When Hal Cazalet, P.G. Wodehouse’s step-great-grandson, remarked during a recent visit to Kolkata that Wodehouse may have more admirers in India than in Britain, he wasn’t indulging in polite exaggeration. He was stating a quiet truth that Indian readers have known for decades. In India, Wodehouse is not merely read; he is inherited. He arrives, often ceremoniously, from an elder’s bookshelf, like a rite of passage. “Now you are ready,” the handing over seems to say. “Meet Jeeves.”

A quintessentially English writer, deeply Indian in appeal

The enduring appeal of P.G. Wodehouse in India is one of literature’s most charming mysteries. Here was a quintessentially English writer—batting at village greens, country houses, idle aristocrats, and the mild panic of young men with too much leisure—who somehow found a second spiritual home thousands of miles away, in a country of crowded trains, joint families, competitive exams, and noisy streets. Yet, perhaps the mystery dissolves when one looks closely.

Gentle humour that resonates

First, there is the matter of humour itself. Wodehouse’s comedy is gentle, never cruel, and gloriously free of malice. In an age when wit is often confused with........

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