‘Azadi is for all Indians’: author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on her first Hindi audiobook, an adaptation of her 2022 novel, Independence

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Hindi audiobook, Azadi, set in Kolkata during India's freedom movement, explores the lives of three sisters.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s recently released Hindi audiobook, Azadi (on Audible), is set in Kolkata, against the backdrop of India’s freedom movement and Partition. An adaptation of her 2022 novel, Independence, the historical fiction revolves around the three Ganguly sisters, who see India through their own lenses and desires. Divakaruni’s three books prior to Independence also centred on women — Draupadi, Sita and Rani Jindan. Edited excerpts from an interview:

I think we live in a period when people, even though they love books, don’t always have the time to sit down and read. Audiobooks fill that need as they can be listened to any time — while commuting, exercising, cooking, etc. 

I know English audiobooks are getting popular in India. I have several successful ones on Audible but this is my first one in Hindi, so I am very excited. I am interested in seeing how Hindi readers respond to it. Hopefully, it will reach many people because the story of Azadi is for all Indians.

Yes, absolutely. I thought of the novel as my gift to readers on this historic occasion since many of us were born into a free nation. We take freedom for granted. I wanted to remind people that it took hard work, sacrifice, and even tragedy, for us to gain our freedom and become a nation.

I did a lot of research and was touched by three things: newspaper accounts of those times, in Bengali and English; photographs — of the riots, the trains and buses moving across the border, and of the very first Independence Day celebrated in India; and stories that I heard from my mother and maternal grandfather, who were part of the freedom movement. These stories made me care about the times and the many sacrifices made by those no one will know about. I was determined to write their story.

Yes, the ‘independence’ of the title reflects a time when not only the nation but also its women were learning to stand on their own feet, run businesses and flourish in various careers. Because the men were gone (for some reason), the women had to shoulder the family responsibility. That is what happens to my heroines in the novel.

Independence completes the historical arc that I began with the writing of The Last Queen, which showcases Maharani Jindan’s prolonged battle against the British. Though she fought against them valiantly, they were able to take over her kingdom — Punjab — through treachery. They even took away her son, Maharaja Dalip Singh. I did not wish to leave the narrative there. In Independence, Indians take back their land and the British are forced to leave. It is a moment of great triumph, also a tragic one due to the violence that happened during Partition.