India past and present ......... on the wireless

Now this is one to listen too.

India past and present,  offers up a discussion on that excellent new book on the East India Company by William Dalrymple, along with contributions on the Amritsar massacre from Anita Anand, and Kashmir by Professor Sumantra Bose ........ Radio 4 at its best

"Corporate rapacity and government collusion are at the centre of William Dalrymple’s history of the East India Company. 

He tells Amol Rajan how the company moved relentlessly from trade to conquest of India in the 18th century. 

But Dalrymple warns against the distortion of history both by those in Britain nostalgic for an imperial past, and Hindu nationalists in India.

2019 marked the centenary of the Amritsar massacre in which more than a thousand Indians were killed by British soldiers. 

Although the events leading up to the atrocity are now well documented, Anita Anand has uncovered the extraordinary story of revenge which led to the shooting in London of the man responsible for the massacre.

In August this year the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s special status, sparking protests in the Muslim-majority valley. 

But why has this region - once a princely state, until the end of British rule - become such a flashpoint for violence? Professor Sumantra Bose explores the consequence of the Indian government’s latest actions.

Producer: Katy Hickman"

Picture; Coin, 1835, East India Company, courtesy of National Museum of American History


*India past and present, Start of the Week, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bvw5

How to steal a continent ………………. stories of India and the East India Company

I suppose I am the last generation to be brought up on stories of Empire, when in countless lessons at school we were told of the quarter of the globe which was painted red.

In the case of India, I only vaguely knew of the role of the East India Company in the history of the sub-continent, and how that played out with the British Empire.

It was the first multinational company and its ships were often just referred to as “Indiamen”.

It had been founded in 1600 to trade in the Indian Ocean region, and until 1858 controlled large parts of the Indian sub-continent, along with parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, and arguably damaged the
the Indian economy which its asset-stripped, looted, and plundered.

All of which means I have been fascinated by Anarchy,  on the wireless this week.

In five episodes Radio 4,  has taken “William Dalrymple's new and acclaimed history of the East India Company [and explored] how a small trading company founded in 1599 led to the formation of the British Raj. The reader is Alistair McGowan.

Adapted by William Dalrymple
Produced by Elizabeth Allard”*

Today is the last of the five episodes, but all are available to listen to, for the next month.

Picture; East India coin, 1835, courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History

*The Anarchy, Radio 4,  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000b4wf