Finished reading A PLACE WITHIN:Rediscovering India by Canadian award-winning writer M. G. Vassanji.
Vassanji, a descendent of Indian immigrants to East Africa, was born in Kenya and grew up in Tanzania. His great grandparents and grandparents had migrated in the 19th century from the Indian western state of Gujarat which is, incidentally, Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace.
In this book Vassanji recalls his journeys throughout India to acquaint himself with his ancestral homeland. He mixes his visual observations with historical background information. "India is not simple; it has a million parts," he writes.
I've read a number of books on India, but one thing that struck me about this one is my discovery of black people in India. These African Indians, called Sidis, are the descendants of traders and sailors who travelled from East Africa to the western coast of India long ago. There are thousands of Sidis in Gujarat today.
