Who Do You Think You Are - Nitin Ganatra 4th Sep

[kiterunner]

He plays Masood in East Enders.
9 p.m. on BBC1 and then repeated on Thursday night at 10:35, also on BBC1.

[Margaret in Burton]

Should be interesting. The Meera Syal one in India was very good.

[Merry]

Should be interesting.

Crosses everything that it is! I still have Nick Hewer to watch!

[Margaret in Burton]

Crosses everything that it is! I still have Nick Hewer to watch!

Don't attempt to watch if you are tired, perfect insomnia treatment.

[Merry]

lol Marg! I'd better not watch it then!!!

[Margaret in Burton]

Good one tonight. Very interesting.

[kiterunner]

Episode synopsis (apologies for many mis-spellings of names and place names, corrections will be gratefully received!)

Nitin Ganatra lives in London with his wife and children. He was born in Kenya and he moved to England with his family when he was 3, in 1971.

Nitin started his research by visiting his father Jayantilal and mother Manglaben in Coventry, also his brother Charlie and Charlie's wife. Jayantilal was also born in Kenya. The family lived in Broderick Falls (now called Webuye) and ran family businesses there. Jayantilal's grandfather Popatlal Ganatra was the first of the Ganatra family to go to Kenya, to work on the railway, in the late 1890's. Manglaben, Nitin's mother, told him that she and her sister used to have to work as children because their father Kesharjibhai was often ill, and that her parents Kesharjibhai and Santochar got married when they were aged 10 and 6 respectively.

Nitin went to Kenya, to the Railway Museum in Nairobi, and was told that many Gujeratis went to East Africa at the end of the 19th century to work on building the railways, to escape a big famine in India. Most returned to India afterwards but some stayed in Africa. The museum does not hold records of individual labourers.

Nitin went to Broderick Falls / Webuye and met a former resident who remembered when it was a very small village. Popatlal started his own general store there and brought his family over from India. In 1955 Nitin's father joined the family business. Nitin visited the shop where his father used to work.

In 1963 Kenya gained its independence and laws were brought in over the next few years which restricted the opportunities for Asians if they did not give up their British citizenship to become full Kenyan citizens. This was the reason why many left Kenya and came to Britain.

Nitin visited the city of Rajkat in Gujerat, India, to visit his cousin and his mother's sister. His aunt told him that her father (Nitin's grandfather) left home at the age of 14 and went to Zanzibar to serve an apprenticeship in a shop. When he returned to India, he developed kidney problems. He and Nitin's grandmother had ten children but eight died young, with only Nitin's mother and his aunt surviving. Nitin visited the city where the family used to live, and went to the record office where he met a researcher into child mortality, who told him that it was unusual for so many children in one family to die in those days. Not all deaths were / are registered in India, but they found the registration of the second youngest child, a girl called Dudhibai who died on the 19th March 1945 at the age of six, of "fever" which had lasted for 15 days. The researcher said that this would probably have been malaria, and that the children of child brides tended to be weak and more susceptible to illnesses.

Nitin went to Jharera in Gujarat, where Popatlal came from, and met the oldest man in town, believed to be over 100, who said he remembered the Ganatras, who grew cotton and ran a shop. He said that he remembered Popatlal returning to India with a lot of money and taking his family to Africa with him, including Kakubhai, Nitin's grandfather.

Nitin met a caste historian in Porbandar who knew of a written record of the Ganatra family held by a high priest in the holy city of Mathura. Nitin went to see this book and saw the family names going back 9 generations to his 7xg-grandfather Hukkabhai Ganatra. He was also shown that his father had written his own name in when they visited when Nitin was 8. Nitin then added the names of his own children.

[kiterunner]

I thought this was the best episode they've had for some time.

But could that old man in Jarera really remember the Ganatras? What year did they emigrate to Kenya? If Papitlal went over there in the late 1890's, then went back to India to fetch his family, what year was that, I wonder? How old would the man have to be to remember them?

[Piwacket]

I thought it was very interesting, in a different from the usual way.


Perhaps it was in Meera Syal's we saw about the amazing records of families they keep.... how incredible it would be to go to some place and find what we need all in one fell swoop :rolleyes: But surely Nitin's father (if Nitin couldn't) would have remembered visiting the place and making an entry in the records? Seemed odd to me.

That old chap must have been about 115 at least to remember Papitlal? Perhaps he was referring to Nitin's father 'being eager' to go to Kenya?

It's such an intriguing country of contrasts - fascinating such poverty alongside such beauty and wealth. Don't think I could visit - I'd be forever asking questions to try to fathom some logic :D

[Olde Crone]

I really enjoyed this, probably because it was so different!

However I couldn't help feeling that Nitrin's father could have short-circuited the research by mentioning the fact that a Ganatra pedigree existed in the holy City!

And...that 100 year old man wasn't very convincing with his recall. He was being prompted all the time. I don't think he remembered the family at all.

OC

[kiterunner]

That old chap must have been about 115 at least to remember Papitlal? Perhaps he was referring to Nitin's father 'being eager' to go to Kenya?



Nitin's father was born in Kenya.

[Guinevere]

Just watched this now. Thought it got off to a slow start but picked up as it went along.

I taught a lot of Kenyan Asians in Coventry while I was training but not Nitin, I think.

[Piwacket]

Nitin's father was born in Kenya.

OH was he? OK. I just remember Nitin finding out that G'dad when his rail contract was ended going back and bringing some family to Kenya.

[kiterunner]

It was Nitin's great-grandfather who took his family from India to Kenya, so it could be that the old man remembered Nitin's grandfather, but we weren't told the date when they went, so I don't know how plausible that is.

[anne fraser]

I enjoyed it. I was in work and watched it with a West Indian collegue who, had herself travelled to America and then England to find work which gave her an interesting perspective on the story,

I am not sure my ancestors would have been able to write six generations back' But I did wonder if that record actually dated back two hundred years when you consider the prevelance of child marriage.

I thought it was much more interesting than the last couple of episodes. I have not see Nick Hewer yet.

[Piwacket]

Thanks for reminding me KR - and as Anne says if they got married so young - their generation gap wouldn't be so great... didn't that researcher lady say the girls probably started families at 13 or 14 yrs.

[Olde Crone]

I think the record went back to his 7 x GGF, which was about 200 years ago. My 7 x GGPs were born in the late 1600s, early 1700s.

OC

[Tom Tom]

I thought it was good. Something that made me think was the fact that, as far as we know, only one out of the eight children's deaths were registered. It said there was no requirement to register the deaths so why was that one registered when the others weren't?

Just seemed a bit odd to me.

[BlueSavannah]

I enjoyed this episode. I agree with Tom Tom that I also wondered why the parents chose to register the death of one child but not the other seven.

[Merry]

I just watched this and really enjoyed it.

The only part where I wanted to ask more question (other than of the "well over 100" old man!) was when they were talking about the children of child brides. If Nitan's maternal grandfather married at 10 but travelled to Zanzibar when he was 14 for an apprenticeship, I wonder how long he was away? His bride was four years younger so presumably no children before he left India (and presumably she remained in India?), but was an apprenticeship seven years like in the UK or shorter? If it was seven years then his wife might have been 17 by the time he came back, so not really a young teen having babies.

It also bothered me that the death of the second to last child was registered by the father as he was supposed to have been bedridden for years. Maybe that happened a little later?

Only one episode for me to catch up now!

[Olde Crone]

Merry

I thought the "child bride" bit was rather glib too. Yes, the girl might lose a few babies because of her physical immaturity but she wasn't young forever! It wouldn't explain losing children born to her when she was older. There could have been a million reasons why most of the children died.

OC