Bali Rai discusses City of Ghosts

Bali Rai's latest title, City of Ghosts, is published this month. You can see Rai reading from the novel on the website, below. City of Ghosts explores the events that resulted in the massacre at Amritsar in 1919. The fictionalised account is based on real events and characters.

City of Ghosts is a powerfully evocative story about India and the Punjab in the early 20th century, on the cusp of revolt against the British Raj. The novel, which is aimed at older, mature readers, explores the events that led to the massacre of unarmed civilians at Amritsar in 1919, a tragedy that helped to galvanise the Indian independence movement.

Bali Rai, a British Asian, wrote City of Ghosts because he wanted to explore this part of his country's history. "If you are Punjabi, you grow up hearing the stories about Amritsar but I felt I didn't really know what had happened then and I wanted to research it," he explains.

The massacre took place during Baisakhi, the Sikh religious new year. Following an earlier protest, martial law had been declared in Amritsar and public gatherings were not allowed. However, people from other regions were already arriving in the city to celebrate the festival so a gathering was inevitable. When a crowd collected in the Jallianwala Bagh, near the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the soldiers began to fire without warning, killing hundreds of men, women and children.

Having spent months researching the history of the massacre, Rai says he put his notes to one side and "let the characters tell the story". Many of the details in City of Ghosts are historically accurate, however, and real characters are fictionalised. "I wanted the right people to be in the right place at the right time but I also wanted to create a story using them."

Three main characters emerge to tell their stories: a soldier, and two teenage boys, one who joins revolutionary gang and another who is in love. Their paths separate and cross as the events unfold.

This is not about exploring colonial politics but finding what motivated these individuals, says Rai.

It is the minutiae of the characters' day to day activities that bring this world to life - the heat, the sounds and smells of the city and their homes, how they pass the time - and the ominous sense of inevitability that gives the novel its pace.

This is a complex story and a violent one, for which Rai is unapologetic. "I want it to be honest, and honest about what happened. I think readers would be able to accept the context and that what happens in a WW1 battle and during the massacre is going to be violent," he explains

"I think that this part of history is often ignored or just touched on without really explaining what happened," he adds. "I wanted to help young people to put the Amritsar Massacre into context and to understand what happened, and why it happened, from many different perspectives. I hope that the book will help remind readers that historical events impact on ordinary, real lives."


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