As you will read in today’s post below, Vanshika Jain is the 16-year old author of Letters to the Empire. She has also been named Youth Poet Ambassador of Allegheny County, 2024-25. Vanshika is passionate about social justice and amplifying youth voices. She is already active in projects supporting Ukraine, an institute for the blind, and those promoting a more inclusive society.

Welcome, Vanshika!

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“History is written by the victors.”

Winston Churchill’s words have never sat well with me. Perhaps because they didn’t just shape what I was taught about my ancestry, they defined how the world continues to view so-called “Third World” nations. That quote isn’t just a fact of history; it’s a warning. It reminds us that the voices of the oppressed, the colonized, and the silenced are too often erased or rewritten.

My name is Vanshika Jain, and I’m the 16-year-old author of Letters to the Empire, a historical fiction novel born from the need to challenge that narrative. I wrote this book to reclaim the stories history tried to forget. Stories buried under colonial records, overlooked by textbooks, and neglected by public memory.

Determined to share history from the perspective of the victims rather than the victors, I began my research journey. Through an internship at the Library of Congress and work with the Gilder Lehrman Institute, I learned how to sort, digitize, and date archival documents. I sifted through slave journals, battlefield letters, court records, political transcripts, even wedding invitations and news clippings—piecing together a history too few know and too many ignore.

What I uncovered was devastating: evidence of deliberate policy failures and state-sanctioned neglect that led to the deaths of over 3 million Indians during the Bengal Famine. Events like the Amritsar and Jallianwala Bagh massacres weren’t isolated tragedies, they were part of a pattern of systemic violence and cover-up. Even today, estimates of the death toll carry a margin of error of over 300,000 lives.

After months of digging, I turned to the internet, expecting memorials or memoirs—some sign that the world remembered. But I found almost nothing. No comprehensive displays. Few first-hand accounts. Scattered fragments of grief, easily missed.

At my public high school in Pittsburgh, I read Orwell’s 1984 and Ayn Rand’s Anthem. In them, I saw what happens when truth is erased: silence leads to repetition. If history is forgotten, injustice returns.

So I decided to write it.

Not in a textbook or academic paper, but as a novel—accessible, human, and honest. A story for young readers and future changemakers. Because if the next generation doesn’t remember these tragedies, history will not hesitate to repeat itself.

My novel, Letters To The Empire is now available for purchase now on Amazon. The beginning of every chapter features a letter that I uncovered relating to the theme featured in the chapter. The book takes the reader back and forth between India and South Africa in a fast-paced way with many vividly drawn characters. 

Letters to the Empire by Vanshika Jain

Letters to the Empire is a sweeping historical fiction novel that reimagines the lives of real people living under British colonial rule in India and South Africa. Through richly drawn characters and interwoven narratives, the novel uncovers the often-silenced truths of imperialism-from the devastating Bengal Famine that claimed over two million lives under Winston Churchill’s leadership, to the covert trafficking of individuals for brutal plantation labor. Spanning generations and continents, Letters to the Empire is an unflinching exposé of the British Empire’s darkest legacies, told through the voices of those who endured its grip-and those who dared to resist it.

Many thanks, Vanshika. Such an impressive accomplishment. I wish you great success with Letters to the Empire and in your future endeavours.

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M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from  Amazon ,  Nook ,  Kobo ,  Google Play  and  iTunes . She can be contacted on  Facebook  or on her website  www.mktod.com .

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