by William Dalrymple
In this powerful and evocative study of the collapse of the Mughal Empire and the rise of British rule in India, award-winning historian William Dalrymple draws on newly uncovered sources to examine one of the most decisive moments in South Asian history. The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, ascended the throne at a time when Mughal political authority was already in sharp decline. Yet Zafar—an accomplished poet, mystic, and calligrapher—presided over a court of extraordinary cultural brilliance, fostering what would become one of the greatest literary renaissances in modern Indian history. Even as this cultural flowering took place, British power steadily eroded the emperor’s authority. In May 1857, Zafar was proclaimed the symbolic leader of a rebellion against British rule. Aware of the overwhelming odds and sensing the uprising’s likely failure, he nonetheless found himself unable to resist the course of events. Four months later, British forces recaptured Delhi, unleashing devastating consequences for the city and its people. With exceptional insight into both British and Indian histories, Dalrymple delivers a bold and revealing narrative of one of the bloodiest and most transformative upheavals of the nineteenth century, shedding new light on the human and political costs of empire.
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