What is it about?
Uzma Aslam Khan’s novel The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali portrays winds who speak to humans and move across multiple boundaries connecting everyone, human and nonhuman. This chapter shows that the winds in the novel teach us about Indigenous people's knowledge connecting history to our present and our future.
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Why is it important?
Because this novel is set on the archipelago of the Andaman Islands from 1936 to 1947 during British colonial rule as well as the Japanese occupation, it portrays Indigenous and non-Indigenous characters during a time of Empire and occupation. This chapter provides insight into this important time in history not only in the context of the ways in which Indigenous peoples' knowledge helped to maintain ecological balance in the Andaman Islands but also by destabilizing ideas about India as a nation.
Perspectives
I hope that this chapter helps people understand the effects of the British Empire and the Japanese occupation on multiple people living on the Andaman Islands.
Shazia Rahman
University of Dayton
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Islands, Winds and Indigenous Knowledge: Archipelagic Thought in Uzma Aslam Khan’s The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali, March 2026, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004751019-005.
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