The Anarchy: By William Dalrymple, A Book Review by Nazia Tanwir
“We still talk about the British conquering India, but that phrase disguises a more sinister reality. It was not the British government that began seizing great chunks of India in the mid-eighteenth century, but a dangerously unregulated private company headquartered in one small office, five windows wide, in London, and managed in India by a violent, utterly ruthless and intermittently mentally unstable corporate predator.” – An excerpt from the book
So I happened to read this book by my fav author William Dalyrmple, couple of months back and it left quite an impact on me. Because of many reasons actually.
The kind of research and detailing that has gone into this book, is nothing short of spectacular to say the least. William specializes in the history genre and most of the themes of his previous books are India based. Be it, “Delhi, the city of Djinss”, “The white Mughals” or the “The last Mughal”. Each one of these is a Masterpiece. This particular book will change your whole perspective and pre-existing notions about the subject. Even a person who is least interested in History as a subject would be left mesmerized.
The Anarchy is the real story of the genesis of EAST INDIA COMPANY from a small Board room in London and its journey finally culminating as an imperial ruler in India spanning over 200 years. How the company started in UK with very noble trade intentions/agenda and how its objective transformed over the years into something which bordered on greedy and ruthless commercialization. How a humble trading company metamorphosed into a political and military power?! This transition of the company from trade to conquest is what the book is all about. It will definitely leave you with a tinge of sadness as you turn over the last page, because any story that talks about pillage, plundering and shameless looting of a nation is definitely cringe-worthy. Imagine, your current company where you are working, entering into a new GEO with the mission of providing services and slowly gaining political mileage and military momentum in a very crafty and foxy way and ultimately becoming the ruler of that country. So, this is what actually happened to our country from 1600s to 1800s. It all started very innocently on the pretext of helping the Mughal rulers collect taxes from people and gradually turned into something more sinister, transforming itself into an aggressive colonial power.
So this book is an absolute page-turner and you will find yourself carrying it with you everywhere, because your can’t just put it down without finishing it at one go. All those characters that we studied in school history, starting from the mightly Mughals to the likes of Lord Mountbatten and Robert Clive, Simon of ‘Go Simon go’ fame etc have been fleshed out so well, that you actually visualize them as real living breathing personalities in front of your eyes. Either you love them, or you hate them …but you cant just NOT be in awe of them.
This was the first company in the world that became the very model for our present day multinationals who try and dominate governments in the countries they operate through direct/indirect levers. The author does mention though, that Indians were smart enough to de-code the British game quite early, but were never able to gather enough support or coalition amongst themselves to overthrow the British. The native powers in India were all divided, the Mughals, marathas in the west and the mighty Tipu Sultan of the south. All of them were divided and hence were conquered. So my key take away from this book is the importance of having a united front. Especially in today’s new order of things, at a time when prevailing Indian politics is once again relying heavily on the divide-and-dominate policy of the British conquerors, it is almost heartwrenching to learn from The Anarchy that Indians lost as a civilisation solely because they allowed themselves to be divided.
Will leave you with a good news that this book will be made into a web series soon!
Till then, to all my bibliophiles... cheers!
