The British in India

A Zoom lecture series on India during the Company and Raj periods

Tuesday 19 October 6.30-8pm BST (Zoom)

The Origins of the British Empire in Asia 1600-1750

David Veevers

This talk emphasises the Asian genesis of the British Empire, revealing how integration into Asian economies, states and societies was central to British imperial and commercial success not national or mercantilist enterprise. Rather than ‘relentlessly’ rising to power, the East India Company had to subordinate itself to Asian rulers and establish durable partnerships with local merchants in order to succeed and flourish.

David Veevers is the author of  The Origins of the British Empire in Asia 1600-1750 (Cambridge University Press 2020). He is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow  at Queen Mary, University of London.

BOOK AT https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-origins-of-the-british-empire-in-asia-tickets-169144075483.   Tickets £5.

Tuesday 16 November 6.30-8pm GMT (Zoom)

India in the Persianate Age

Richard M. Eaton with Rosie Llewellyn-Jones

Richard Eaton recounts how population movements into India from Iran and Central Asia introduced Persian culture, how it is reflected in language, literature, cuisine, attire, religion, art, architecture and more, and how its interaction with India’s Sanskrit culture shaped the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire and regional states. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones explores how the British in the 18th century responded to this cultural milieu.

Richard M. Eaton is the author of  India in the Persianate Age 1000-1765 (Penguin 2020). He is Professor of History at the University of Arizona. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones’s  many books on British India include The Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah (Hurst).

BOOK AT https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/india-in-the-persianate-age-tickets-169318170205. Tickets £5.

Tuesday 14 December 6.30-8pm GMT (Zoom)

Wellington and the British Army’s Indian Campaigns 1798-1805

Martin R. Howard

The Indian theatre of the Napoleonic Wars has been neglected. It was a brutal conflict in which British armies made up of King’s regiments and native and European troops of the East India Company clashed with the forces of Mysore and the Maratha princes. There were dramatic pitched battles at Assaye, Argaum, Delhi and Laswari, and epic sieges at Seringapatam, Gawilghur and Bhurtpore. British success was not universal.

Martin R. Howard is the author of  Wellington and the British Army’s Indian Campaigns 1798-1805 (Pen & Sword 2020) and several others on the Napoleonic Wars. He is a Consultant Haematologist and a Visiting Professor at the University of York.  

BOOK AT https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wellington-and-the-british-armys-indian-campaigns-1798-1805-tickets-169342456847. Tickets £5.

Later lectures in the series can be booked at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-british-in-india-historical-trust-34361493445

Presented by The British in India Historical Trust