Bøker av Zarina Patel

South Asian Journalism 19001992.

Makham Singh (-1973) was an Indian settler in Kenya, who became a founding father of the trade union movement, and a leading opponent of the colonial state. He is distinguished by his consciously multi-racialist politics and his indomitable spirit. Ahead of his times, Singh was extraordinarily immune from colour prejudice and religious intolerance. He refused to accept a trade union movement segregated by race and the colonial apartheid that reinforced a hierarchy of races between black Africans, Asians and whites in such humiliating fashion. Instead, he demonstrated that the liberation of Asians and Africans were inextricably linked, and that imperialism and colonialism are the enemies of all peoples, and should be met with non-violent resistance. These stances gained him remarkable popularity amongst the ordinary people. The author explores her subject's childhood in India, his life outside his political concerns, the evolution of his politics, personality, and his experiences in detention. The research documents a hitherto un-researched archive of Singh's private papers, housed at the University of Nairobi. The primary source material, evidenced throughout the work, dates from 1927. It includes the subject's correspondence, poetry, press cutting, statements, hand-written notes, campaign posters and photographs. The project took the author further afield to the northern border of India in Pakistan where Singh grew up; to Delhi, Jalhandar and Amritsar; and to Punjabi language sources.

Zarina Patel a historian and activist provides here a well-researched work on Manilal Desai, one of the foremost political leaders of Kenya. She provides kaleidoscopic images of Manilal Desai's life in South Gujarat and eventual migration to Kenya in 1915 where he went on to become a vibrant journalist, politician and institution builder. In 1916 Manilal was appointed as secretary of the Nairobi Indian Association where he championed with his Indian and African allies the struggle for justice and equality. In 1921, he was elected as president of the Association and the following year also took on the chairmanship of the Nairobi Standing Committee of the EAINC. In September 1922, he was elected to preside over the EAINC and was charged with the responsibility of leading the Kenya Indian delegation to London to deliberate on the mounting antagonism between the Indians and the white settlers. The outcome was the Devonshire Declaration which checked the rush to white supremacy. Manilal Desai lived in Kenya during very momentous times, especially the period between 1915 and 1923 when a series of events produced violent differences of opinion which came to be described as the Indian Question. The British public were at no time given information as to the underlying causes of the turmoil. The Stormy Petrel documents the life of Manilal Ambalal Desai and highlights the major events of his time.