More than Just History

Though the writing begins with a little uncertainty, the author hits her stride quickly building on extensive research

- MADHULIKA LIDDLE

About midway through her book The Other Mohan in Britain's Indian Ocean Empire, Amrita Shah mentions litigation in South Africa in the last decade of the 1800s. A prominent Indian trader, Dada Abdullah, sued a former business partner. Although Abdullah had white lawyers handling his case, the records of the transactions were in Gujarati; a bilingual lawyer was needed. It was then that a young lawyer, newly returned to their common hometown of Porbandar in Gujarat after becoming a barrister in London, was recommended. As Shah writes: 'Dada Abdullah offered boarding, lodging and a one year contract at a fee of £105 with first-class return fare, to the boy whose name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.' Mohandas was the Gujarati in South Africa whom the world was yet to discover; but, at the same time, also in South Africa, was another Gujarati, with a similar name-Mohanlal Parmanandas Killavala. He's the author's great-grandfather and the subject of this fascinating book.

Shah begins the book with an introduction to Mohanlal and how she was inspired to unravel the mysteries surrounding the life of this ancestor of hers. From there, she goes back in time several centuries, from her hometown of Mumbai to the shores of Gujarat in mediaeval times.