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Tag: William Dalrymple

  • The Last Mughal

    The Last Mughal, published in 2006, follows Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the elderly Mughal emperor whose authority barely extended beyond the walls of the Red Fort, and the Delhi he presided over: a city of poets, Sufi mystics, calligraphers and courtly ritual living uneasily alongside the growing power of the East India Company.

    When sepoys from Meerut rebelled in May 1857 and rode to Delhi, they made Zafar the reluctant figurehead of the uprising. Dalrymple uses Persian and Urdu documents from the National Archives, many never before used, to show the siege from inside the city: the chaos, the shortages, the quarrels among rebel commanders, and the views of ordinary residents. He also follows the British besiegers and their brutal retribution.

    The book argues that the uprising was also widely understood as a religious war, and that its suppression ended a composite Indo-Islamic culture in Delhi. Rich in detail and vividly written, it won the Duff Cooper Prize. It reads as both a gripping narrative and an elegy for the poet Ghalib's world.

    Book details

    AuthorWilliam Dalrymple
    First published2006
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreHistory
    TypeNon-fiction
    Pages (approx.)580
    SettingDelhi, mainly 1857
    AwardsDuff Cooper Prize

    Themes

    • 1857 uprising
    • End of the Mughal dynasty
    • Colonial violence
    • Delhi's composite culture
    • Religion and rebellion

    Who should read it

    History lovers who want an immersive, archive-rich account of 1857 seen from inside Delhi.

  • The Anarchy

    The Anarchy, published in 2019, tells the story of the East India Company's transformation from a trading concern into a territorial power. It opens with the decline of Mughal authority after Aurangzeb, the devastating Persian raid on Delhi in 1739, and the scramble among regional powers that followed, an age of chaos that gives the book its title.

    Dalrymple follows a vivid cast: Robert Clive and the battle of Plassey, the Bengal famine of 1770, the young emperor Shah Alam struggling to keep his dynasty alive, Tipu Sultan of Mysore, the Maratha confederacy and Warren Hastings, whose impeachment trial in London exposed the Company's abuses. He shows how the Company used credit from Indian bankers, a modern army and local rivalries to extend its reach.

    A central argument is that this was conquest by a corporation answerable chiefly to shareholders, and Dalrymple draws pointed lessons about corporate power and its capture of governments. Drawing on Persian, Urdu and Company records, the book combines narrative drama with scholarship and became an international bestseller.

    Book details

    AuthorWilliam Dalrymple
    First published2019
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreHistory
    TypeNon-fiction
    Pages (approx.)520
    SettingBengal, Delhi, Mysore, the Maratha lands and London, 1756-1803

    Themes

    • Corporate power
    • Colonial conquest
    • Mughal decline
    • Plunder and famine
    • Imperial accountability

    Who should read it

    Readers curious about how a company came to rule a subcontinent, and what that says about corporations today.

  • City of Djinns

    City of Djinns, published in 1993, records a year that the young William Dalrymple spent living in Delhi with his wife, the artist Olivia Fraser. They rent rooms from the formidable Mrs Puri, a Punjabi refugee who rebuilt her family's fortunes after Partition, and ride around with a taxi driver, Balvinder Singh, whose opinions enliven many chapters.

    Dalrymple's method is to travel backwards in time. He talks to survivors of 1947 and of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, explores the remnants of British New Delhi and of the Mughal capital, visits Sufi shrines, eunuch communities and fading Anglo-Indian families, and finally searches for traces of the Delhi associated with the Mahabharata. The djinns of the title are the spirits believed to haunt the ruined city.

    Part travel book, part history and part comic memoir, it is full of affectionate portraits and eccentric encounters. It won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and established Dalrymple's reputation, and it remains one of the most popular introductions to the many cities layered within Delhi.

    Book details

    AuthorWilliam Dalrymple
    First published1993
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreTravel
    TypeNon-fiction
    Pages (approx.)340
    SettingDelhi, late 1980s, with excursions into its history
    AwardsThomas Cook Travel Book Award 1994

    Themes

    • Layers of history
    • Partition memory
    • Sufi and Mughal Delhi
    • Eccentric characters
    • Urban change

    Who should read it

    Travellers and armchair historians who want a witty, personal guide to Delhi's past and present.