India

Zoroastrians in the Great Game

In the early 1900s the small but influential Zoroastrian community in India contemplated establishing a colony in Iran. Could the Parsis rely on British support?

View of Birmingham, c.1860. Heritage Images/TopFoto.

What Birmingham Taught Muslim India

Industrial Birmingham was an important stop on the grand tours of various Muslim rulers, all eager to learn from the city of a thousand trades.

Hindu pilgrims bathing in the Ganges, 1959. © Deutsche Fotothek / Schröter, Wolfgang G.

‘Gods, Guns and Missionaries’ by Manu S. Pillai review

Hinduism predates colonialism by thousands of years, but in Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity Manu S. Pillai explains how European ideas shaped Hindutva.

The young Brahmin is committed to the care of a Shastri Brahmin. From The Lives of the Brahmin, an album of 38 watercolour drawings of ceremonies undertaken during the life of a Brahmin, India, c.1820. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

Brahmins: The Origins of India’s Priestly Caste

In the first millennium BC the Brahmin class organised as a community and assumed responsibility for learning the sacred Vedas. What are the origins of India’s priestly caste?

‘Dancing at the New Carlton Hotel, Shanghai’, block print by Toyonari, 1924. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Public Domain.

‘The Worlds of Victor Sassoon’ by Rosemary Wakeman review

Rosemary Wakeman’s The Worlds of Victor Sassoon: Bombay, London, Shanghai, 1918-1941 is a tale of three cities linked by globalisation and a singular global citizen.

Indian security forces in Srinagar, Kashmir, 2009. Dinodia/Topfoto.

Kashmir: Prisoner of History?

Caught between the antagonistic states of India and Pakistan, Kashmir is stuck in geopolitical limbo. Its location – and its history – threaten to keep it there.

Porus surrenders to Alexander the Great, from History of the World, by Evert A. Duyckinck, 1870. Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images.

How Ancient Greece Shaped the British Raj

British agents of empire saw their actions in India through the texts of their classical educations. They looked for Alexander, cast themselves as Aeneas and hoped to emulate Augustus.

Robert Clive meeting Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, Francis Hayman, c.1762. PRISMA ARCHIVO/Alamy Stock Photo.

The Death of Clive of India

Robert Clive’s death has long been attributed to suicide. What is the evidence?

Ikbal Ali (left) and Idries (right) Shah. Secretum Mundi (CC BY-SA 4.0)/From Ikbal Ali Shah, Afghanistan of the Afghans, 1923.

The ‘Experts’ from Afghanistan

Britain’s dearth of Afghan informants provided an opportunity for a disinherited Indian prince and his son to present themselves as an authentic conduit to the Muslim world. Soon they were advising the nation on subjects from geopolitics to the powers of the occult.

Warren Hastings depicted in a manuscript of the Divan of Minnat, India, c.1782. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

Rehabilitating the East India Company’s Nabobs

The nabobs of the East India Company were considered violent, greedy and – worst of all in a time of Enlightenment – uneducated. Could their reputation as philistines be laundered?