‘The Other Mohan’: A gripping tale of not just the Empire but of lives buried in historical records

What is the link between your great-grandfather, lost great-grandmother, and the global politics of Britain’s Indian Ocean empire? A lot, it turns out, if you are Amrita Shah. Family histories are rarely bereft of political baggage, and less so when movement is mapped through global changes. Stories in my family often begin with the Partition of 1947, unravelling politics not just as a project of the elites but as a part of my own identity, even if those who directly experienced the event are long gone.

In this form of storytelling, especially of historical events, archives often come alive – revealing much through quotidian frames of the same story. How did people live through these events? What happened to the low-level officials? Questions that get lost in the papers and letters of great men, find new life in old marriage certificates and complaint letters for lost baggage.

Uncovering the secrets of the Empire

It is this and more that The Other Mohan attempts to work through. Amrita Shah, a historian and writer based in Mumbai, attempts to chronicle the life of her great grandfather MP Killavalla, accidentally unravelling not just important family history but also a larger anf more important story of the movement of migrants as…

Read more