A profound and ground-breaking approach to one of the most important
encounters in the history of colonialism: the British arrival in India
in the early seventeenth century.
Traditional interpretations of the British Empire's emerging success and
expansion have long overshadowed the deep uncertainty that marked its
initial entanglement with India. In Courting India: Renaissance
London, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire, acclaimed historian
Nandini Das examines the British arrival in India in the early 17th
century with fresh eyes, resulting in a profound and groundbreaking
account of one of the most important encounters in the history of
colonialism.
When Thomas Roe arrived in India in 1616 as James I's first ambassador
to the Mughal Empire, the English barely had a toehold in the
subcontinent. Their understanding of South Asian trade and India was
sketchy at best, and, to the Mughals, they were minor players on a very
large stage. Roe represented a kingdom that was beset by financial woes
and deeply conflicted about its identity as a unified 'Great Britain'
under the Stuart monarchy. Meanwhile, the court he entered in India was
wealthy and cultured, its dominion widely considered to be one of the
greatest and richest empires of the world.
In this fascinating history of Roe's four years in India, Nandini
Das offers an insider's view of Britain in the making, a country whose
imperial seeds were just being sown. It is a story of palace intrigue,
scandal, lotteries, and wagers that unfold as global trade begins to
stretch from Russia to Virginia, from West Africa to the Spice Islands
of Indonesia.
A major debut that explores the art, literature, sights and sounds of
Elizabethan London and Imperial India, Courting India reveals
Thomas Roe's time in the Mughal Empire to be a turning point in
history--and offers a rich and radical challenge to our understanding of
Britain and its early empire.
