London calling

The effort is in effect a history of an encounter with a metropolis that once ruled India, anecdotally expressed in an undogmatic manner

Indians in London: From the Birth of the East India Company to Independent India

Author: Arup Chatterjee

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 570

Price: Rs 1,299

This book covers a wide canvas. It chronicles migrations and visits by Indians from the 16th century or as the author Arup Chatterjee puts it, “from the time of Shakespeare” to a little after Indian independence in 1947. His definition of India is not today’s nation-state, but a reference to the pre-independent landmass now the Indian subcontinent. Indeed, he adheres to names of Indian cities as they were before Indianisation — such as Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.

The contents are Bard-istically constructed.