LONDON: A book by an Indian-origin author and Oxford academic which challenges pre-existing notions about India’s pre-colonial period and the origins of Empire has won the 11th British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding.
“Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire” is the debut of Nandini Das, a fellow at Exeter College and professor of early modern literature and culture in the English faculty at the University of Oxford. Das (49) grew up in Kolkata and read English literature at Jadavpur University before travelling to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, followed by an MPhil and doctorate at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Through the story of the arrival of the first English ambassador in India, Sir Thomas Roe, in the early 17th century, her book recasts the entire story of Britain and India, moving beyond a Eurocentric telling to offering an entertaining, even-handed encounter of the two cultures and their ambitions, misunderstandings and prejudices. It draws on the memoirs of Mughal emperor Jahangir, the correspondence of Sir Thomas Roe and the archives of the East India Company.
“The judging panel was drawn to the contrast between an impoverished, insecure Britain and the flourishing, confident Mughal Empire and the often-amusing, sometimes querulous exchanges between their various representatives. Moreover, we were reminded through this story of the first ambassadorial mission of the value of international diplomacy, but also of the cultural minefields that surround it in ways that still have resonance today,” said the chair of the judging panel, Prof Charles Tripp.
“Nandini Das has written the true origin story of Britain and India. By using contemporary sources by Indian and by British political figures, officials and merchants she has given the story an unparalleled immediacy that brings to life these early encounters and the misunderstandings that sometimes threatened to wreck the whole endeavour. At the same time, she grants us a privileged vantage point from which we can appreciate how a measure of mutual understanding did begin to emerge, even though it was vulnerable to the ups and downs of Mughal politics and to the restless ambitions of the British,” Tripp added.
Das wins £25,000 after being named the winner of the prize.
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