Out of India

In 1947 Jamila Gavin was a small child living in India in the foothills of the Himalayas. Her father was Indian and a friend of Mahatma Gandhi, and her mother was English. Her earliest memories are of travelling by sea between India and England on a huge ocean liner. Because she is half Indian and half English she has become used to describing herself as half and half. "Out of India" tells the story of the young Jamila: her memories of growing up in a beautiful Indian palace, the daring games played with her brother, and her family's move to London where her new school friends have endless questions about her old life. The young Jamila experiences the last days of Colonial India and the excitement of Independence. In this autobiographical account, published to mark fifty years of Indian Independence, she relives the experiences of her early years and her memories of those heady days of hope in a new future for India.