num_pages: 352
description: An inspiring personal saga that explores the collisions of choice and history that led one unforgettable family to become immigrants. In this groundbreaking work Minal Hajratwala mixes history memoir and reportage to explore the questions facing not only her own Indian family but that of every immigrant: Where did we come from? Why did we leave?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 policy--that helped to shape her familys 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 Ondaatjes Running in the Family and Daniel Mendelsohns The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million.
language: English
title: Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt