A Place Within (52 page)

Sources and Credits

The epigraphs in this book have been used from the following sources.

p. 1. Homer,
The Odyssey XXIII.
Translated by Robert Fitzgerald.
The Norton Book of Classical Literature
. Edited by Robert Knox. New York: Norton, 1993. p. 43. T. S. Eliot, “Gerontion.”
The Complete Poems and Plays 1909–1950
. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1971. p. 45. Edward Fitzgerald,
The Rubaiyat of Khayyam
. The Folio Society, London, 1970. p. 79. Ibn Battuta.
Travels in Asia and Africa
. Translated and edited by H. A. R. Gibb. (1929), reprinted New Delhi: Low Price, 2004. p. 90. Christopher Marlowe,
Doctor Faustus and Other Plays
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. p. 99. Allama Iqbal. From
The Vintage Sardar
, Khushwant Singh. Delhi: Penguin, 2002. p. 113. Octavio Paz,
The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz 1957–1987
. Edited by Eliot Weinberger. New York: New Directions, 1990. p. 129 Krishna Sobti,
The Heart Has its Reasons
. Translated by Reema Anand & Meenakshi Swami. New Delhi: Katha, 2005. p. 153 Octavio Paz,
The Collected Poems.
p. 155. Rudyard Kipling,
Kim
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100 Poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
. Translated by Sarvat Rahman. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 2002. p. 203. Saadat Hasan Manto, “The Price of Freedom.”
Mottled Dawn. Fifty Sketches and Stories of Partition.
Translated by
Khalid Hasan. New Delhi: Penguin 1997. p. 215. W. B. Yeats, “Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad?” and p. 233. “Meditations in Time of Civil War,”
Selected Poems and Two Plays of William Butler Yeats.
Edited and introduced by M.L. Rosenthal. New York: Collier, 1962. p. 233. Avinash Vyas, popular song, freely translated from Gujarati. p. 235 Ali Muhammad Khan,
Mirat-i-Ahmadi.
p. 258. Quoted in J.W. Watson.
History of Gujarat.
1876. rpt. New Delhi: Cosmo Publications. 1983. p. 273. Quoted by Alexander Kinloch Forbes,
Ras Mala.
1854. rpt. Delhi: Low Price, 1997. p. 307. M. S. Commissariat.
Mendelslo’s Travels in Western India.
1931. rpt. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1995. M.K. Gandhi,
Autobiography.
1927. rpt. Ahmedabad: Navjivan, Trust, 1940. p. 337. Homer,
The Odyssey XXIII.
Translated by Robert Fitzgerald.
The Norton Book of Classical Literature
. Edited by Robert Knox. New York: Norton, 1993. p. 363. James Tod.
Travels in Western India.
1839. rpt. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997. p. 387. Marco Polo. In George Woodcock,
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London: Faber and Faber, 1967. p. 389. Ibn Battuta.
Travels in Asia and Africa.
p. 401. Pliny the Elder.
Natural History.

The material quoted in this book has been taken from the following sources. Full publication data can be found in the bibliography.

D
ELHI
. T
HE
B
URDEN OF
H
ISTORY

pp. 46–47. Upinder Singh.
Ancient Delhi.

p. 55. Frederick Treves. In H.K. Kaul,
Historic Delhi: An Anthology.

pp. 59–60 Mohammad Habib and Khaliq Ahmad Nizami.
A Comprehensive History of India: The Delhi Sultanate.

pp. 69, 70. Ziauddin Barani. In
The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians
.

p. 71. Mohammad Habib.
Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi
.

p. 72. Mohammad Habib and Khaliq Ahmad Nizami.
A Comprehensive History of India.

p. 79, 80. Mohammad Habib.
Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi
.

p. 81. Ziauddin Barani; Firoz Shah. In
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p. 87. Ibn Battuta.
Travels in Asia and Africa.

p. 87. Ross E. Dunn.
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta.

p. 88. Ziauddin Barani. In Mohammad Habib and Khaliq Ahmad Nizami,
A Comprehensive History of India.

p. 88, 89. Ibn Battuta.
Travels in Asia and Africa.

p. 90. Firoz Shah. In Mohammad Habib and Khaliq Ahmad Nizami,
A Comprehensive History of India.

p. 90. Timur. In
The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians.

p. 91. Timur. In H.K. Kaul,
Historic Delhi: An Anthology.

p. 96. Sauda, Mir. In Khushwant Singh and Raghu Rai.
Delhi: A Portrait.

pp. 103–110. Ralph Russell and Khurshidul Islam.
Ghalib Life and Letters.

p. 110 Christopher Hibbert.
The Great Mutiny: India 1857
.

p. 111
The Guardian
(London).

p. 113–115 Ahmed Ali.
Twilight in Delhi
.

p. 136. Clayre Percy and Jane Ridley, ed.
The Letters of Edwin Lutyens.

p. 137–138. Edwin Lutyens. In H.K. Kaul,
Historic Delhi.

p. 138–141. Khushwant Singh.
Big Book of Malice.

S
HIMLA
. A S
PELL IN THE
M
OUNTAINS.

pp, 158, 159. Raja Bhasin.
Simla: The Summer Capital of British India.

p. 160. Emily Eden. In Pat Barr and Desmond Ray,
Simla: A Hill Station.

p. 160. Rudyard Kipling. In Raja Bhasin,
Simla.

p. 161. Rudyard Kipling.
Kim.

p. 175. Rudyard Kipling. In Raja Bhasin.
Simla.

p. 178. Nirala. Translation by David Rubin.
The Toronto South Asian Review
.

p. 198. Peter Coates. In Raja Bhasin,
Simla.

p. 200. M. K. Gandhi. In Raja Bhasin,
Simla.

p. 205. Khushwant Singh.
The Sikhs.

p. 212. Saadat Hasan Manto. Tr. Khalid Hasan.
Kingdom’s End and Other Stories.

p. 218.
Coolie
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G
UJARAT
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LONG
A
NCESTRAL
R
OADS
, F
EARFULLY.

p. 236–237. Mira Kamdar.
World Policy Journal.
XIX, No.3, 2002.

p. 246. Quoted in S.C. Mishra.
The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat.

p. 247. Amir Khusrau. In
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p. 278. Prahlada Shastri.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=p4FvGap_eh8

p. 327–328. Esther David.
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.

pp. 339–340. Alexander Kinloch Forbes.
Ras Mala.

p. 358. K.M. Munshi. In Romila Thapar,
Somanatha.

p. 360. Romila Thapar.
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K
ERALA
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HE
G
ODDESS’S
F
OOTPRINT.

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http://www.ramakrishna.org/universl.htm

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the warmth, the hospitality, and the companionship I was offered from various people across India. Their welcome and friendship altered my world; to thank them here is a mere formality and hardly any indication of my gratitude. In no particular order,

Alka Kumar, Neerja Chand, “MC” Chand, Harish Narang, Pankaj Singh, Kishan Singh, Jaidev, Charu Sharma, Bhishm Sahni, Sheila Sahni, Chandra Mohan, Om Juneja, M. F. Salat, Raj Kumar Hans, Sudha Pandya, Sharifur Rahman, Jameela Begum, K. Ayyappa Panikar.

Also:

Mrinal Miri and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.

Sanjay Talreja, Rikhav Desai, Achyut Yagnik, Suchitra Sheth, Amritjit Singh, Devika Nirula, Hariharan, Krishna Kumar, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Thakazhi Sivasankar Pillai, Mulk Raj Anand, Balwinder Singh Dhillon, Sherali Aziz, Abualy Aziz, Madhu Mehra, Asgharali Engineer, Shirin
Kudchetkar, Roshan Sahani, Govind Sahani, Raj Mohan.

Maya Mavjee, my publisher for her enthusiasm, her comments, and her sense of humour; Bruce Westwood, my agent; Susan Burns, Alex Schultz, Martha Leonard, Cathy Paine.

Diya Kar Hazra, Khushwant Singh, Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, Rakesh Batabyal.

Stella Sandahl, Alok Mukherjee, Arun Prabha Mukherjee.

And finally Nurjehan, Anil, and Kabir.

About the Author

M.G. Vassanji is the author of six acclaimed novels:
The Gunny Sack
, which won a regional Commonwealth Prize;
No New Land; The Book of Secrets,
which won the very first Giller Prize;
Amriika; The In-Between World of Vikram Lall
, which also received the Giller Prize, and
The Assassin’s Song
, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.

ALSO BY M. G. VASSANJI

The Assassin’s Song

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall

When She Was Queen

Amriika

The Book of Secrets

Uhuru Street

No New Land

The Gunny Sack

Copyright © 2008 M.G. Vassanji

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing agency—is an infringement of the copyright law.

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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES OF CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Vassanji, M. G.

A place within: rediscovering India / M.G. Vassanji.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37177-5

1. Vassanji, M. G.—Travel—India. 2. Vassanji, M. G.—Family. 3. India—Description and travel. 4. India—History. 5. Authors, Canadian (English)—20th century—Biography. I. Title.
PS8593.A87Z47 2008       C813'.54       C2008-904864-4

Grateful acknowledgement is made to reprint the following: Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) by Amir Khusrau Dihlavi; verso: Amir Khusrau Presents a Book of Poetry to Ala’uddin Khalji
Ala’uddin Muhammad al-Harawi
Amir Khusrau Dihlawi, (1253–1324)
Safavid dynasty, 1503–1504
Opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper
Origin: Balkh, Afghanistan / Historical Region: Iran
Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Map illustrator: Adam Hilborn

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