Written by
April 13,
2018 | Quartz india
In the
1760s, the young, charismatic son of the recently assassinated Mughal emperor,
Alamgir II, made a decision that would completely transform India’s fate.
Determined to restore his dynasty’s glory, Ali Gauhar, known as Shah Alam II,
went to war with the British East India Company (EIC).
But the Battle of Buxar ended in a humiliating defeat and the consequences were more damaging than anyone imagined at the time: Shah Alam was captured by the company’s forces and made to sign an order that replaced Mughal revenue officials with British traders selected by the EIC. From then on, supported by a growing army of tens of thousands of sepoys, the company would be in charge of collecting taxes across the Mughal empire.
It was a
decisive turning point that paved the way for the EIC’s sweeping control over
the region, eventually giving way to the British Raj.
It’s this
moment in history that William Dalrymple focuses on in his upcoming book, The
Anarchy, which analyses how a trading firm completely displaced a
once-powerful empire. The historian says that while schools continue to teach
that the British conquered India, the reality was that it wasn’t the British
government at first but a private company.
“The
Mughals were not an insignificant force…They were vastly rich, it was a magnificent
empire. And yet it fell not to another wave of invaders from the Steppes or the
Ottomans or the Persians, it fell to a bunch of merchants,” Dalrymple told
Quartz. “It’s one of the most extraordinary and unlikely stories, and a very
contemporary story because it shows how corporations have an extraordinary
ability to take over the state.”
For
Dalrymple, the story is particularly relevant today, given the power enjoyed by
businesses and businessmen, not just in India but around the world. At a time
when the US president is Donald Trump, he argues, rediscovering the corporate
nature of 18th century Indian history is an important thing to do.
While
doing research for the book, Dalrymple travelled across India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh, following in the footsteps of Shah Alam and looking out for
vestiges of that tumultuous time. The photographs the author took during his
travels are now on display in Mumbai at an exhibition titled The Historian’s
Eye, presented by Tasveer and the art platform Dauble.
The
melancholic images highlight what little remains to remind the curious
traveller of the might of the Mughals or the cunning of the company. But the
elegiac approach does remind you of how much of India’s cultural heritage is
disappearing for good.
“India
has an embarrassment of riches, every little town in this country has the most
extraordinary past,” Dalrymple said. “(But) there’s no realisation of how
important these things are, how fragile they are.”
Here’s a
selection of the historian’s photographs from the exhibition:
©
William Dalrymple, Dawn over Skardu, Pakistan. (Archival pigment print courtesy
Tasveer)
© William Dalrymple, Shalimar Bagh, Lahore. (Archival pigment print courtesy Tasveer)
© William Dalrymple, At the Marble Palace, Calcutta, (Archival pigment print courtesy Tasveer)
© William Dalrymple, Jama Masjid, Old Delhi. (Archival pigment print courtesy Tasveer)
© William Dalrymple, Ali Vardi Khan Masjid, Murshidabad. (Archival pigment print courtesy Tasveer)
© William Dalrymple, Bahmani tombs, Ashtur. (Archival pigment print courtesy Tasveer)
© William Dalrymple, After the monsoon, Chamba. (Archival pigment print courtesy Tasveer)
Source: qz
