CAT 2023 Slot 1 · VARC · RC passage 1: Indian Ocean Novels and Remapping the World

The full passage and all 4 questions (Q1–Q4) from CAT 2023 Slot 1, with answers and solutions.

The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.

For early postcolonial literature, the world of the novel was often the nation. Postcolonial novels were usually [concerned with] national questions. Sometimes the whole story of the novel was taken as an allegory of the nation, whether India or Tanzania. This was important for supporting anti-colonial nationalism, but could also be limiting - land-focused and inward-looking.

My new book “Writing Ocean Worlds” explores another kind of world of the novel: not the village or nation, but the Indian Ocean world. The book describes a set of novels in which the Indian Ocean is at the centre of the story. It focuses on the novelists Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Lindsey Collen and Joseph Conrad [who have] centred the Indian Ocean world in the majority of their novels. . . . Their work reveals a world that is outward-looking - full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection. They are all very different - from colonially inclined (Conrad) to radically anti-capitalist (Collen), but together draw on and shape a wider sense of Indian Ocean space through themes, images, metaphors and language. This has the effect of remapping the world in the reader’s mind, as centred in the interconnected global south. . . .

The Indian Ocean world is a term used to describe the very long-lasting connections among the coasts of East Africa, the Arab coasts, and South and East Asia. These connections were made possible by the geography of the Indian Ocean. For much of history, travel by sea was much easier than by land, which meant that port cities very far apart were often more easily connected to each other than to much closer inland cities. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that what we now call globalisation first appeared in the Indian Ocean. This is the interconnected oceanic world referenced and produced by the novels in my book. . . .

For their part Ghosh, Gurnah, Collen and even Conrad reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those [commonly found ones] are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York. The novels in [my] book highlight instead a largely Islamic space, feature characters of colour and centralise the ports of Malindi, Mombasa, Aden, Java and Bombay. . . . It is a densely imagined, richly sensory image of a southern cosmopolitan culture which provides for an enlarged sense of place in the world.

This remapping is particularly powerful for the representation of Africa. In the fiction, sailors and travellers are not all European. . . . African, as well as Indian and Arab characters, are traders, nakhodas (dhow ship captains), runaways, villains, missionaries and activists. This does not mean that Indian Ocean Africa is romanticised. Migration is often a matter of force; travel is portrayed as abandonment rather than adventure, freedoms are kept from women and slavery is rife. What it does mean is that the African part of the Indian Ocean world plays an active role in its long, rich history and therefore in that of the wider world.

Question 1 · RC Detail and Fact Based Questions

Which one of the following statements is not true about migration in the Indian Ocean world?

  1. A

    The Indian Ocean world’s migration networks connected the global north with the global south.

  2. B

    Geographical location rather than geographical proximity determined the choice of destination for migrants.

  3. C

    The Indian Ocean world’s migration networks were shaped by religious and commercial histories of the region.

  4. D

    Migration in the Indian Ocean world was an ambivalent experience.

Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option A

The passage describes the Indian Ocean world as 'outward-looking – full of movement, border-crossing and south-south interconnection', and the novels remap the world 'as centred in the interconnected global south'.

Option 1 is not true. The migration networks linked the coasts of East Africa, Arabia and South and East Asia – the south with the south, not the north with the south.

Option 2 is true: because sea travel was easier than land travel, 'port cities very far apart were often more easily connected to each other than to much closer inland cities'.

Option 3 is true: the novels present 'a largely Islamic space' and trading ports, so religion and commerce shaped the networks.

Option 4 is true: migration is 'often a matter of force' and travel 'abandonment rather than adventure', yet Africa plays 'an active role' – a mixed, ambivalent picture.

Shortcut: when a passage stresses a specific direction of connection ('south-south'), an option that changes the direction ('north with south') is the likely false one.

Hence, the answer is option 1.

Question 2 · RC Inference Questions

On the basis of the nature of the relationship between the items in each pair below, choose the odd pair out:
  1. A
    Indian Ocean novels : Outward-looking
  2. B
    Postcolonial novels : Border-crossing
  3. C
    Indian Ocean world : Slavery
  4. D
    Postcolonial novels : Anti-colonial nationalism
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option B

Check the relationship in each pair against the passage.

Indian Ocean novels : Outward-looking – the passage says their world is 'outward-looking'. A true match.

Indian Ocean world : Slavery – in the Indian Ocean world of these novels, 'slavery is rife'. A true match.

Postcolonial novels : Anti-colonial nationalism – early postcolonial novels supported 'anti-colonial nationalism'. A true match.

Postcolonial novels : Border-crossing – the passage says early postcolonial novels were 'land-focused and inward-looking'; border-crossing belongs to the Indian Ocean novels. This pair does not match.

Shortcut: in an odd-pair question, test each pair against the passage's own descriptions. Here the passage contrasts two groups of novels, and the odd pair borrows a feature from the wrong group.

Hence, the answer is option 2.

Question 3 · RC EXCEPT and NOT Questions

All of the following statements, if true, would weaken the passage’s claim about the relationship between mainstream English-language fiction and Indian Ocean novels EXCEPT:
  1. A
    the depiction of Africa in most Indian Ocean novels is driven by a postcolonial nostalgia for an idyllic past.
  2. B
    the depiction of Africa in most Indian Ocean novels is driven by an Orientalist imagination of its cultural crudeness.
  3. C
    very few mainstream English-language novels have historically been set in American and European metropolitan centres.
  4. D
    most mainstream English-language novels have historically privileged the Christian, white, male experience of travel and adventure.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option D

The claim is a contrast: mainstream English-language fiction is 'mostly centred in Europe or the US', assumes 'Christianity and whiteness' and mentions places like Paris and New York, whereas Indian Ocean novels highlight an Islamic space, characters of colour and southern ports, and give Africa 'an active role'.

Option 4 says mainstream novels have privileged the Christian, white, male experience of travel. That supports the claim rather than weakening it.

Option 1 would weaken it: if Africa in Indian Ocean novels came from nostalgia for an idyllic past, the passage's point that Africa is 'not romanticised' would fail.

Option 2 would weaken it: an Orientalist view of Africa's 'cultural crudeness' would undercut the claim that these novels give Africa an active, rich role.

Option 3 would weaken it: if few mainstream novels were set in American and European cities, the contrast with Paris and New York collapses.

Shortcut: in 'weaken EXCEPT' questions, look for the option that agrees with the passage. It cannot weaken anything.

Hence, the answer is option 4.

Question 4 · RC Inference Questions

All of the following claims contribute to the “remapping” discussed by the passage, EXCEPT:
  1. A
    Indian Ocean novels have gone beyond the specifics of national concerns to explore rich regional pasts.
  2. B
    the world of early international trade and commerce was not the sole domain of white Europeans.
  3. C
    cosmopolitanism originated in the West and travelled to the East through globalisation.
  4. D
    the global south, as opposed to the global north, was the first centre of globalisation.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option C

The 'remapping' recentres the world 'in the interconnected global south', puts non-European characters at the heart of trade, and says globalisation 'first appeared in the Indian Ocean'.

Option 1 contributes: the novels move beyond the nation (which was 'land-focused and inward-looking') to a wider regional world.

Option 2 contributes: 'sailors and travellers are not all European' – African, Indian and Arab characters are traders and ship captains.

Option 4 contributes: 'globalisation first appeared in the Indian Ocean', which is in the global south.

Option 3 contradicts the remapping. The passage describes 'a southern cosmopolitan culture'; saying cosmopolitanism started in the West and travelled East is exactly the map being redrawn.

Shortcut: an option that restores the old, West-centred view is never part of a passage about decentring the West.

Hence, the answer is option 3.

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