Leaving India - My Familys Journey From Five Villages To Five Continents by Minal Hajratwala details from sapnaonline

In 1900, fewer than 400,000 people of Indian origin lived outside of the Indian subcontinent. Today, that number is estimated at 19 million to 30 million. Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents is the first narrative nonfiction book to tell the story of the phenomenal growth of India's diaspora over the past century. Published to critical acclaim in the United States, Leaving India explores the collisions of choice and history that led one family, and millions of other people from India, to migrate across the world. This groundbreaking work weaves together history, memoir, and reportage to explore questions facing every migrant: Where did we come from? Why did we leave? What did we lose and gain? Travelling the world, the author learns how her family, originally from India, came to be spread across five continents - a movement that parallels the rapid worldwide increase in NRIs/PIOs over more than a century of migration. Through the lives of her kin in Fiji, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, Leaving India delves into the relationship between personal choice and the sweeping historical forces that have led millions of Indians to leave their homeland. This page-turning and lyrical book leads us to reflect on the universally resonant story of what it means to choose a new home - for those who do the leaving, for their descendants, and for those who are left behind.About The Author: