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A review by inkdrinkerreads
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple
5.0
Having received this as a very generous birthday gift from some lovely students, I was determined to get through it at some indeterminate point. However, when I saw that William Dalrymple was due to talk about the book at the Hong Kong International Lit Fest on Saturday (today!), I set myself the ambitious challenge of reading the whole 550 page tome in just 5 days. Well, I just about made it, thanks largely to the fact that 150 of those pages were notes. Thank you, notes!
And that fact is a good place to start this review- that novella of notes is testament to Dalrymple’s remarkably extensive research. The sheer amount of work that has gone into this study of the East India Company is worth 5-stars alone.
This is the kind of history that ought to be taught in schools, particularly those in the UK. The fact that a small group of merchants, organised out of a humble office in London, had the ability to strip the assets of a vast and powerful nation, subjugating its peoples and vanquishing established royal leaders in the process is nothing short of astonishing. That they, for large parts of the 18th Century effectively ruled most of India with a military might greater than that of the British Empire itself is just incredible. Unregulated, these traders plundered unbelievable amounts of money and resources from India (Dalrymple opens with the telling observation that the word ‘loot’ is taken from an Indian language) and paved the way for the British government to take over as colonial rulers. Dalrymple manages to impose a coherent narrative on to the chaos of this history, succinctly detailing the anarchy of the battlefields and complex religious and cultural conflicts raging across India.
It is a staggering story and Dalrymple’s characterisation of the key players and his control of the narrative, keeping it lively and gripping throughout, is masterful. His writing is evocative and lush, making 18th Century India, in all its opulence and devastation, come alive on the page.
The book is a stark warning about corporate rapacity, untrammelled greed and the dangers of the immoral pursuit of profit above all else. The EIC were unparalleled and unrivalled as a corporation in the 1700’s and modern equivalents look tame by comparison. But the story of the East India Company’s relentless rise provides highly ominous lessons about the potential for corporate abuse, and the insidious relationship between states and shareholders. Though players like Google and Apple may not (yet) have their own armies, Dalrymple reminds us that unchecked corporate influence can have disastrous consequences.
And that fact is a good place to start this review- that novella of notes is testament to Dalrymple’s remarkably extensive research. The sheer amount of work that has gone into this study of the East India Company is worth 5-stars alone.
This is the kind of history that ought to be taught in schools, particularly those in the UK. The fact that a small group of merchants, organised out of a humble office in London, had the ability to strip the assets of a vast and powerful nation, subjugating its peoples and vanquishing established royal leaders in the process is nothing short of astonishing. That they, for large parts of the 18th Century effectively ruled most of India with a military might greater than that of the British Empire itself is just incredible. Unregulated, these traders plundered unbelievable amounts of money and resources from India (Dalrymple opens with the telling observation that the word ‘loot’ is taken from an Indian language) and paved the way for the British government to take over as colonial rulers. Dalrymple manages to impose a coherent narrative on to the chaos of this history, succinctly detailing the anarchy of the battlefields and complex religious and cultural conflicts raging across India.
It is a staggering story and Dalrymple’s characterisation of the key players and his control of the narrative, keeping it lively and gripping throughout, is masterful. His writing is evocative and lush, making 18th Century India, in all its opulence and devastation, come alive on the page.
The book is a stark warning about corporate rapacity, untrammelled greed and the dangers of the immoral pursuit of profit above all else. The EIC were unparalleled and unrivalled as a corporation in the 1700’s and modern equivalents look tame by comparison. But the story of the East India Company’s relentless rise provides highly ominous lessons about the potential for corporate abuse, and the insidious relationship between states and shareholders. Though players like Google and Apple may not (yet) have their own armies, Dalrymple reminds us that unchecked corporate influence can have disastrous consequences.