Lands of Belonging - Donna and Vikesh Amey Bhatt

Authors: Donna and Vikesh Amey Bhatt

Illustrator: Salini Perera

Genre: Children's Nonfiction

Rating: 4.5 stars.

If I have to describe this gem of a book in one word, it would be “comprehensive”. If I can add one more word, it would be “enlightening”.

I love how the author began with his own mini-introduction and set up the most important question for so many people today – “Where are you from?” Answering this question is so complicated in today’s world. We have heard of ABCDs (American Born Confused Desis), and this confusion has permeated across generations and nations. This book seeks to resolve one such tangled thread – the complicated history of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in connection with Britain.

The book takes us through a historical and cultural journey through the “India” of the past (which included modern day Pakistan and Bangladesh) and present. Beginning with Ancient India and its thinkers, empires and religions; moving on to India under the East Indian Company and the British ‘Raj’; to the independence, the idiotic Radcliffe line that divided a nation and a people without any long-term consideration, and the resultant partition; and finally, post-independence India/Pakistan/Bangladesh and their global presence and impact. As the authors rightly say, this is too vast a history to be covered within a single book, but they do a great job nonetheless.

What I liked best was how the book doesn’t adopt a standard textbook approach but covers multiple topics in brief than focusing on a few topics in detail. It lends itself to a lot of further research for those who are interested. The book doesn’t stop at providing factual/historical details but also spotlights Indian cuisine, traditions, festivals, dances, sports, and so on.

Though I am from India and have been reading about the “British Raj” in history textbooks and comics since childhood, I still learnt many new facts from this book. For instance, I knew there were Indian soldiers in the British army during the two World Wars, but I didn’t know that these accounted for almost 29% of the British army! The only fact I found incorrect was how it assumes (as do most Indians) that Christianity arrived in India with the colonial rulers. Minor flaw, but still, a flaw. Christian relics discovered in India date back to as far as 52 AD. (Kerala is known to have one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.) Other than this, the book has a firm handle on every aspect of the culture of the Indian subcontinent.

I can’t forget to mention the illustrations. They are as vibrant as our culture is, and as inclusive as the content of the book is.

My experience is, of course, a little biased as I am a South Asian. A non-South Asian will have different takeaways from the book. Either way, it is an important book, a significant topic, a culturally aware concept – in short, it is a must-read. It would be a great asset to schools and libraries, but it would also be a marvellous book in the homes of those of Indian origin now settled in England. It simplifies a complicated topic and makes it accessible as well as entertaining.

My thanks to Nosy Crow and NetGalley for the DRC of “Lands of Belonging”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.