s emergent writers, blending the Hindu with the Christian outlook, possessed equally of a cool analytical brain and broadly human sympathies."
This announcement gave Ahmed the right to suspend the elections and civil liberties at his will, hence bringing India’s people into a state of extreme discontent.