The author of "Amrita," R. Prawer Jhabvala, who has been widely compared in the British press to Jane Austen, has written a fresh and witty novel about modern India. It is not necessary to know anything about the customs and habits of the mixed population of India's capital city, New Delhi—the setting of Mrs. Jhabvala's lively comedy of manners—to enjoy her ironic Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 1927– Fay Godwin's Photo Filessocial commentary. The book's characters, however, including the heroine, Amrita, are lent a special fillip by their geographic and historic setting. They have been created in part by the yeasty paradoxes of post-independence, post-partition, post-war India.

"Amrita" tells the story of a star-crossed romance between a girl from a local Anglicized Hindu family of proud lineage and Hart, a transplanted Punjabi Hindu from Lahore….

The families of Hari and Amrita provide Mrs. Jhabvala with her opportunity for...