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Shrabani Basu

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Shrabani Basu
Shrabani Basu (2022)
Shrabani Basu (2022)
BornKolkata, India
OccupationJournalist
writer
historian
Education
GenreHistory
SubjectBritish Empire
Notable worksCurry: The Story of Britain's Favourite Dish (1999)
Spy Princess (2006)
For King and Another Country (2015)
Victoria & Abdul (2017)
Children2
Website
Official website

Shrabani Basu is an Indian journalist and historian, best known for writing Spy Princess (2006), an account of the life of Noor Inayat Khan, and Victoria & Abdul (2010), based on the friendship between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim. She later compiled the stories of Indian men sent to Europe in the First World War, in For King and Another Country (2015). In The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer (2021), she showed how Arthur Conan Doyle proved the innocence of George Edalji, an Indian lawyer in early twentieth century Midlands, England.

Basu's work has been adapted into the film Victoria & Abdul (2017), and has led to the founding of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust and a memorial to Khan, erected in Gordon Square, London. In 2020, she unveiled a Blue Plaque outside Khan's home on Taviton Street.

Early life

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Shrabani Basu was born in Kolkata and grew up in Dhaka, Kathmandu and Delhi. She studied history at St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and gained a master's degree from Delhi University.[1]

Career

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Basu's career in journalism started in 1983, when she became a trainee journalist for The Times of India in Mumbai.[2] In 1987 she moved to London and worked for the Calcutta-based newspaper Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph.[3]

Spy Princess

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Main article: Spy Princess

Basu studied Jean Overton Fuller's biography of Noor Inayat Khan, interviewed Khan's relatives, and extracted data from her SOE personal files, to write Spy Princess: The life of Noor Inayat Khan.[4] It was published in 2006.[5] Following her campaign for a memorial for Noor Inayat Khan in 2010, a bust in her memory was subsequently erected in Gordon Square, London, near Khan's house.[6] Princess Anne unveiled the memorial in 2012.[7] In 2020, Basu unveiled a Blue Plaque that was installed by English Heritage outside Khan's London home on Taviton Street.[8] As of 2021, Spy Princess is being adapted into a TV series, written by Olivia Hetreed, and in consultation with Basu.[9]

For King and Another Country

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Main article: For King and Another Country

After compiling the stories of Indian men sent to Europe in 1914, she published For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front, 1914–18 (2015), a book describing some of India's contributions in the First World War.[10][11]

Victoria & Abdul

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Main article: Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant

In the 1990s, during her research on the Curry: The Story of Britain's Favourite Dish, she came across the story of Abdul Karim. After carrying out historical research on the subject, using the Queen's own Urdu diaries and her physician, Sir James Reid's diaries, she wrote Victoria & Abdul, a book based on the friendship between Queen Victoria and Karim. It was then adapted into the film Victoria & Abdul (2017), which featured Dame Judi Dench and Ali Fazal.[12][13]

The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer

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Basu's book The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer, was released in 2021.[14][15] It describes the story of a young Indian lawyer, George Edalji, who hired Arthur Conan Doyle to prove his innocence.[5][16]

Personal and family

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Basu's dedications made in her books show that Basu's father was Chitta Ranjan Basu.[17] She has two sisters,[18] and two daughters.[19]

Honours and awards

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In 2024, for her contributions to British and Indian history, the University of London awarded Basu with an honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature.[20]

Publications

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References

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  1. ^ Deb, Rishabh (7 April 2017). "Queen Victoria's passion for learning Urdu at such a late stage in her life was remarkable: Shrabani Basu". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 15 March 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Online Lecture: In Conversation with Sara Wajid and Shrabani Basu - Visit Birmingham". visitbirmingham.com. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  3. ^ "Talk: Shrabani Basu on her book 'Victoria and Abdul: The True Story of The Queen's Closest Confidant' | SOAS University of London". www.soas.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  4. ^ Curtis, Lara R. (2019). "3. Noor Inayat Khan: conceptualising resistance during World War II". Writing Resistance and the Question of Gender: Charlotte Delbo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Germaine Tillion. Switzerland: Springer Nature. p. 61. ISBN 978-3-030-31241-1.
  5. ^ a b Anjum, Nawaid (26 March 2021). "Interview: Shrabani Basu, author, The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  6. ^ Alexander, Deepa (16 October 2017). "Discovering Victorian secrets". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  7. ^ Curtis, Lara R. (2019). "Acknowledgements". Writing Resistance and the Question of Gender: Charlotte Delbo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Germaine Tillion. Switzerland: Springer Nature. pp. ix–x. ISBN 978-3-030-31241-1.
  8. ^ Allen, Tracey (4 September 2020). "Female secret agent murdered by Nazis heads heritage honours" (PDF). Royal Air Force News. No. 1498. p. 5. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  9. ^ Alberge, Dalya (14 January 2021). "Life of Indian princess who fought Nazis to be told in TV series". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 March 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  10. ^ Dutta, Manas (1 December 2017). "Book Review: Shrabani Basu, For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front, 1914–18". Indian Historical Review. 44 (2): 346–349. doi:10.1177/0376983617726670. ISSN 0376-9836. S2CID 148576663.
  11. ^ Klugt, Melissa van der (28 November 2015). "For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front by Shrabani Basu". Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  12. ^ "The True Story Behind Victoria and Abdul". Time. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  13. ^ "The Author Of Victoria & Abdul Opens Up About Her Book Being Turned Into A Film | Verve Magazine". Verve (Indian magazine). 20 October 2017. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  14. ^ "The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer by Shrabani Basu review: Racial persecution in an early twentieth-century village". TLS. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Shrabani Basu". The Telegraph. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  16. ^ Sands, Philippe (2 September 2021). "Monumental injustices — relics, racism and reparations". www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  17. ^ The mystery of the Parsee lawyer: Arthur Conan Doyle, George Edalji and the case of the foreigner in the English village. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 2021. ISBN 978-1-5266-1528-2. OCLC 1233312355.
  18. ^ Spy princess: the life of Noor Inayat Khan. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. 2006. ISBN 978-0-7524-6368-1. OCLC 1043350666.
  19. ^ Victoria & Abdul : the extraordinary true story of the queen's closest confidant. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. 2017. ISBN 978-0-7509-8258-0. OCLC 495598872.
  20. ^ "British-Indian author conferred honorary doctorate by University of London". Deccan Herald. 1 May 2024. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
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