This Irish historian is documenting shared colonial history of Ireland, India

The next time you are driving down the Bandra Worli Sea Link glance to your left when you are half way to Worli and yoursquoll see a stone fort in the distance You might even know it as the Worli Fort What most donrsquot know though is that the 1675 dated fort is a symbol of the shared colonial history between Ireland and IndialdquoIreland was the first British colony after allrdquo says Irish historian and academician Jane Ohlmeyer ldquoAnd India was its largest Thanks to the British Empire the two countries have multiple linksrdquoOhlmeyer returned to Ireland this week after yet another trip to Indiamdashshe has been here multiple times since 2011 when she started her mission to join the dots to redraw links that have been lost in the corridors of timeThe gallows at the infamous Cellular or lsquokala panirsquo jail on the Andaman Island designed by Irishman Herbert Arrot BrowningThis time around she visited the Worli Fort built by Irishman Gerald Aungier soaking in the history that still hangs in its air before proceeding to Delhi and thenthe AndamansAungier played a major role in the cityrsquos journey from the Bom Bahia islands gifted by the Portuguese to the English in dowry to the city of Bombay when it changed hands to the British East India Company Aungier served as the Governor of Bombay from 1669 to 1677 and he commissioned the Fort when he was shifting the headquarters of the East India Company from Surat to Bombay in light of rising unrest in Gujarat between the Company and the local Mughal rulers at the time The fort was built to serve as a lookout point over the Mahim Bay as part of Aungierrsquos plan to secure the city against external threatsldquoDuring his time in Mumbai Aungier not only built the Worli Fort but also laid the foundations of the cityrsquos economic development and legal system He also minted the first coins in British Indiardquo Ohlmeyer tells midday over a phone call from Andaman where she has just finished a tour of the infamous Cellular Jail colloquially known as Kala PaniIrish historian and academician Jane Ohlmeyer has been coming to India since 2011 to tread on the footprints left behind by her ancestors since the 17th century Ohlmeyer is weaving all of these into a documentaryOne of the biggest ironies that Ohlmeyer has uncovered during her research is that while the Irish of yore gave credence to the Indian nationalists in the early days of the Indian freedom struggle scores of Indians also suffered the most at their handsldquoMen from Ireland had numerous connections to the jail which reminds me of the main prison in Dublin called Kilmainham Charles Tegart was head of the British police force in Bengal and during the early decades of the 20th century sent hundreds of Indian Nationalists to the prison where many died or were tortured at the hands of David Barry dubbed the cruellest jailer in the British Raj Equally brutal was John Nicholson who suppressed the mutiny of 1857 with extreme savagery and is buried in the Christian graveyard in Old Delhirdquo Ohlmeyer sharesAnd yet when Irish freedom fighter Patrick Henry Pearse led the Easter Rising of 1916mdashwhere he read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic outside the General Post Office in Dublinmdashit had a direct effect on India Pearse was executed by a firing squad but his death gave rise to the idea of martyrdom as a means of obtaining freedom Even Subhash Chandra Bose was quoted in 1933 as saying that books about Irish freedom are read widely in BengalldquoThe Chittagong Armoury Raid in 1930 drew inspiration from the 1916 Irish rising There were other idols like Michael Collins who was admired for his guerilla warfare and Terence McSwiney whose hunger strike inspired Jatindranath Das who died in the Lahore Jail in 1924 Dan Breenrsquos book My Fight For Irish Freedom was translated into Hindi Punjabi and Tamilrdquo says OhlmeyerFor her research Ohlmeyer has visited scores of historical sites pored over records and interacted with Indian historians Sucheta Mahajan and Jyoti Atwal from the Jawaharlal Nehru University JNUFor the celebrated academic the journey has been a mix of the professional and personal The professional reason behind her prolonged research was simple she has dedicated her life to studying all things Ireland It was however her son Jamie who sent her on the journey that she is currently onldquoJamie was 18 when he came to India on a cycling trip from Manali to Leh He fell in love with the country and told me I had to come here I did and here we are Jamie is in London now but loves India very muchrdquo she shares indulgent and proudShe adds ldquoIreland and India have a shared history and I am fascinated by how our stories have intersected I can understand what it means to have surmounted adversity in the face of imperialism But I look at events like Partition and I canrsquot help thinking that while in Ireland we still have the hope of being a united country I donrsquot see that in the subcontinent That said I love the fact that India is such a vibrant democracyrdquo says Ohlmeyer