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A Personal Journey into History
Indians Travelling in Britain’s Indian Ocean Empire
Speakers
Traders and professionals who followed indentured workers to Mauritius and South Africa were called ‘passenger’ Indians. A celebrated passenger Indian, Mohandas Gandhi, went to Natal in 1893. A decade later, an undistinguished passenger Indian, Mohanlal, the great-grandfather of author Amrita Shah, arrived in Natal. As a child growing up in India, she was fascinated by the mystery surrounding her ancestor’s journey. Why had he gone there? What was the name of the woman he met along the way, who gave birth to her grandmother? And did he know Gandhi?
There were no clues at home—no reminiscences, letters, documents, memorabilia, not even a photograph. She embarked on a search for her wandering forefather with limited expectations, but doors opened serendipitously, and a paper trail emerged, strewn across archives in South Africa, Mauritius, the UK, and India. This search provided answers but also revealed the immense value in researching a seemingly ordinary man’s history.
Amrita Shah, author of The Other Mohan: In Britain’s Indian Ocean Empire, will be in conversation with Ramjee Chandran to discuss the book’s findings, including new revelations about Gandhi’s Satyagraha campaign. The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A.
Speakers
Amrita Shah
Amrita Shah is a former editor of Elle and Debonair, is an ex-contributing editor with the Indian Express, and has worked for the US-based Time-LifeNews Service. She has been a fellow of the Centre for Contemporary Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University, the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study and the Research Institute Advanced De Nantes. She is the author of the award- winning Ahmedabad: A City in the World (2015), Vikram Sarabhai: A Life (2007) and Telly-Guillotined: How Television Changed India (2019). She lives in Mumbai.
Ramjee Chandran
Ramjee Chandran is author, journalist and media entrepreneur with decades of experience. His novel, For No Reason at All was released in January 2025 and he has been signed up to write his next book, The History of Bangalore—a work of scholarship crafted as narrative history. He is host of the podcasts, “The History of Bangalore”—a rich dive into the history of his hometown and “The Literary City”—a literary podcast that features authors acclaimed internationally. He plays jazz guitar at the professional level—and chess with astonishing mediocrity.
