One of India's most incredible and enviable cultural aspects is that every Indian is bilingual, if not multilingual. Delving into the fascinating early history of South Asia, this original book reveals how migration, both external and internal, has shaped all Indians from ancient times. Through a first-of-its-kind and incisive study of languages, such as the story of early Sanskrit, the rise of Urdu, language formation in the North-east, it presents the astounding argument that all Indians...

The communal pogrom that indelibly altered the course of Gujarat. Set in the tense post-riots years, The Youngest Suspect is the story of Adil and, yes, of Gujarat. Adil and seventeen other young men are arrested in Ahmedabad, and charged with terrorism. There are written confessions on record. Enter Deepa, linguist and subtle thrill-seeker. She is enlisted by Adil's lawyer, the fiery Ramya, to discredit those confessions. Peggy Mohan brings to bear her rigorous research...

From Calcutta to Trinidad they went, the girmitiyas, crossing two oceans to reach their new homes on the other side of the world. jahajin illuminates for us the extraordinary experience of that jouney, the train ride from faizabad to calcutta, the passage down the hooghly. the three-month voyage around the stormy cape and up the Atlantic to Trinnidad, where the weary migrants settled into life as indentured labourers on the sugar estates. The novel opens with the narrator, a young linguist...