Description
In August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army – what we would now call an act of involuntary privatisation.
The East India Company’s founding charter authorised it to ‘wage war’ and it had always used violence to gain its ends. But the creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional international trading corporation dealing in silks and spices and became something much more unusual: an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business. In less than four decades it had trained up a security force of around 200,000 men – twice the size of the British army – and had subdued an entire subcontinent, conquering first Bengal and finally, in 1803, the Mughal capital of Delhi itself. The Company’s reach stretched until almost all of India south of the Himalayas was effectively ruled from a boardroom in London.
The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting book to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.
Tharun Kumar Venkata (Verified Purchase)
The best narration of history and historical characters that were never written before. A delight to read and own such a work.
Munawar Shaik (Verified Purchase)
What an amazing book. WD never disappoints. The whole idea of EIC has changed for me now. It was not Britain, or England, that ruled India. It was a corporate. It was bloody East India Company!!
Rohan kumar (Verified Purchase)
It is a wonderful book to read about the history of the days of company epoch. History buffs are surely get sustenance to think from a new angle on the happenings happened in those days and how the British Raj got a good hold over the province of Bengal. I find it a charming read and the delivery by courier company was in perfect time and the quality of book material is very good.
Naresh Putta (Verified Purchase)
This book formatted that part of my brain which housed Indian history as learnt in my school classroom. Replaced by reliable data from this book. Mr. Dalrymple, you are something else!!
Vipendra Singh (Verified Purchase)
Must read to understand how the difficult period called Anarchy went by; how a small merchant company took over India because we Indians remained divided with our petty goals; very well written and each page was worth the read; see a lot of research done; a must for us Indians to understand our volatile past