Daniel Bosley – “I never dreamed of going somewhere like the Maldives”
The author of Descent into Paradise: A Journalist’s Memoir of the Untold Maldives on embracing his voice and perspective, close friends in the Maldives who were killed by Islamist vigilantes, and how the people of the island nation don’t have any genuine animosity towards Indians
You have been a postman, a student of international relations, a journalist, and an intern at the Maldives High Commission in London. How did these things happen for you?
As I am sure is the case in India, the increasing numbers being funnelled into university in the UK leaves many people from working class towns with qualifications – and aspirations – that prompt circuitous paths.
In the UK, for most graduates, this leads through London and unpaid internships, requiring a great deal of money. I acquired this through whatever work I could find in the north-west, including payroll offices, postal work, pet shops, and delivering Indian takeaways (for which the International Relations degree was very useful). I even acquired a truck-driver’s license to help fund my southern migration.
There was limited time for this story in the book – in which I wanted the Maldives to star – though I think it is a journey that many are familiar with as society changes with increasing rapidity, pushing people further and further from where they imagined their lives might take them. I never dreamed of going to somewhere like the Maldives, nor of the privilege of becoming a journalist. I just needed a job and serendipity seemed to take over from there.
You must have a rare combination of skills because of all the work you have done. How did these skills help you while writing your book Descent into Paradise?
I am not sure about how useful many of the specific skills were, but these jobs certainly taught me that you don’t have to let what you are doing right now influence what you will do in the future. Certainly, in the UK, too many young people live under the tyranny of having a slight gap in their CV, which can prevent them from trying new things and taking unorthodox paths to where they want to go.
I don’t think that my background and experiences have granted me the sharpest of intellects, and certainly not the greatest verbal eloquence, but it has given me a strong work ethic, topped up by a nagging inferiority complex. This can get you further than you’d think; it might just take a bit longer to get there.
All this helped when writing Descent into Paradise as I knew the only way I could do it to the best of my abilities was to fully embrace my voice and my perspective. It’s for this reason that the book is, I think, unusually honest at times. Journalism continues to be dominated by middle-class voices and former postmen from Crewe don’t get to write about places like the Maldives very often – or ever. I think lots of people like me have equally fascinating stories, but very few ever get the opportunity to tell them.
What were your impressions about the Maldives before you began to work there? Why did these impressions change?
My impression was that it was a place very rich people went on holiday and which I would never have the money to visit. I also had no idea where it was. These impressions changed as soon as I stepped into the High Commission and began to learn that the Maldives, while tiny, is as complex as any country, despite selling itself to the world as a slightly two-dimensional place of picture postcard perfection. But I was still right about the rich people!
How did you end up working with a publisher in India on this book?
Teesta Guha Sarkar, who is editorial director at Pan MacMillan India, had visited the Maldives and maintained a keen interest in the place. The book was her bright idea. Naj (Bosley’s wife Aishath Naj, who is a photographer and visual artist) and I had been writing about the history and culture of the islands on the Two Thousand Isles blog and it caught her eye. I had thought it would be nice to write a book about the country sometime in the dim and distant future, but had no idea how to go about it. Even after Teesta approached me, I assumed that it was a scam right until the moment they sent me a contract.
Tell us about Riz and Yameen, the people you dedicate the book to and call “brothers in disobedience”. How did they happen to come into your life?
Ahmed Rilwan and Yameen Rasheed were unique thinkers and early pioneers of social media in the Maldives. Riz was initially drawn towards Salafi-jihadi groups as a young man before becoming a driven journalist who could offer unique insights into this dangerous subculture. Yameen was raised in Trivandrum after his family sought to avoid the worst excesses of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s dictatorship. He thus returned to Male after university with an outsider’s perspective that, along with his superb wit, turned him into the country’s best writer and satirist. The two soon became kindred spirits.
Almost a decade ago, as Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror cells fused with local criminal groups, encouraged by the exploits of ISIS, Riz became a target for Islamist vigilantes. After being stalked for weeks, he was followed home on August 8th, 2014, by gang members and abducted. He has not been seen since.
After campaigning tirelessly for his friend for more than two-and-a-half years, and refusing to back down in the face of relentless threats, Yameen was ambushed upon entering his apartment block on April 23rd, 2017, and stabbed to death.
Riz was the first person I hired after becoming editor at Minivan News (an English-language news website founded by members of the Maldivian Democratic Party in 2005), while Yameen and I became good friends during the campaign for Riz. Having been unable to bring them justice through our journalism, sharing the thoughts and words that they died for in this book seemed to be the very least that I could do.
While writing this book, what was it like to recount all that you went through, especially as someone who has a Maldivian wife and many Maldivian friends?
It was emotional at times, from recalling the exciting early days when everything was new and the whole thing felt like an adventure, to the crushing feeling of impotence when tragedy struck and we were unable to do a thing to stop it.
Writing it all down for a wider audience was definitely cathartic, but also tinged with a sense of guilt: perhaps I have been indoctrinated over the years by those who accuse foreign journalists of tarnishing the Maldives’ international image to boost their own careers. I am also reluctant to ruin people’s image of their dream destination. Where I am from, we would call this “pissing on someone’s chips”. Everyone needs a Maldives to dream of, and I would hate to ruin it for anyone.
But I firmly believe that if you claim to love a place you should want to know more about it. I would like people to understand the whole country, its people and the issues that affect their lives. The book attempts to do that, placing the less-than-perfect reality of the place in proper historical and cultural context.
What was it like to be in India for the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival to speak about your book Descent into Paradise?
It was amazing to visit Kolkata for the first time and be around such literary heavyweights. It was exciting to meet so many people who were so interested in the book. It was exactly the kind of experience I could never have imagined having when posting letters in Macclesfield.
After being asked so much about India versus China, I was delighted to meet Meghna Pant and hear about her novel – The Man Who Lost India – on the very same subject. I am reading it at the moment.
Despite the esteemed authors on display, however, first impressions are usually the strongest and I will never forget seeing goats herded through the city streets at 2 am on my way from the airport to the hotel that I was staying at.
How has your book been received in the Maldives? After putting down your thoughts about “Islamist zealots”, the muzzling of dissent and the abduction of reporters, how safe is it for you to visit the Maldives?
It has taken some time to get the book into the Maldives, and copies have been selling there for only a few weeks now. As I mentioned at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, Maldivians in general do not pay much attention to what outsiders write about the place and I have only ever met a handful of people who are familiar with the few English-language non-tourism books ever published about the country.
The only such book I ever recall breaking into the wider consciousness did so because it was considered to contain significant errors, causing nationwide outrage. This book had also gone largely unnoticed until one reader started a storm on Twitter.
As I recently found out over the new year, I am fine to visit as long as the book hasn’t gone viral and is mainly being read by more liberal thinkers. I don’t think it would be particularly comfortable or wise to hang around in the country should an online storm ensue, but the attention spans of the extremist elements – who remain at large – are fleeting and unpredictable.
When you look at the changing political situation in the Maldives today, what gives you some hope amidst all the despair?
After the tumultuous period documented in the book was followed by an underwhelming five-year term under the Maldivian Democratic Party, I have never seen people in the country more apathetic about politics. Corruption and extremism have reached a level at which serious questions have to be asked about the general rule of law in the country.
It is hard to find a great deal of hope in this situation, particularly as relentless policies of centralization to the capital threaten to erase an ancient island culture before a proper conversation about handling the climate crisis can take place.
Perhaps the silver lining to all this disillusionment, however, may be that citizens in a maturing democracy begin to demand more from their elected officials.
How does the conflict between India and China for greater influence in Maldivian politics affect people living in the Maldives?
This geopolitical conflict is rarely talked about beyond campaign rallies. Opposing parties have picked sides for political reasons and I don’t believe there’s any genuine animosity towards either Indians or the Chinese. The development money continues to flow regardless of whether its source is Delhi or Beijing.
With Maldivians heavily dependent on medical tourism in India, however, prolonged deterioration of relations with Delhi would be felt by locals, who can currently visit India without a visa.
Servicing the huge levels of debt lavished upon greedy governments by foreign donors could also exacerbate the import-dependent country’s already-dwindling foreign currency reserves. Maldivians normally face restrictions on foreign cash withdrawals, but these would surely increase if fears of a default were to become reality.
Chintan Girish Modi is a freelance writer, journalist and book reviewer.