NANDINI DAS – Courting India

‘An intelligent and gripping book with a thoughtful awareness of human relationships and frailties’ (The Critic)

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 was representing 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.

A Waterstones and History Today Book of the Year, Courting India reveals how Roe’s time in the Mughal Empire was a turning point in history – offering a radical challenge to our understanding of Britain and its early empire.

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Photo: Fran Monks