“You stumbled upon references to the RIN mutiny while researching an earlier book titled Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography. What inspired you to dig deeper?
I was reading Volumes 89 and 90 of The Complete Works of Mahatma Gandhi when I saw some statements and letters by him, which were related to the mutiny. He had a major public disagreement with Aruna Asaf Ali. I wanted to learn more, so I read some unpublished letters of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He had written to Gandhiji, saying that he had asked Jawaharlal Nehru not to come to Bombay as it would fan the flames. I thought there’d be more because these stalwarts would not have spent time discussing something that was not important.”