Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel
The Enigma of Arrival. (October 11, 2001)
Awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Attended University College, Oxford University, England.
He accepted a British Knighthood in 1990.
He allegedly declined a C.B.E. (Commander of the order of the British
Empire) in 1977.
His paternal grandfather came to Trinidad as an indentured servant from northern India.
His novels often focused on people in former British colonies, although he drew criticism over allegations that he had become an apologist for the British empire.