Courting India: Seventeenth-Century England, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire

by Nandini Das

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639363223
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	438,808
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Nandini Das is a professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at Oxford University, specializing in Renaissance literature and cultural history, with emphasis on cross-cultural encounters between Europe and Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She is the author of two previous books published in England, the editor of several volumes of essays, and the project director of the “Travel, Transculturality, and Identity in Early Modern England” (TIDE) project, funded by the European Research Council. A BBC New Generation Thinker, she regularly presents television and radio programs in England.

Editorial Reviews

A sparkling gem of a book. Beautifully written and masterfully researched, this has the makings of a classic.

#1 bestselling author of The Silk Roads Peter Frankopan

Striking and original . . . Das’s dual command of Mughal India and the Elizabethan and Jacobean world Roe sprang from makes the pleasures and insights of Courting India unique.

Air Mail

"The story of the very earliest years of British activity on the Indian subcontinent, Das's book goes to the heart of the initial, heady meeting of courts and cultures and presents a novel look at the roots of colonialism."

"Books to Read in 2023" The Financial Times

An engaging anew account. Das is the rare scholar who combines a sensitivity to the literature of Jacobean England with a sympathetic and nuanced understanding of the Mughal empire. Das does not flinch from this difficult history of the spread of European dominance. Yet she remains admirably evenhanded in her appraisal, revealing the subtle change of views and blurring of boundaries in this unpropitious moment of intercultural contact.

The New York Times

Das offers a close reading of Roe’s journal and fleshes out the character of the man within the context of the sociopolitical forces that shaped him. Das’s book is at its most interesting when it moves beneath the familiar and unearths stories that have been forgotten or suppressed."

The Washington Post

"Nandini Das moves seamlessly between the inner worlds of the courts of seventeenth century England and India and with a mastery of both. This important book brings the earliest days of the British empire vividly to life."

University of Oxford Dr. Yasmin Khan

"The embassy may have been a failure, but Das’s book about it is a triumph, of writing and scholarship. Courting India is part of a renaissance in writing about the early years of British engagement with India. All bring important new insights into the establishment of British power in India, but it is hard to imagine anyone ever bettering Das’s account of this part of the story."

The Financial Times

An engaging new account. Das is the rare scholar who combines a sensitivity to the literature of Jacobean England with a sympathetic and nuanced understanding of the Mughal empire. Das does not flinch from this difficult history of the spread of European dominance. Yet she remains admirably evenhanded in her appraisal, revealing the subtle change of views and blurring of boundaries in this unpropitious moment of intercultural contact.

The New York Times Book Review

"Startlingly eye-opening. . . . If we want to to truly understand the impact and legacy of the British Empire on our modern world, we have to start where it all began."

author of Sway Pragya Agarwal

"What a joy to find the first official Indo-British encounter receiving the scholarly attention and enthralling treatment it deserves . . . A modern masterpiece, delightful, enlightening and faultless."

John Keay

"The story of the very earliest years of British activity on the Indian subcontinent, Das's book goes to the heart of the initial, heady meeting of courts and cultures and presents a novel look at the roots of colonialism."

"Books to Read in 2023" Financial Times

"Courting India is a tour de force of detailed archival research and riveting storytelling. Its main character, King James I's first ambassador to India Thomas Roe, emerges here in all his historical as well as individual complexity - a low-budget, over-dressed herald of the juggernaut that the East India Company would become, and a bit-part actor in a transnational theatre of state he couldn't begin to fathom."

author of Masala Shakespeare —Professor Jonathan Gil Harris

"The embassy may have been a failure, but Das’s book about it is a triumph, of writing and scholarship. Courting India is part of a renaissance in writing about the early years of British engagement with India. All bring important new insights into the establishment of British power in India, but it is hard to imagine anyone ever bettering Das’s account of this part of the story."

-The Financial Times

"The story of the very earliest years of British activity on the Indian subcontinent, Das's book goes to the heart of the initial, heady meeting of courts and cultures and presents a novel look at the roots of colonialism."

"Books to Read in 2023" —Financial Times

"Nandini Das moves seamlessly between the inner worlds of the courts of seventeenth century England and India and with a mastery of both. This important book brings the earliest days of the British empire vividly to life."

University of Oxford —Dr. Yasmin Khan

"This lucid and imaginatively written book tells us a great deal about the hesitant early days of the first British Empire, as a traditionally inward-looking island nation sought to engage with the wider world. Professor Nandini Das captures the mixture of excitement, prejudice, anxiety, misunderstanding and mutual interest that characterised an encounter that did so much to shape the contours of the modern world.

Professor of English at the University of Sussex —Andrew Hadfield

"Startlingly eye-opening. . . . If we want to to truly understand the impact and legacy of the British Empire on our modern world, we have to start where it all began."

author of Sway —Pragya Agarwal

"What a joy to find the first official Indo-British encounter receiving the scholarly attention and enthralling treatment it deserves . . . A modern masterpiece, delightful, enlightening and faultless."

—John Keay

"The story of the very earliest years of British activity on the Indian subcontinent, Das's book goes to the heart of the initial, heady meeting of courts and cultures and presents a novel look at the roots of colonialism."

—Financial Times, "Books to Read in 2023"

"Jacobean London and Mughal India come face to face through the eyes of Thomas Roe. A figure previously marginalised, in Nandini Das's layered exploration, Roe finds a new life. And with him, we encounter rich pictures of imperial Britain being formed. A fine achievement and a great read."

author of Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nu —Professor Ruby Lal

"This well researched and written volume is a work of authority and quality. It is essential reading for the understanding of Britain's early encounter with India.

Emeritus Professor in the History of Modern South —Ian Talbot

"Courting India, by Nandini Das, is a brilliant and insightful study of Thomas Roe's embassy at the Mughal court. It serves as a rich repository of cultural memories from the beginnings of the colonial encounter - memories that have continuing resonance and relevance in our own era as we grapple with the aftermath of empire. Das offers a compelling account in which deft archival research navigates through English intellectual, literary and political worlds as they interconnected with the Mughal empire."

—Jyotsna G. Singh

03/17/2023

The exploits of English explorers in North America, such as Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) and John Smith (1580–1631), are well-known. Less familiar is the journey of one of their contemporaries, Thomas Roe (1581–1644), who traveled to India to establish a trade agreement with the Mughal Empire, considered to be one of the richest states in the world at that time. Das (early modern literature and culture, Oxford Univ.; Keywords of Identity, Race, and Human Mobility in Early Modern England) shines light on this early episode of colonialism by providing an in-depth description of Roe's mission. King James I, who ruled England from 1603 to 1625, sent Roe to represent England at the court of Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) in 1615. Roe remained there for three years, and during that time, he had the task of representing the interests of the English crown and the East India Company, which were not always in lockstep and were often unfamiliar with Mughal's court system, politics, culture, and language. This work provides a fascinating glimpse into political life in early 17th-century England and India, which will likely engage both experts and novices alike. VERDICT Essential for those interested in the history of colonialism, specifically the relationship depicted in this book.—Joshua Wallace

Library Journal

2023-03-04
A richly textured account of the first Englishman to make meaningful contact with India via the Mughal court in the early 17th century.

In 1615, Thomas Roe (1581-1644) became the first ambassador to the Mughal court, and he was enormously influential in how India was portrayed in England henceforth. As Oxford historian Das shows, at the beginning of the reign of James I, England had not yet become a colonial power, as Elizabeth I had embraced isolationism in international politics. Nonetheless, the English were hungry for luxury goods; James needed to raise money, and trade with Asia was integral. The East India Company, founded in 1600, was increasing its profits every year. The eager Roe, who had cut his teeth in the Amazon basin and then at the Ottoman court, was recommended to the post of ambassador so that English interests could be secured. Das examines the fabled reputation of India before Roe arrived, especially through the works of Chaucer, Ariosto, and Shakespeare. The author vividly describes Roe’s acceptance at the sumptuous court of Jahangir at Agra. She delves intriguingly into the roles of his sons, in-laws, and harem as well as the elaborate court rituals and layers of access, the role of women, and, most vexing for Roe, “the problem of finding and giving the right gifts.” Das offers elucidating digressions into the roles of Roe’s chaplain, Edward Terry, and Jahangir’s queen, Mihr-un-Nisa, “the effective co-sovereign” of the empire. Ultimately, Roe had to adjust his initial view of the emperor as a “stock-figure of Asian tyranny” and his duplicitous court as rather more warmhearted and nuanced. Keen to the incursions of the Portuguese and Dutch, Roe was anxious to secure British trade interests because, at the time, “European politics was a powder keg waiting to explode.”

Ornately detailed study of an early ambassador, with an emphasis on fruitful trade in India.

Kirkus Reviews