Etic Empire (2018)
ETIC
adjective
: of, relating to, or involving analysis of cultural phenomena from the perspective of one who does not participate in the culture being studied.
On 15th August 1947 the British Empire divided India as a settlement for granting her independence. Without the monumental chaos and atrocities that pursued, it is unlikely my grandparents would have left their home in Hyderabad in search of a safer and more economically prosperous life elsewhere. I returned to India in 2018 with my historical advisor - the last Viceroy of India, Louis The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who was assassinated in 1979. Our conversations are presented in a book alongside a series of photographs, interviews and artefacts. The work addresses intricate issues of belonging, and disputes the rose-tinted nostalgia still associated with the British Empire.
