Calcutta in 1757. Bengal is on the brink of war. The East India Company, led by the fearsome Sir Peter Chilcott, is advancing and nobody is safe. Meena, the Nawab’s neglected and abused daughter, finds herself falling under the spell of James Chilcott, nephew of Sir Peter, who claims he wants to betray the company […]
Medea in India: savage colonialism
Rani Selvarajah’s novel Savage Beasts takes the story of Medea and reimagines it set in 18th-century India. She tells Historia how she wanted to explore the treatment of women and of foreigners under colonialism; universal themes, both in myth and in history. I first studied the play Medea at school and was instantly mesmerised by […]