Discussion 2/24: History, Fiction, and the Life of Ashoka

Allan Sealy’s historical novel Asoca narrates the life of the emperor who ruled the Indian subcontinent from 268 to 232 BCE. Ashoka not only inherited and sustained an empire but aggressively expanded it from the edges of present day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. One of the reasons why he continues to hold a privileged place in the Indian national imaginary is that in the midst of his reign, Ashoka foreswore violence and became a proselytizer of Buddhism.

 

In Asoca, Allan Sealy, winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, imaginatively reconstructs the story of this enigmatic historical figure. Who was this man who did so much? What were his motivations? Was he really a liberal secularist or was conversion a tool to unify his Empire?

 

Join Professors Pravina Cooper (CSULB) and Mihir Pandya (CSULB) to discuss Sealy’s novel and what is gained and lost when writing at the intersections of history and fiction. A chapter of the book will be provided.