In September 1600, Queen Elizabeth and London are made to believe that the East India Company will change England's fortunes forever. With William Shakespeare's death, the heart of Albion starts throbbing with four centuries of an extraordinary Indian settlement that Arup K. Chatterjee christens as Typogravia. In five acts that follow, we are taken past the churches destroyed by the fire of Pudding Lane; the late eighteenth-century curry houses in Mayfair and Marylebone; and the coming of Indian lascars, ayahs, delegates, students and lawyers in London. From the baptism of Peter Pope (in the year Shakespeare died) to the death of Catherine of Bengal; the chronicles of Joseph Emin, Abu Taleb and Mirza Ihtishamuddin to Sake Dean Mahomet's Hindoostane Coffee House; Gandhi's experiments in Holborn to the recovery of the lost manuscript of Tagore's Gitanjali in Baker Street; Jinnah's trysts with Shakespeare to Nehru's duels with destiny; Princess Sophia's defiance of the royalty to Anand establishing the Progressive Writers' Association in Soho; Aurobindo Ghose's Victorian idylls to Subhas Chandra Bose's interwar days; the four Indian politicians who sat at Westminster to the blood pacts for Pakistan; India in the shockwaves at Whitehall to India in the radiowaves at the BBC; the intrigues of India House and India League to hundreds of East Bengali restaurateurs seasoning curries and kebabs around Brick Lane. Indians in London is a scintillating adventure across the Thames, the Embankment, the Southwarks, Bloomsburys, Kensingtons, Piccadillys, Wembleys and Brick Lanes that saw a nation-a cultural, historical and literary revolution that redefined London over half a millennium of Indian migrations-reborn as independent India. Contents: A Chronicle Foretold Act I-What Trade Art Thou Scene I The Baptism Scene II Brewing a Colony in a Tea Cup Scene III An Indian Fish, Dead or Alive Act II-Lays of Little Bengal Scene I An Armenian in the City Scene II The Orient Arrives Scene III From an Indian Harem to a London Tavern Scene IV Nurseries for Nabobs Scene V For the Sake of Mahomet Act III-Begums, Baboos, Seamen and Spirits Scene I Married to Empire Scene II Ragtag of the Raj Scene III Scent of Steam Scene IV The Baboos' Last Sigh Act IV-A Nation Known by Stage Scene I City of Counsellors and Clients Scene II Trains of Fact and Folklore Scene III Raising the Bar Scene IV A House of Uncommons Scene V A Theatre of Theatres act v-Defending the Island Scene I Jewel in the Crown Scene II The Spirit and the Spectre Scene III The League of a Nation Scene IV Between the Ink and the Deep Sea Scene V If Empire Be the Love of Food End Notes