Moin Mir – författare

An acclaimed history of empire and resistance: this is the moving story of the rebel prince who beat the world’s most powerful corporation.The ships of the East India Company first docked at India's shores in Surat in the early 17th century. In time, through astute politics and military power, the Company became masters of this great port. But the Company came not with the intention of building Indian maritime trade, but with the single-minded goal of destroying its trading prowess. By 1800 the port was completely annexed, through a Treaty that gave protection to future generations of the local Nawab rulers.But, as elsewhere in India, the Company violated its promises. It stopped the family’s income, usurping its palaces, estates, jewellery and possessions. This left the infant granddaughters of the last Nawab on the brink of destitution.But in an unprecedented counter-attack, the father of the two girls stood to defy the Empire and expose its corruption overseas to the British at home. Travelling to London, he would shatter the Company's reputation. His campaign for justice would call for the end of British rule in Hindustan. Not only did the prince win back the family's possessions for his daughters but found true love in Victorian England.

In Travels with Plotinus, Moin Mir follows Plotinus’s 1,780-year-old journey of personal discovery across India, Egypt, Italy, Greece and Turkey as he tries to understand the core concept of Plotinian thought, derived from studying the Upanishads – ‘Unity and Oneness’. He uses Plotinus’s philosophy to observe how the free will of intellect uses ‘Unity’ for good and evil. Intimate conversations with refugees escaping war, innocent boatmen drifting down the Nile, simple farmers and monks in Greece along with observations of ancient art and modern technological accomplishments inform his thoughts and writing on the concept of the oneness of humankind – its immense power to bring good and yet its vulnerability to the stealth of intellect to destroy and self-destruct.

In 1739, Qaraar Ali, a young craftsman from Delhi witnesses the destruction of his world as he has known it. His wondrous city where he found love, spirituality, the friendship of poets and philosophers becomes a desolate, scorching hell. From the embers of his past, a journey begins; one which takes him into the depths of Sufi philosophy. Traversing spectacular landscapes of a fading Mughal empire, a turbulent central Asia and Persia, a culturally retreating Ottoman empire and declining Spanish influence, Qaraar Ali finds hope in the sacred Geometry of the Sufis through which he attempts at rebuilding his life and rediscovering love. A deeply passionate love story imbued with spirituality, acceptance, compassion and redemption, The Lost Fragrance of Infinity gives a much deserved voice to Sufism and its contributions to humanity, art, mathematics, mysticism and science.

The ships of the English East India Company first docked at India's shores in Surat in the early 17th century. In time, the Company through astute politics and superior naval power would become masters of this great port, but not with the objective of building on its legacy as India's emporia of maritime trade but with the single minded goal of destroying its trading prowess. And they did this by overcoming the local princes and fostering corrupt practices. By 1800 the port had been completely annexed and a Treaty signed with the Nawab that would guarantee his family's security from generation to generation. But the Company violated the treaty by stopping the family's income, usurping the palaces, estates, jewellery and all that was part of the private estates of the Nawab, leaving the infant granddaughters of the last Nawab on the brink of destitution. In a riveting counterattack Meer Jafar Ali Khan, father of the two infant girls stood to defy an Empire and expose the corrupt practices of the Company in Victorian England. Spearheading a legal offensive that would shatter the Company s reputation, Meer Jafar Ali Khan s campaign for justice generated great heat and debate in British Parliament. Fighting against all odds this prince won it all back for his daughters and found true love in Victorian England.