Devki Pande, author of The Imitation Englishman, in conversation with Dr. Sabina Pillai

I wrote my debut novel, the Imitation Englishman over a period of 7 years. It’s a novel about Indians in World War I - the law students, the prisoners of war, the soldiers, the students in revolution, loosely inspired by the story of my great-grandfather, Padmadutt Pande, who went to Heidelberg in Germany to study law in 1916. In conversation with Dr. Sabina Pillai, we talk about the research, the characters - inspired by real historical figures - what it takes to write a historical fiction novel, and how a story of a man a 100 years ago, is eerily relevant today.