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Established in 2004, in Delhi, we are an independent publishing house with more than 600 titles—and the list continues to grow.
Begum Hazrat Mahal : Warrior Queen of Awadh - Author Malathi Ramachandran in Conversation.
Author Malathi Ramachandran's latest book, Begum Hazrat Mahal, published by Niyogi Books, is a fictional saga based on the shadowed life of the courtesan turned queen Begum Hazrat Mahal, who was among the earliest women freedom fighters of the country, but whose life lies shrouded within the pages of history. Her book takes you within the walls of the residency, where love and passion rage alongside the battle and also into the world of Begum Hazrat and her dream for Awadh and her beloved son
Malathi, I must start off by saying that I really appreciated the layered writing in your book. I love the fact that your book is not just the story of Begum Hazrat, but is also about the events on the ground that led to the first War of Independence, and also about the frailties of human emotions, power play, greed, lust, love, revenge and betrayal
I would say that historical fiction is such a blend of the two of history and of facts and of fiction that you can actually it's difficult to tell them apart. Like in a fabric, you would have the warp and the weft running crossways and then meshing together. So the warp would be the facts of history in my books and the weft would be the fictionalized side. So you can really not tell them apart. They should be blending in such a way that you feel it is just one whole
Begum Hazrat was one of India's first female freedom fighters, who led the battle in the first Indian War of Independence in 1857. She was also an intuitive politician with incredible military and administrative abilities, which I think was a rarity back then among women, and I think that would surely make her a role model for women today. And yet I somehow feel her legacy is still unknown to a lot of us
All those in the early 20th century who followed Gandhi, Nehru, Sarojini, Naidu, these were the, you know, Saddar Patel. They were the ones who have been talked about so much that we've forgotten people who first started the very revolt much earlier. So during what we call as India's first war of independence and what the British call as the soldiers mutiny, the sepoy mutiny, this is the period of time that I'm talking about when Begum Hazard Mahal took things into her own hands
For a historical novel to make an impact, the setting of the book and the time period it evokes has to be believable. And while accuracy is important to historical dialogue, so is understandability. I think it's a slippery slope for writers who dabble in historical fiction. Could you tell us about how you managed to ensure that the setting and the dialogues in your book stayed true to the time period that you were writing about?
And this, of course, is set in 1857, and it has battles going on, the war against the British. But there are so many human elements in this book. You have people who loves, who loved somebody. You have people who are there is passion, there is romance, there is everything, because that's what human beings are. It doesn't matter. There are battles out there, but human relationships continue
I think I'll leave you with one final question, Malathi, but before I jump into that, I'd like to take a moment to thank you for joining in and giving us this fascinating conversation around your book on Swell. As I mentioned earlier, it was wonderful reading your book and the book actually stayed with me for quite a long time, even after I had finished reading it
I would say books because historical movies concentrate on the splendor of the costumes and the settings and it's more of music, dance and those kind of things. And the history is gently given amiss. The fine points are not taken, only the very broad brushstrokes are there. But the fine points of history are neglected in that. And that is where books come in. Because in books we have we can build up a lot of the background details and we can bring in why people did what they did
Thank you, Ramya. And thank you, Swel, for this lovely opportunity to speak to you all on your podcast. Thank you so much