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‘Amazing that an East Indian came to colonial America not long after English'
Updated On: 18 June, 2023 08:01 AM IST | Mumbai | Gautam S Mengle
Academic Brinda Charry’s novel takes two East Indians who migrated to the West as far back as the 1600s, and weaves fiction around available facts
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An etching of Fort St George in what was then Armagon by Jan Van Ryne (1712-60). Pic Courtesy/Rare Books Society of India
Juggling recorded history with fiction is a daunting task that some authors have shied away from, and others have tried and failed. The fascinating premise of Brinda Charry’s latest novel, The East Indian (HarperCollins India), aims to achieve this tightrope walk. The book traces the journey of the central character, simply called Tony, from Armagon in the Coromandel Coast, to the United Kingdom and from there to the United States of America. She says that he is an amalgamation of two persons who existed. One of them was the first East Indian to travel to America and the other apprenticed as an apothecary in London.
“In fact, little is known about the lives of these two individuals or any of the Indians who came to colonial America. I imagined much of his story, but worked within the realm of the possible—that is, nothing that happens to him is unrealistic. The construction of the life was challenging; I needed to write a narrative that was informed by the historical realities of the period, and that took a lot of reading and research. The character itself came easily to me—I wanted to track a life that takes on a big, dramatic turn more than once, very much against the character’s will, but who retains the spirit to survive and thrive, to find home, love and happiness,” says Charry, clearly still immersed in the character she has created.
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