Never Ally With a Foreigner Against a Fellow Indian…

Amish Tripathi doesn’t just write books, he opens doors into chapters of Indian history that many of us never knew existed. His latest Audible release, ‘The Chola Tigers’, does exactly that. Set in the aftermath of the destruction of the Somnath temple by Mahmud of Ghazni, the story follows Emperor Rajendra Chola and Emperor Bhojdev Parmar of Malwa as they put together a daring assassination squad that travels deep into Ghazni to strike back.

“It’s historical fiction,” Amish explains. “Mahmud of Ghazni really did attack Somnath, Rajendra Chola really was one of the most powerful rulers of that time, and Bhojdev Parmar too was real. But the assassination squad? That’s my imagination. I wanted to create a tale of how Indians across regions, across communities, came together to fight back.”

For him, this story is about more than revenge. It’s about resilience. “You know, the last thousand years are often told to us as a story of defeat,” he says. “But think about it – if we were defeated, how are we still alive as a civilization? Every other ancient culture surrendered – the Mayans, the Persians, the Celts. We didn’t. We resisted, continuously, for a thousand years. That makes us descendants of the toughest people on Earth.”

It’s this lens of resistance and unity that he wants readers, or in this case, listeners, to take away. “Sadly, after Independence, we continued with the Colonial narrative. The British converted what was essentially an Indian-versus-outsider story into a Hindu-versus-Muslim one. Our ancestors didn’t see it like that. They called the invaders ‘Turushka’ – Turks, not Muslims. We need to reclaim that truth.” So, what’s the core lesson in ‘The Chola Tigers’? Amish answers without hesitation: Unity. “We Indians are argumentative, and that’s good, it’s our strength. But the one thing we must remember is this: never ally with a foreigner against a fellow Indian. That mistake cost us at Panipat, at Plassey, in the Anglo-Maratha wars. It’s the one lesson we can’t afford to forget today.” Amish chose Audible because, unlike movies, audiobooks let listeners imagine the world. “It’s immersive, acted out, like old ‘kathakars’,” he says. Even a line inspired by his father’s Urdu captures his message: “The Kauravas may be 100, the Pandavas may be 5, but if an outsider attacks, we are 105.”

What’s next

Amish says, “I don’t plan too much. Stories come to me, and Lord Shiva decides. It could be history, it could be fantasy, even a modern-day crime thriller. But yes, the fifth book in the ‘Ram Chandra’ series and a few films are on the horizon. Let’s see what pulls me first.”