Police are at war with criminals in Bombay, and their tactics, including torture, are extremely violent. He also interviews Ajay Lal, an honest, retired police officer, who walks Mehta through corruption, violence, and disorganization at a high level in the force. Mehta paints him unfavorably, zeroing in on his ego and lack of self-awareness. He wrongfully uses religion as a means to gain political power. Next is Bal Thackery, a politician who founded the Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu party. Mehta comments that it is a sign of corruption that someone like him is able to gain wealth and political power without justice for his crimes. During the riots, he committed murder and other atrocities.
Sunil is a respected businessman who believes that money is more powerful than anything in the world. He interviews a few people who witnessed the events surrounding the Hindu-Muslim riots of 19. He often returns to this time period in all three sections as a point of reference. The first part covers the politics and power struggle in India that led to this. Mehta continues to refer to the city as Bombay throughout the book. One important symbolic change is the name of the city: it changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995. The book weaves his personal experience of the city with people who witnessed its change, as well as the lives of everyday residents in a variety of social and financial situations. This insider-outsider perspective informs how he sees the city upon his return. His family originally immigrated to New York for work, and he is now returning in 1998, twenty-one years later. He spent much of his childhood in Bombay and is now approaching it as an adult, complete with an American education. Mehta succeeds so brilliantly in taking the pulse of this riotous urban jungle.” The book is primarily concerned with Mehta’s return. The New York Times Book Review says of his work: “narrative reporting at its finest, probably the best work of nonfiction to come out of India in recent years. It was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. He uses the immersive feel of the city to comment on broader political, social, and infrastructural issues. He portrays the city through interviews and slice-of-life shadowing. Maximum City is based on his personal experience on his return to Bombay as an adult, in addition to extensive research. Mehta grew up in India until he moved to New York with his parents at age fourteen. Maximum City is a narrative nonfiction book by Suketu Mehta, published in 2004.
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