Uncovering her maternal ancestors’ past rooted in the Bhantu identity, the cinematographer and writer Nusrat F Jafri offers a rare account of the so-called criminal tribe, the circumstances of their conversions and the continuities of caste oppression in India today.

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Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to Nusrat F Jafri about her memoirThis Land We Call Home: The Story Of A Family, Caste, Conversions And Modern India (Penguin, April 2024).

In 1871, the British colonial regime in India enacted the Criminal Tribes Act, branding numerous tribes and caste groups as so-called “criminals”.

InThis Land We Call Home, Nusrat traces the roots of her nomadic ancestors, the Bhantus from Rajasthan, who belonged to one such community in northwestern India. Through the stories of her relatives’ decisions to embrace new religions, the acts of defiance against caste-based oppression, and the pathbreaking women of her family, Nusrat offers an arresting portrait of an Indian family across generations, and also of modern India itself.

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