Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde

Gangadharpant Gaitonde is the protagonist, a distinguished historian and the author of a five-volume history of India. He is above all a rational, methodical scholar: even when flung into a bewildering world, his first instinct is to reach a library, read the evidence and locate the exact point where history diverged. He is keenly observant, noticing the smallest differences — the permits at Sarhad, the surviving East India Company, the unfamiliar shops. …