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For those interested in this topic, I can't recommend "The Last Mughal" by William Dalrymple enough. It chronicles the crumbling Mughal Empire in Delhi, the sl

For those interested in this topic, I can't recommend "The Last Mughal" by William Dalrymple enough. It chronicles the crumbling Mughal Empire in Delhi, the slow shift in the Indian-British relationship from one of equals to a colonizer-colonized relationship, how perilously close the British came to losing India in 1857, and lots of painstakingly well-researched interesting anecdotes about life in that era. Here's what he writes about the last of the Mughals: “As the political sky darkened, the court was lost in a last idyll of pleasure gardens, courtesans and mushairas, or poetic symposia, Sufi devotions and visits to pirs, as literary and religious ambition replaced the political variety.” And about the East India Company in the 1850s: “So removed had the British now become from their Indian subjects, and so dismissive were they of Indian opinion, that they had lost all ability to read the omens around them or to analyse their own position with any degree of accuracy. Arrogance and imperial self-confidence had diminished the desire to seek accurate information or gain any real knowledge of the state of the country.”

throwaway37392 9y ago
The last sentence is as true today as it was then. India memory and its strength however have faded to the point where even its vestiges appear intangible.
- 31416 9y ago
  What a strange coincident. Was discussing about EIC this morning. It is sad that critical exploration of its operation is not encouraged. For most Indians, it is the company that came to trade and end up ruling them. Yet how did it operate, monopolized trade, grow and maintain it's sepoy armies ? It took them more than a hundred years to establish control and another century passed till we had 1857 and almost another to gain independence. It's been 70 years since that, where are we on the continuum. Can we recognize another EIC (internal/external) or are we condemned to repeat it. If one understands this and can draw parallels with the way modern corporates function, people hopefully will be able to see past their doublethink. India gained independence from the British, but the structures that held the populace in thrall weren't torn down. They still exist. The government and the corporates are it's inheritors.
dwd 9y ago
Yes, they came perilously close to losing India - so much so that the crown stepped in and took it off of the EIC. While it was unfortunate for India, it's a shame that 160 years later we still have corporations and they are no better now than they were then.

throwaway37392 9y ago

The last sentence is as true today as it was then. India memory and its strength however have faded to the point where even its vestiges appear intangible.

31416 9y ago
What a strange coincident. Was discussing about EIC this morning. It is sad that critical exploration of its operation is not encouraged. For most Indians, it is the company that came to trade and end up ruling them. Yet how did it operate, monopolized trade, grow and maintain it's sepoy armies ? It took them more than a hundred years to establish control and another century passed till we had 1857 and almost another to gain independence. It's been 70 years since that, where are we on the continuum. Can we recognize another EIC (internal/external) or are we condemned to repeat it. If one understands this and can draw parallels with the way modern corporates function, people hopefully will be able to see past their doublethink. India gained independence from the British, but the structures that held the populace in thrall weren't torn down. They still exist. The government and the corporates are it's inheritors.

dwd 9y ago

Yes, they came perilously close to losing India - so much so that the crown stepped in and took it off of the EIC. While it was unfortunate for India, it's a shame that 160 years later we still have corporations and they are no better now than they were then.