‘With good cause, wouldn’t you say?’
She raised her brows.
He shrugged and they carried on walking. ‘The truth is I have nothing against you personally, but the British are no longer welcome. In the twelve years since Amritsar there has been bitter resentment. There are disturbances everywhere now.’
‘I know what happened at Amritsar was awful.’
He almost seemed to groan aloud. ‘Awful? Is that what you call it?’
‘What else?’
‘The British fired at thousands of Indians during a peaceful demonstration over a deeply unfair law that decreed that no more than five Indians could gather together. When the meeting took place to protest, the British troops opened fire. They left 379 Indians dead and 1,500 wounded. They were sitting targets, trapped within a walled park.’ He paused. ‘I think that was a little more than awful.’
She tried to imagine the terrible scene and felt sick at the loss of so many lives.
‘All this in retaliation for the murder of three Europeans and one British woman who had been molested. They ordered Indians to crawl on the ground in the street where the English woman had been attacked.’
She looked up at him and saw how fired up he had become.
‘Humiliation never goes down well.’ He gave a bitter laugh. ‘Above all else the British hate the thought of our dark lascivious hands touching the flesh of a white woman. To them it is an abomination.’
‘I understand how angry you are, I really do,’ she said, but thought of Jay kissing her.
‘How could you possibly understand?’
She hadn’t known what to say and knew it had been a weak response. But she didn’t want to be seen as a representative of British domination and had felt compelled to say something.
‘Back in the day the Brits would choose the prettiest girls from the villages to use as their whores. Then later the girls were thrown out. The families couldn’t take them back after they had been so defiled. What do you think that did to people? So yes, people are resentful.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘You think that helps?’
Eliza shook her head.
‘I think Indira’s mother might have been one of those women taken by the Brits and then thrown out when she became pregnant.’
‘You think Indi’s father was a British man? Is that what everyone thinks?’
He shrugged. ‘She’s paler and we know nothing about her. Indi’s grandmother has never spoken about her granddaughter’s origins. Shame would do that.’
They started to walk along the edge of the pit again and Eliza was glad. She wanted to see Jay but at the same time she didn’t want to hear the truth about his engagement. So far there had been no sign of him, but her head was still ringing with Laxmi’s words.
‘Her mother might have been one of the used and abused. I’d marry Indi myself, but my mother would have a dozen fits at the thought.’
‘And your father?’
‘Long gone.’
‘I’m sorry.’
He stared at her and a shadow passed over his face. ‘Me too. The Indian relationship with the British has gone through many phases. But now it’s time for us to claim our birthright.’
‘You believe that?’
‘I do, and many of the British do too. Even back in 1920 Montagu said that you couldn’t remain in a country where you were not wanted.’
‘And what are you personally doing to speed our withdrawal?’
