Biography of a Trade Unionist and the Resurrection of the ‘Indian Question’ in Twenty-First Century Kenya

Abstract

The place of Indians/Asians in Kenya's national history remains on the margins. The postcolonial Kenyan nation-state has been reluctant to acknowledge the role that Kenyans of Indian/Asian origin played and continue to play in the evolution of modern Kenya. Makhan Singh is one such Kenyan of Indian origin whose place in the Kenyan historiography has remained uncelebrated. This article offers a preliminary meta-critique of Zarina Patel's Unquiet: the Life and Times of Makhan Singh. It notes that this biography is a significant intervention in the treatment of the ‘Indian question’ in contemporary Kenya.