Courting India - Nandini Das

WINNER OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZEA profound and ground-breaking new history of one of the most important encounters in the history of colonialism: the British arrival in India in the early seventeenth century.‘A triumph of writing and scholarship. It is hard to imagine anyone ever bettering Das''s account of this part of the story’ - William Dalrymple, Financial Times ‘A fascinating glimpse of the origins of the British Empire . . . drawn in dazzling technicolour’ - Spectator‘Beautifully written and masterfully researched, this has the makings of a classic’ - Peter FrankopanSHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE POL ROGER DUFF COOPER PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA CROWN AWARDSA SPECTATOR, WATERSTONES, BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE, PROSPECT AND HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEARWhen Thomas Roe arrived in India in 1616 as James I’s first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, the English barely had a toehold in the subcontinent. Their understanding of South Asian trade and India was sketchy at best, and, to the Mughals, they were minor players on a very large stage. Roe was representing a kingdom that was beset by financial woes and deeply conflicted about its identity as a unified ‘Great Britain’ under the Stuart monarchy. Meanwhile, the court he entered in India was wealthy and cultured, its dominion widely considered to be one of the greatest and richest empires of the
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