Merchants of Death – Neelima Dalmia Adhar

A sinister curse trails the House of Loya, a powerful Marwari family of arms dealers that head a vast conglomerate of industries. Leading oddly distorted lives where immorality and sexual perversions are infinitely glorified, they cruise along mindlessly even as they become victims of strange mishaps and untold tragedies. Bharat Loya, the firstborn in the third generation, grows up with a deep-rooted mother-fixation. He is afflicted with all the maladies of the upper class, with licentiousness and perversity steeped in his veins. In an unexpected turn of events, tumultuous political changes divest the family of their clout and they find themselves in an ugly wrangle with the government that threatens to bring them to ruination. Bharat Loya takes over as the head of business. With his deep pockets and a legitimate facade of hotelier-cum-airline-owner, he obliterates his rivals to become the uncrowned king of the whole immoral pack. Yet Bharat Loya is a troubled man. Set in India in the second half of the last century, the story gives a scathing insight into the lives of the Marwaris, also known as the Jews of India, highly religious, very private people who, at times, even lead lurid and decadent lives.