A profound and ground-breaking new history one of the most important encounters in the history of colonialism: the British arrival in India in the early seventeenth century.
'A sparkling gem of a book. Beautifully written and masterfully researched, this has the makings of a classic' Peter Frankopan, #1 bestselling author ofThe Silk Roads
When 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 world.
In Nandini Das's fascinating history of Roe's four years in India, she offers an insider's view of a Britain in the making, a country whose imperial seeds were just being sown. It is a story of palace intrigue and scandal, lotteries and wagers that unfolds as global trade begins to stretch from Russia to Virginia, from West Africa to the Spice Islands of Indonesia.
A major debut that explores the art, literature, sights and sounds of Elizabethan London and Imperial India, Courting India reveals Thomas Roe's time in the Mughal Empire to be a turning point in history - and offers a rich and radical challenge to our understanding of Britain and its early empire.
Product Details
Title:
Courting India
Author:
Das Nandini Das
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing
SKU:
BK0474261
EAN:
9781526615657
Number Of Pages:
480
Language:
English
Binding:
Paperback
Country Of Origin:
India
Release date:
2 March 2023
About Author
Nandini Das is professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture in the English faculty at the University of Oxford. Brought up in India, she was educated at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, before moving to England for further study. Among other books, she is co-editor of The Cambridge History of Travel Writing. A BBC New Generation Thinker, she regularly presents television and radio programmes, including Tales of Tudor Travel: The Explorer's Handbook on BBC4.
