ABOUT THE BOOK
On 17th August 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra was executed in Pentonville Prison for the assassination of Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, a high-ranking official from the British India office. Viewed as a murderer in the UK, in India Madan Lal is seen as a great patriot, a freedom fighter, and a martyr. In 1976, his remains were exhumed, and his body returned to India. In Exhumation, Madan Lal’s great niece, the actor and writer Leena Dhingra, unravels and reveals his remarkable story.
Part history, part memoir, this is also the story of Leena’s journey to come to terms with this painful episode from her family’s past.
Exhumation: The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra
is a compelling story of family secrets that throws light on the dark legacy of colonialism.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leena Dhingra was born in India, and came to Europe after the 1947 Partition of India. Her first novel Amritvela was published in 1988. An author and actor, her TV credits include The Bill, Casualty, Prime Suspect and Dr Who. She has also starred in EastEnders and Coronation Street, and most recently appeared in the Channel 4 drama series Ackley Bridge. A Londoner for 40 years, Leena Dhingra now lives near Manchester.
'As soon as I finished this spectacular book, I started it again, unwilling to leave the vivid world of these people – heroic and touching - whose lives, devastated by British colonial decisions long ago, are so very relevant to today’s culture wars. Ghosts of colonialism are alive here’
Victoria Brittain
‘This inter-generational dramatised version of Madan Lal Dhingra’s life gives rare glimpses and deeper understanding of a man who paradoxically was regarded as both : a beloved revolutionary in India and a cruel murderer in Britain for which he was executed in 1909. In exhuming his memory, the author, who is also his grandniece, deals movingly with turbulent moments in her family history as well as the agony, violence and transformation so many young Indian students like Madan Lal in Britain underwent, with Veer Savarkar guiding them, towards India’s Independence. A fascinating read’ Kishwar Desai, author of Jallianwala Bagh
'Madan Lal Dhingra’s story is an extraordinary one. And so is the way in which the story came to be told' The Morning Star
‘This is a story about the ills of the world and the forces that breed them; about what happens to individual lives in the careless grip of geopolitics; a story steeped in sorrow, but glowing with love and faith. A brave story about yesterday that is supremely relevant to us today 'Ahdaf Soueif
'In Exhumation, the illumination of a family secret sheds a coruscating light on Britain's colonial past. Part memoir, part history, Dhingra's lively examination brings the events leading up to Partition to vivid and immediate life. Madan Lal's story has, until now, been little know in Britain; this important book ensures that will no longer be the case' Erica Wagner
'Leena Dhingra vividly recreates how her family, well ensconced in the British Raj, was drawn by 1900 into a multicommunal nationalist campaign. Independence was achieved in 1947 at great cost by way of death and displacement. Will Indian PM Modi empowering Hindu nationalism, repeat the horror?’
H. O. Nazareth, writer and film-maker