Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Brinda Charry, the writer of the critically acclaimed novel The East Indian. Born in India, Brinda Charry has lived in the USA for over two decades. Her earlier novels, The Hottest Day of the Year (2001), and Naked in the Wind (2006) were followed by First Love and Other Stories (2009). Between 2009 and 2023, Charry focused on academic writing. In 2023, her semi-historical novel, The East Indian was published. Her short fiction has also been broadcast on BBC Radio and Commonwealth Radio. Brinda’s work has received several awards and prizes including the Ruth and James Ewing Award, the Katha Prize for Creative Fiction (two times), the India Plaza Golden Quill Critic’s Choice Award, the Hindu-Picador Short Story Prize, the Asian Age prize, etc.

 

Brinda earned her doctorate in English Literature from Syracuse University, NY. She specialises in English Renaissance Literature, notably the works of Shakespeare, and is particularly interested in the early modern histories of race, globalization, and cross-cultural engagement as manifested in literary works. She has written books and articles on those topics and on other aspects of Renaissance literature.

 

Thank you Brinda for taking time out to talk with The Wise Owl. We are delighted.

 

RS: You have authored three novels and a collection of stories. Our readers would love to know what made you gravitate towards writing. Tell us also what made you embrace the novel and short story genres.

 

BC: . I have been writing as long as I can remember, really.  I read widely and very intensely even as a child, and looking back, I realize now that from early on I read the ways writers do —I read for inspiration, I imagined how I could complete other people’s stories, I looked for gaps which my imagination would fill in. Besides, I have been fortunate enough to be raised by a father who introduced me to books at a very early age and a mother who told stories (mostly in Tamil) in a style that was incredibly vivid and imaginative! I think this combination of influences has served me well.  It made me interested in narrative, the art and craft of putting together a story and sustaining it, whether in short-form pieces or longer works, such as novels. I enjoy the process of weaving together a life (or a slice of it), determining where to begin, conveying experience through language. 

 

RS: The main protagonist in your latest book ‘The East Indian’ is Tony, the first Indian from the Indian subcontinent to be ‘spirited’ to America to work as an indentured labourer. Our readers would be curious to know (as I am) what inspired you to explore the story of the first Indian indentured labourer in 1630s Virginia?

 

BC: I thought (still think!) it is a fascinating story, one that is little-known and has rarely been told even by historians, let alone novelists.  Today we mostly take the existence of “America” for granted, but I have always been interested in the fact that, back in the 1600s, it was truly Mundus Novus, the “New World” – as strange, fascinating, frightening as another planet, a land fraught with terror and filled with possibility.  I decided that in telling the story of Tony, I could also tell the story of the early settlement of North America (Virginia in particular) by people who came from outside, and how an “East Indian” was also, quite incredibly, part of that story.

 

RS: I believe you came across the name of the first Indian in America through land records. How did you conduct your research into the historical context of the 1630s and the practice of indentured labour in colonial America? Were there any surprising discoveries or lesser-known historical facts that you uncovered during your research for the novel?

 

BC: I did a lot of reading of both historical records and modern scholarship. I am fortunate in that my academic background has given me the training to read  documents from the time period  and to read with a critical eye. Apart from the East Indian presence in colonial America (Tony was the first among other South Asians who came over, mainly to the North American English colonies), I found it fascinating how those early years of settlement were characterized by tremendous  uncertainty and flux as far as  class, race, race relations,  what it meant to “settle” a new land  … Nothing was cast in stone yet. It is really a fascinating period simply because of this.

 

RS: Your book The East Indian is a semi-historical novel. Could you share some insights into the process of blending historical facts with fictional storytelling in your novel?

 

BC: Little is known about the historical Tony other than the fact that he was brought over to Virginia by an Englishman in 1635. I essentially made up the rest! But the narrative choices I made were shaped by my study of the time period – everything that happens to Tony could certainly have happened. For that’s what good historical fiction does, in my opinion – it is inspired by the past, tweaks it a bit for the sake of good narrative, but does not   distort it.  I also combined multiple historical figures to create my own characters. And I tried to make sure that they (my characters) were representative of the time period and yet interesting in and of themselves.

 

 

RS: What challenges did you face while crafting the protagonist's character, considering the limited historical records about early Indian immigrants to America?

 

BC: To repeat myself a bit, I worked within the realm of possibility, if not probability. The important thing was to create a character who was historically authentic, but also had the traits one would expect of a young boy at any point in history – a person who was vulnerable, lost, uncertain, yet also, curious, adventurous, hopeful. In other words, a good protagonist for a novel!

 

 

RS: How did you navigate the complexities of addressing themes such as colonialism, identity, and power dynamics in your storytelling?

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BC: These themes certainly underlie The East Indian, but when actually writing the novel I did not think in terms of these large, rather abstract ideas. Instead, I approached my project simply in terms of my character’s experience of the world he was navigating, his sense of self and the choices he’d make as he went along, choices that seemed authentic and that also served plot and narrative. The larger themes you mention emerged organically   because   they were cultural and social formations/ forces of the time period. In other words, I did not consider abstract thematic concerns independently of the immediate concerns of the novelist – plot, character, setting, and so forth. The trees came before the forest as I wrote, if that makes sense.     

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RS: You have received various prestigious literary awards. A lot of our readers are upcoming novelists and would be happy to receive some quick tips on how to hone skills as a novelist.

 

BC: Read a lot and write a lot! To begin with, write purely because you enjoy it, because it gives you deep and enduring pleasure.  Publication and awards are nice, but they should not be the reason one begins writing –  they are what   the world generously confers on you  when you have honed your skills to an adequate level.   The important thing is keep at it even as you have fun with it; to  believe in yourself and your work even as you develop a critical eye — someone said this (I cannot quite remember who at the moment)  : a good writer is someone who recognizes their own bad writing – I think that is 100% true … I’d say maintaining this happy medium will serve an emerging writer (or any writer, for that matter) well.

 

 

Thank you so much Brinda for taking time out to talk with The Wise Owl. It was a pleasure talking to you. Here is wishing you the best in all your future literary and creative endeavours.