The debate that kicked off the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival on May 15 had ‘The East’ at the centre of the word war.
A get together of acclaimed authors from all over the world, the festival had the likes of William Dalrymple and Anita Desai representing the East among a string of other writers.
Indian Weekender caught up with William for an exclusive tête-à-tête on the very morning he arrived in Auckland. In a freewheeling chat at Langham Hotel, the author of The Last Mughal, The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 (2006) and Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (2009) spoke about what’s kept him from becoming an ‘Indian’ despite having a longstanding “love affair” with the country and spending all his life in Delhi.
Ask him why he still finds it difficult to call himself an ‘Indian’ despite living in kurtas and cotton pyjamas and lunching on dal/rice, he replies after a thoughtful pause, “India has clear sets of identity. It has a very strong ethnicity that I can’t fit into. I will always be a Brit. The same goes for my kids. They are born and brought up in India and can speak and write Hindi but, they can never be Indians.”
An award-winning historian and writer, William is a Westerner who has taken India to the world through his exploration of the country’s rich history. “My books have become amazingly international. Nine Lives got translated in 40 languages, it’s ridiculous! But while it’s true that my first book on India (City of Djinns) mainly catered to international readers, I now find myself explaining less and less. I assume that my reader knows about India and is an Indian,” he reveals.
Shifting focus from India though, William’s current interests lie with Pakistan and Afghanistan. “These two are the centres of destabilisation. I am very worried about Pakistan. It has been the casualty for all that has been happening in Afghanistan,” he says.
His latest book Return of a King – The Battle for Afghanistan delves into the history of the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Read the full interview with William Dalrymple in our next issue, dated June 7.