India

A century ago, the British authorities in India passed a series of reforms that they hoped would appease the subcontinent’s increasingly confident political movements. But, writes Denis Judd, it was too little, too late.

The West Indies is home to a large and vibrant South Asian population descended from indentured labourers who worked the plantations after the abolition of slavery. The arrival of the first, from Bengal in 1838, is recorded in the journal of a young doctor who accompanied them, as Brigid Wells describes.

India’s rulers demonstrated what power they had by adopting the crafts of their conquerors – first the Mughals, then the British. Corinne Julius looks at the background to a new exhibition of dazzling artefacts

Richard Cavendish marks the anniversary of a violent post-First World War event in India

Edna Fernandes visits a madrassa in northern India founded in the wake of the Indian Mutiny. One of the first Islamic fundamentalist schools, its influence has spread into Pakistan and Afghanistan, among the Taliban and followers of Osama bin Laden.

Gandhi was shot on January 30th, 1948, aged seventy-eight, by the Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse.

Mihir Bose discusses the paradox that India, a land of history, has a surprisingly weak tradition of historiography.

As India celebrates six decades of independence on this year, Jad Adams examines how, in the world’s largest democracy, one family has come to take centre stage in politics, as if by divine right.

Andrew Robinson recalls conversations with the famous director about his work, and in particular the recently re-released Urdu film, The Chess Players, made in the 1970s, which explores events surrounding the British annexation of Oudh in 1856.

Richard Cavendish describes the British victory at Plassey in Bengal, on June 23rd, 1757.

Mark Bryant describes the life and works of Abu Abraham, the Observer’s first ever political cartoonist.

Francis Robinson looks for the distinctively tolerant and worldly features of Mughal rule in India and that of the related Islamic dynasties of Iran and Central Asia.

The Indian Mutiny and Rebellion, which broke out 150 years ago this month, was the greatest revolt against British imperialism of its century. Joseph Coohill uncovers some Indian accounts of what happened and why.