A History of the Present: a biography of Indian South Africans, 1994–2019 by Ashwin Desai, and Goolam Vahed, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. 404. £56 (hbk).

A History of the Present: a biography of Indian South Africans, 1994–2019 by Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. 404. £56 (hbk).

What is the historical trajectory of the Indian South African community in a post-apartheid context? How have Indian South Africans managed to navigate the complex politics of difference in a rapidly changing society? What sense have they made of the struggles and hardships of their ancestors in light of their own challenges in post-apartheid South Africa? What should Indian South Africans rightly call themselves? Is there even such a thing as a South African Indian identity? Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed's book, A History of the Present: A Biography of Indian South Africans, 1994–2019, strives to answer all of the above questions, and much more.

As a literary genre, a biography is understood to be a true story of the life of a...