LONDON: British Indian journalist and author Anita Anand’s book that tells the story of a young man caught up in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar has been shortlisted for a prestigious history-literary prize in the UK.
‘The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj’ will compete with six others for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2020, awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content.
Entries are required to be works of high literary merit – that is, not primarily written for the academic market – and can cover all historical periods.
“Modern history is well-represented with Anita Anand’s ‘The Patient Assassin’ showing us how empire continues to haunt us,” said Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford, who is the chair of this year’s judging panel.
In the shortlisted book, Anand tells the dramatic story of an orphan Udham Singh’s 21-year quest for revenge, taking him around the world in search of those he held responsible for the Raj-era Amritsar massacre of April 1919, executed by British troops during a Baisakhi gathering in the city’s Jallianwala Bagh grounds. (AGENCIES)
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