Not many readers know that Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was from India. In the original draft, Verne wanted him to be Polish aristocracy hating the Russian government, but his editor talked him out of it. In the original book, his origins and motivations remain a mystery. In a sequel, he was later revealed to be an Indian hating the English government. In many translations of the sequel, this is turned into a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. I guess through most of the 20th century, charismatic anti-heroes weren’t supposed to be from India. Alan Moore portrayed him as an Indian in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but as far as I know, Nemo has been white in all of the movies or other derivative work.
I wasn’t familiar with the area of India Nemo was supposed to be from, Bundelkhand. When I looked it up, I was astonished to find this badass warrior queen who took on the English when they tried to cheat her out of her crown. So she was a contemporary and colleague of the captain’s during the 1857 war of Independence.
This is distracting me from working on my smut pastiche of Verne, but wow, now I want to read a book about Captain Nemo and Rani Lakshmibai. An amazing fictional character and an amazing historical character, in the same place and the same time. I’m surprised I’ve never heard of her — this is a great feminist story.