The anarchists of Victorian Era
William Dalrymple’s new book is the result of six years of extensive research on East India Company and their ruthless pursuit of power
Time and again, the infamous pursuits of the British Empire which cunningly drained Indian wealth under the mask of development and generosity, has been, for the lack of a better word, unmasked. But before the Empire became synonymous with tyranny, one fine English morning, on September 24, 1599, London’s wealthiest merchants assembled and came to the decision of pooling their money to form what would be world’s most first multinational company — The East India Company. The exploits of this company form the core of William Dalrymple’s latest book.
Titled — The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire, the book charts the initial pursuits of petty pirates along with explorers in search of India, to the fall of a British joint-stock company that became an
imperial power, in 50 years, with a private army twice the size of the British army.
THE FALL OF MUGHAL EMPIRE
A famed painting, created after the Revolt of 1857, shows an old bearded man being escorted through the terrains before being exiled to Burma. He is surrounded by reverent soldiers in red uniform. This man is Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor. Perhaps nothing explains the shift of power from the descendants of Genghis Khan to the much technologically advanced East India Company.
No other facet helped the Company take over India, more than the collapse of the Mughals.
This is what forms the background of Dalrymple’s book. “If you look at the breakdown of Mughal Empire between the last years of Aurangzeb and the following 20 years, 1700 to 1720, and read what’s written about those years, it says that the religious bigotry was a major contributor for the downfall. But the more modern view is that it was the overambitious expansion to the Deccan. When the Mughals tried to conquer both Bijapur and Golkonda in a single decade, it exhausted the Mughal Empire. Moreover, their mishandling of the Marathas was another reason,” he says. Robert Clive after the Battle of Plassey. Fought on the banks of river Hoogli, it saw the shift of power from the Nawabs to the East India Company
With the outspread Indian terrain under their command, the gorilla tactics adopted by Maratha kings and their constant detrimental attacks kept crippling the Mughals for decades.
ATTEMPTS TO MASK ATROCITIES
An important aspect that the author tries to put forth is the gulf between the Company and the Empire. “It wasn’t really taught in your textbooks because it was a distinction which British nationalist history disguised in the 19th century. The Victorians were embarrassed about this history. They wanted to pretend and put out to the world that the British were in India on a civilising mission. That this was a help by the generous British government to the Indians. But the fact remains that the Company was founded by a bunch of ex-pirates,” says the author, about the significance of being able to distinguish between the two.
“A rogue multinational,” as Dalrymple calls it, with its unambiguous intent, never stopped pursuing what it landed on the Indian shores for. This approach inadvertently called the Victorians’ bluff in the history books. “The Company never pretended like the Victorians. They made it very clear that they were here for personal profits and gains. The first East Indian Company ship that sailed for India was a pirate ship. It was called the Scourge of Malice, which was then renamed to Red Dragon,” he laughs.
THE ROBERT CLIVE CONUNDRUM
How should history remember a masterful tactician, who was also a ruthless commander?
“I had great fun writing about Clive because he is such an unpleasant character,” Dalrymple says, adding, “He had this extraordinary ability to, time and again, call it right in his life. And he’d take terrific risks which would pay off. He marches into Siraj ud-Daulah’s camp of 15,000 in the early morning mist with 500 men. Now, this is a crazy thing to do. It could have easily ended in a total disaster. And yet, he gauged it right. He’s one of those terrible villains who kept on succeeding. He’s impolite, unpleasant and mentally unstable, but still, a brilliant strategist who is capable of guessing a man’s weaknesses and strengths. Moreover, he had no formal military training, he was an accountant for God’s sake.”
For one thing, literature kept blossoming during the Mughal Empire. But the invaders would have none of the chivalry that the Mughals passed down for generations, which finally came back to haunt them in the form of Robert Clive. “I hadn’t realised how much Bahadur Shah Zafar’s public persona of this poet was really invented by his grandfather. It was Shah Alam II , who really created the absence of real political power,” he adds.
His most desolate victim was the Emperor Shah Alam II — who was poles opposite. “Shah Alam was a really good man, an honourable man. He, one day, had a massive victory outside the gates of Patna but declines to cut up and destroy the retreating army of the Company. He thinks it is ungentlemanly to let these fleeing soldiers to be cut down by his army. And as a result of that, a month later, he’s defeated. Clive would have none of that kindness or weakness,” says Dalrymple.
THE INDIAN PARTICIPATION
What baffled the historian while researching for the book, was the involvement of Indian banking classes. The very fact that the Company was able to pay off debts, forced the banking classes to tilt towards the alien organisation. “I had presumed that this was just going to be a military story about European military technology peaking old fashioned Mughal fighting chniques. But that was not he only reason why the ompany prevailed. The reason hat the Company succeeded was because of the mixture of very astute diplomacy and the act that some major Indian banking houses had an understanding with the Company. And, at the end of the day, they preferred lending money to them and couldn’t care where the Company plundered, looted or pillaged as they were able to pay off the debts, with interest. That’s why many private banks preferred to loan them money than, say, the Marathas,” he concludes.
The Company never pretended like the Victorians. They made it very clear that they were here for personal profits and gains.
WILLIAM DALRYMPLE,
AUTHOR-HISTORIAN