Manu Pillai is an Indian author and historian. Manu joins us for a beautiful conversation on finding the humanity in historical figures, the Victorian morality, Twitter historians and the over valuing of religion as a factor in Indian history.   On this week's episode of The Pakistan Experience, Manu presents us numerous great historical anecdotes, from his Grandmother's tale of the broken bed to the morality of the blouse!   Pillai is known for his debut non-fiction The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore for which he won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in 2017.The story is expected to be adapted into a web series by Arka Mediaworks. Rebel Sultans, Pillai's second work, narrates the story of the Deccan from the close of the thirteenth century to the dawn of the eighteenth century. His most recent book is The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin. He has announced that he is working on his next work which is due for publishing in 2022.      The Pakistan Experience is an independently produced podcast looking to tell stories about Pakistan through conversations.     Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience      And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience        The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications.          Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89     Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:00 Demystifying the past: Finding the 'human' in history 5:00 A grandmother's tale 7:00 The "Emancipated" Courtesan 12:00 A Victorian Morality 20:00 The Artist informing HIstory 26:00 Twitter Historians 29:30 They are telling us "who we are"; sifting history from propaganda  36:50 "The first Taliban" 40:30 One of several factors 48:00 Divide and Rule 54:00 The Mughals 59:00 Habshee History 1:04:00 The darbaar