THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF MUMBAI
The Literary Club of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai
Book Launch and Discussion Programme
presents the book “The Other Mohan in Britain’s Indian Ocean Empire”
by author Amrita Shah
Wednesday, 5th March 2025 at 5.00 p.m.

The Literary Club of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai takes pleasure in inviting you to the presentation of the book “The Other Mohan in Britain’s Indian Ocean Empire” by the author Amrita Shah on Wednesday, 5th March 2025 at 5.00 p.m. in the Durbar Hall of the Society.

Part travelogue, part memoir, part family history and imbued with rigorous scholarship, “The Other Mohan in Britain’s Indian Ocean Empire,” published by Harper Collins, is an original path breaking work, where Amrita Shah takes the reader into an era of unprecedented global mobility. Traders and professionals who followed indentured workers to Mauritius and South Africa were called ‘passenger’ Indians. A celebrated Indian passenger, Mohandas Gandhi went to Natal in 1893. A decade later, an undistinguished Indian passenger, the author’s great grandfather Mohanlal Killavala arrived in Natal. As a child growing up in India, the author 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, no 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 in archives across South Africa, Mauritius, the UK and India, providing answers but also revealing the immense value of researching a small man’s history.

Amrita Shah is a writer, journalist and independent scholar, she has been a member of our Society over many years. Her wonderfully engaging book sets on record for the first time a sweeping social and business history of the Indian diaspora in the Indian Ocean. The author relates an intensely personal story intertwined with the history of the British Empire.
Please join us for this talk which promises to be both scholarly and fascinating.

Tea will be served at 4.30 pm

- Prof. Mangala Sirdeshpande, Hon. Secretary Asiatic Society of Mumbai
- Meenal Kshirsagar, Vice President of the Society & Chairperson - ASM LitClub