Vidyadhar Surajprashad Naipaul (1932-2018) was named after an eleventh century Chindela King, Vidyadhar, who is said to have fought against Mahmud of Ghazni. Later on when he became V. S. Naipaul, he liked the name for its associations: “It’s such a grand name, a very special name – I cherished it for that reason. I think great things were expected of me” (qtd in French 8). He was born to the descendants of a Brahman indentured family in colonial Trinidad. When slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire, cheap labor was still needed to work in the sugar plantations.