The Nehru Centre, The High Commission of India, London launched Sunday Times bestselling author, Shrabani Basu’s latest book, The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer on March 3. Basu was in conversation with Shashi Tharoor, Ex-Minister of State, MP Thiruvananthapuram and former UN Secretary General. The event was preceded over by Indian singer, actress,television personality, mindfulness speaker and Penguin Author, Raageshwari Loomba, along with Nehru Centre Director Amish Tripathi.
In the village of Great Wyrley near Birmingham, someone is mutilating horses. Someone is also sending threatening letters to the vicarage, where the vicar, Shahpur Edalji, is a Parsi convert to Christianity and the first Indian to have a parish in England. His son George – quiet, socially awkward and the only boy at school with distinctly Indian features – grows up into a successful barrister, till he is improbably linked to and then prosecuted for the above crimes in a case that left many convinced that justice hadn't been served.When he is released early, his conviction still hangs over him. Having lost faith in the police and the legal system, George Edalji turns to the one man he believes can clear his name – the one whose novels he spent his time reading in prison, the creator of the world's greatest detective. When he writes to Arthur Conan Doyle asking him to meet, Conan Doyle agrees.
The idea of writing the book came to Basu in 2015 when she visited the auction of letters written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Speaking about racism in the context of the book, Basu said, “Even now, there is so much prejudice in the system...Now in the pandemic who is likely to be stopped and searched? It is the Black, Asian and Ethnic minorities.” She further added that now we have hate mails and internet trolls.
Basu also told Tharoor that because of George Edalji, British law of justice had to be changed and they actually started a court of appeal, previous to that convicted criminals had nowhere to go. “It is George Edalji’s legacy that we have the appeals court for criminal cases,” she added.
Furthering the talk on racism, Tharoor also added that in those days, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to his father from Harrow about racial injustice in Britain. Shashi Tharoor asked Basu to explain what makes this book relevant in 2021, to which she said, “With Black Lives Matter, we exploded last year and we then saw how serious this culture was. This happened a 100 years ago, but my goodness it is still relevant now.”
