The great plunderers
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Wednesday
February 08, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023
The great plunderers

Book Review

Shibabrata Barman
12 September, 2019, 11:25 am
Last modified: 12 September, 2019, 11:26 am

Related News

  • Sosemira: A graphic novel true to its name
  • Problematic Loveletters: A manifesto of love, pain and recovery
  • 'Hajaro Prabad-Prabachane Chatga': An important documentation of the Chatgaiya dialect
  • Millennials of Bangladesh: The generation that grew in democracy, neoliberalism and disparity 
  • The story of a people through the story of their language

The great plunderers

The book talks about the degree to which the company was helped by the Marwari community of traders and bankers

Shibabrata Barman
12 September, 2019, 11:25 am
Last modified: 12 September, 2019, 11:26 am
The great plunderers

One of the very first words to enter English parlance, no wonder, is the Bengali or Hindustani word for plunder: loot. In the late eighteenth century, this unfamiliar word suddenly started to buzz across Britain. Because the isles of Britain were awash with loots from India, room after room of imperial plunder.

But how did all these artefacts end up in British royal palaces?

For William Dalrymple, the Scottish historian and writer, the mystery was very simple. It is best explained in a miniature painting of the late Mughal era. Painted by miniaturist artist Bichitr, the picture depicts a scene from August 1765, when young Mughal Emperor Shah Alam, exiled from Delhi and defeated by East India Company troops, was forced into involuntary privatisation. The scroll he was handing down was an order to dismiss his own revenue officials in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and replace them by a set of English traders appointed by Robert Clive.

Released on September 10, William Dalrymple's latest book, The Anarchy, is a graphic retelling of the East India Company's rise from a provincial trading company to the pre-eminent military and political power in all of India.

A broadcaster and critic, Dalrymple's interests span from history and art of the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and the Muslim world. His 2002 book White Mughals, which dealt with an early nineteenth century love affair that took place in Hyderabad between an English official and an Indian woman, became hugely popular.

This new narrative of East India Company is, in Dalrymple's own words, "…the history of the whole monstrous institution in one volume."

The 575-page book traces a 200-year offence which was not only aided and enabled by Indian sepoys but even paid for very largely by the loans given by Indian bankers. In 1757, after defeating Siraj-ud-Daula in the Battle of Plassey, the company moved from being a trading organisation to a nascent colonial power.

Dalrymple in a dramatic story-telling mood showcases many dark secrets that people preferred to overlook. He writes: "There's no way a bunch of foreign merchants with no military might could take over India."

The company, the first corporate entity in the world, was facilitated by the Indian financial class, especially the Marwari bankers of Calcutta and Benares.

The book talks about the degree to which the company was helped by the Marwari community of traders and bankers, especially the Jagat Seths who were Oswal Jain bankers from Jodhpur state.

The book also takes an honest look at the communities of traders and bankers who used the hundi system to facilitate the movement of money and revenue.

Features / Top News

Book Review

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: PID
    LNG to be imported from spot market to meet demand in summer, PM tells JS
  • Rescuers look on as they sit on rubble, following an earthquake in Hatay Province, Turkey, February 7, 2023. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
    Turkey-Syria earthquake: Clock ticking for untold numbers buried under rubble, death toll crosses 11,416
  • BB makes diploma mandatory for promotion of bankers
    BB makes diploma mandatory for promotion of bankers

MOST VIEWED

  • Sosemira: A graphic novel true to its name
    Sosemira: A graphic novel true to its name
  • Photo: Collected
    The Golden Land: An exploration of how heritage fits into the broader scope of a person
  • 10 Best Novels by South Asian authors since the 2020 pandemic
    10 Best Novels by South Asian authors since the 2020 pandemic
  • Her Stories - Adventures Of Supergirls: From the perspective of a 10-year old girl
    Her Stories - Adventures Of Supergirls: From the perspective of a 10-year old girl
  • The Unfair Advantage: How the successful leverage their opportunities and how we can use ours
    The Unfair Advantage: How the successful leverage their opportunities and how we can use ours
  • Photo: Noor A Alam
    The story of a people through the story of their language

Related News

  • Sosemira: A graphic novel true to its name
  • Problematic Loveletters: A manifesto of love, pain and recovery
  • 'Hajaro Prabad-Prabachane Chatga': An important documentation of the Chatgaiya dialect
  • Millennials of Bangladesh: The generation that grew in democracy, neoliberalism and disparity 
  • The story of a people through the story of their language

Features

Illustration: TBS

Planning to study abroad? Explore these four underrated scholarships

10h | Pursuit
Representational image. Photo: Collected.

The understated perks of journaling

9h | Pursuit
Photo: Reuters

A tragedy that will also shake up the region's geopolitics

23h | Panorama
Nimah designed by Compass Architects- Wooden tiles. Photo: Junaid Hasan Pranto

Trendy flooring designs to upgrade any space

1d | Habitat

More Videos from TBS

Unknown facts about Sid-Kiara wedding

Unknown facts about Sid-Kiara wedding

4h | TBS Entertainment
Rescuers dig through rubble as death toll passes 9,000

Rescuers dig through rubble as death toll passes 9,000

4h | TBS World
30% companies see double-digit growth even in hard times

30% companies see double-digit growth even in hard times

1d | TBS Insight
Challenging time waiting for RMG

Challenging time waiting for RMG

1d | TBS Round Table

Most Read

1
Photo: Courtesy
Panorama

From 'Made in Bangladesh' to 'Designed in Bangladesh'

2
Master plan for futuristic Chattogram city in the making
Districts

Master plan for futuristic Chattogram city in the making

3
Photo: Collected
Crime

Prime Distribution MD Mamun arrested in fraud case

4
Leepu realised his love for cars from a young age and for the last 40 years, he has transformed, designed and customised hundreds of cars. Photo: Collected
Panorama

'I am not crazy about cars anymore': Nizamuddin Awlia Leepu

5
Photo: Collected
Startups

ShopUp secures $30m debt financing to boost expansion, supply chain

6
ICB to withdraw Padma Bank investment as return eludes
Banking

ICB to withdraw Padma Bank investment as return eludes

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]