William Dalrymple
It’s not every day you look to a Scottish born historian to learn about the inner workings of Indian history. Then again, not everyone is William Dalrymple – a historian who’s dedicated his life to the history and art of the Indian subcontinent.
Based in Mehrauli, just on the outskirts of Delhi, Dalrymple has authored many works for those obsessed with medieval Indian history.
Reader beware: his stories are captivating and will leave you begging for more.
1. The Anarchy
Start with The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company to get a sense of how the British Raj came to be, and how it accelerated the decline of the Mughal empire.
Follow the story of the humble East India Company with its simple trading post that ballooned into the world’s largest private army.
Witness the inevitable destruction of the Mughal empire as Dalrymple writes through the eyes of Shah Alam II, the Mughal emperor during most of these events.
2. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857
Are you ready to experience a rush of adrenaline, heartache, and passion all in one setting? Look no further than Dalrymple’s story of Bahadur Shah Zafar in The Last Mughal.
Follow the elderly and final Mughal as he hesitantly wears his crown to lead a band of rebels against the British in his beloved Delhi.
Almost as if each scene is drawn with words, William Dalrymple takes the reader through the catastrophe of the munity in 1857, and the symbolic end to Mughal rule in the subcontinent.
3. White Mughals
Fun fact: 1 in 3 British men living in Indian in the 18th century was married to an Indian woman.
Finish your Mughal trifecta with White Mughals, as the author attempts to document the inter-ethnic relations of the time.
For us to think of history as black and white is all to easy and unjust to the realities of the world. This book is great for addressing the “other” category with its many shades of gray.
Delve into the affair of Captain James Achilles Kirkpatrick as he converts to Islam and marries Khair-un-Nissa, a Hyderabadi noblewoman of Mughal descent.
