The Parsi and the Queen: A Study in Indian Microhistory
In 1877, a Gujarati translation of Queen Victoria’s Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands was published in Bombay. The translator was a young Parsi named Mancherjee
Merwanjee Bhownaggree, who two decades later went on to fame (or notoriety) as the second Indian member of the British Parliament. McLeod’s talk uses Bhownaggree’s book to explore the nature of identity and political sentiment in Victorian India, and in the process
complicates our understanding of Indian history.
John McLeod is a native of Toronto, Canada, and earned a Ph.D. in Indian history from the University of Toronto. In 1995, he joined the Department of History at the University of Louisville, where he is now Professor and Department Chair.