Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents Hardcover - 2009
by Minal Hajratwala
What did we give up and gain in the process?
Beginning with her great-grandfather Motiram’s original flight from British-occupied India to Fiji, where he rose from tailor to department store mogul,Hajratwala follows her ancestors across the twentieth century to explain how they came to be spread across five continents and nine countries.
As she delves into the relationship between personal choice and the great historical forcesBritish colonialism, apartheid,Gandhi’s Salt March, and American immigration policythat helped to shape her family’s experiences, Hajratwala brings to light for the very first time the story of the Indian diaspora.
This luminous narrative by a child of immigrants offers a deeply intimate look at what it means to call more than one part of the world home. Leaving India should find its place alongside Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family and Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million.
Summary
What did we give up and gain in the process?
Beginning with her great-grandfather Motiram’s original flight from British-occupied India to Fiji, where he rose from tailor to department store mogul,Hajratwala follows her ancestors across the twentieth century to explain how they came to be spread across five continents and nine countries.
As she delves into the relationship between personal choice and the great historical forcesBritish colonialism, apartheid,Gandhi’s Salt March, and American immigration policythat helped to shape her family’s experiences, Hajratwala brings to light for the very first time the story of the Indian diaspora.
This luminous narrative by a child of immigrants offers a deeply intimate look at what it means to call more than one part of the world home. Leaving India should find its place alongside Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family and Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million.
Details
- Title Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents
- Author Minal Hajratwala
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 352
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Houghton Mifflin, Boston
- Date 2009-03-18
- Illustrated Yes
- ISBN 9780618251292 / 0618251294
- Weight 1.48 lbs (0.67 kg)
- Dimensions 9.52 x 6.54 x 1.25 in (24.18 x 16.61 x 3.18 cm)
- Library of Congress subjects Immigrants, Immigrants - United States
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2008036079
- Dewey Decimal Code B
Excerpt
Ganda’s middle name, by tradition, should have been his father’s name, Dayaram. He would have become known as G. D. Kapitan; the Durban institution he founded would have been G. D. Kapitan & Son Vegetarian Restaurant. His father would have lived forever, almost, in that single initial recognizing his paternity. But now his name reflected his new "father." And somehow in the transcription process, Chhiba became Chhagan. He became Ganda Chhagan Kapitan, a self-made man — G.C., for short.
Media reviews
"In LEAVING INDIA, Minal Hajratwala deftly explores [the India] diaspora... LEAVING INDIA is meticulously researched and evocatively written."--Washington Post
"LEAVING INDIA is a rich, entertaining and illuminating story." --San Francisco Chronicle
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