The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857

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The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 1,623 ratings · 145 reviews

On a hazy November afternoon in Rangoon, 1862, a shrouded corpse was escorted by a small group of British soldiers to an anonymous grave in a prison enclosure. As the British Commissioner in charge insisted, “No vestige will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Moghuls rests.”

Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last Mughal Emperor, was a mystic, an accomplished poet a...more On a hazy November afternoon in Rangoon, 1862, a shrouded corpse was escorted by a small group of British soldiers to an anonymous grave in a prison enclosure. As the British Commissioner in charge insisted, “No vestige will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Moghuls rests.”

Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last Mughal Emperor, was a mystic, an accomplished poet and a skilled calligrapher. But while his Mughal ancestors had controlled most of India, the aged Zafar was king in name only. Deprived of real political power by the East India Company, he nevertheless succeeded in creating a court of great brilliance, and presided over one of the great cultural renaissances of Indian history.

Then, in 1857, Zafar gave his blessing to a rebellion among the Company’s own Indian troops, thereby transforming an army mutiny into the largest uprising any empire had to face in the entire course of the nineteenth century. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj’s Stalingrad: one of the most horrific events in the history of Empire, in which thousands on both sides died. And when the British took the city—securing their hold on the subcontinent for the next ninety years—tens of thousands more Indians were executed, including all but two of Zafar’s sixteen sons. By the end of the four-month siege, Delhi was reduced to a battered, empty ruin, and Zafar was sentenced to exile in Burma. There he died, the last Mughal ruler in a line that stretched back to the sixteenth century.

Award-winning historian and travel writer William Dalrymple shapes his powerful retelling of this fateful course of events from groundbreaking material: previously unexamined Urdu and Persian manuscripts that include Indian eyewitness accounts and records of the Delhi courts, police and administration during the siege. The Last Mughal is a revelatory work—the first to present the Indian perspective on the fall of Delhi—and has as its heart both the dazzling capital personified by Zafar and the stories of the individuals tragically caught up in one of the bloodiest upheavals in history.(less)

Hardcover, 560 pages

Published March 27th 2007 by Knopf (first published 2006)

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Apr 12, 2012 Priyanka rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you are interested in getting a glimpse of India somewhere during the 1857 mutiny, this is the book, an excellent read.

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Dec 15, 2009 Monica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recommendations-from-ned, politics, history

Fast paced, flashing like an epic movie, round about page 100 I was convinced of Dalrymple's brilliant talent, incorporating Urdu texts and British writings from the era to show how a tolerant creative, if excessive Mughal court was torn asunder by violence and racism; how something so small and inconsiderate as to how bullets were manufactured could erupt into such violence, followed by even greater revenge. I wanted insight into complicated Muslim, Sufi, Hindu, Christian relations and got exac...more

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Aug 09, 2007 D. rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm giving this book four stars because although it's very interesting material, I didn't get "hooked" very easily and it took me longer to read than a book this size usually takes me.

The book is about Delhi during the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and about the fall of the Mughals. I came out of reading this book disgusted and angry with both sides, and very sad for all the horrible things that happened in Delhi at that time. To think that Chandni Chowk, my favorite spot in Delhi, was the place of su...more

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Jul 29, 2007 Sandhya rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone with a penchant for history and great writing

Author: William Dalrymple
Publishers: Penguin Viking
Published In: 2006
Price: Rs 695
Pages: 586
Genre: Historical
BY Sandhya Iyer

Last glow of light

Being fairly intrigued by Mughal history, Dalrymple has always been one author whose books I’ve wanted to read. I missed out on his White Mughals but got an opportunity to read The Last Mughal and must say, it turned out to be every bit the rich, luxuriant and fascinating experience I imagined it to be.

I must confess here that I have no problems w...more

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Feb 26, 2009 Prashant R rated it 5 of 5 stars

The further backward you look....the further forward you can see." This is what Sir Winston Churchill said when talking about the relevance of history to one's current circumstance.

I cannot help but recall these words, after reading William Dalrymple's brilliant
"The Last Mughal".

William Dalrymple's latest book uses Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor of the Mughal dynasty, to recreate the vibrant city of Delhi, in the 1850's. A culturally diverse, almost cosmopolitan city, of which Bahadur Shah...more The further backward you look....the further forward you can see." This is what Sir Winston Churchill said when talking about the relevance of history to one's current circumstance.

I cannot help but recall these words, after reading William Dalrymple's brilliant
"The Last Mughal".

William Dalrymple's latest book uses Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor of the Mughal dynasty, to recreate the vibrant city of Delhi, in the 1850's. A culturally diverse, almost cosmopolitan city, of which Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the mere figurehead. A city which epitomized,the India of the Mughals, where the Hindus and Muslims co-existed peacefully. In fact a rich culture and social fabric existed due to this pluralistic co-existence.

The mutiny of 1857 proved to be the fall of the Mughal Dynasty, and the end of this vibrant way of life.

Dalrymple, researched this book for over 4 years and accessed sources, which were until now, never used to narrate the history of those seminal times. "The Mutiny Papers", which were found on the shelves of National Archives of India, detailed through "great unwieldy mountains of chits, pleas, orders, petitions, complaints, receipts, rolls of attendance and lists of casualties...notes from spies of dubious reliability and letters from eloping lovers...", a very uniquely Indian point of view and perspective. An important voice, which until now has been missing in the retelling of the "Sepoys Mutiny".

For me as an Indian, it is very important to understand this point of view. To know about my true cultural heritage, about strands of my identity which were sundered by the British, along their (in)famous "Divide and Rule" policy.
Consider this, most of the history books, have been written by the British in some form...so the opinions I have formed, and the perspectives I have, have been developed by the "British" outlook and essentially the Victorian take on history.
I think, India as a society is richer due to the Mughals and despite the popular opinion and recorded history (who wrote it, you guessed it right...the British !!), they went out of their way to ensure a secular society and a safe environment, for Hindu religion, culture and arts to flourish. In fact as mentioned in the book, the only thing Zafar was decisive about in those trying times was his "refusal to alienate his Hindu subjects by subscribing to the demands of the jihadis."

Did you know for instance that most of the Indian intellectuals of the late 19th century and the early 20th century, were schooled in madrassas, including people like Raja Rammohan Roy...The madrassas, were considered to provide well rounded education, not just math and science, but also the humanities, eastern philosophy and the arts...it was only due to the rising influence of Christianity in India, in the late 19th century and the drive for conversions, which lead the madrassas to reinforce the study of Islam in their curriculum, and for them to increasingly move along the path of fundamentalism.

It is due to all this and also because of an extremely evocative account of 1857 skirmishes, that this book is a must read.

You owe it yourself, as a citizen of the world, living in a these troubled times terrorized by religious fundamentalism.

As Sir Churchill, prophesied, it will only help us look "further forward." (less)

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Jan 11, 2009 Jan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in world history

This book is a marvelous account of the end of Hindustan's nominal autonomy in 1857, sparked by a revolt of indigenous soldiers against the British.

The first half of the book is nothing short of intoxicating; Dalrymple's descriptions of old Mughal Delhi are amazing, and he does a good job of getting across the tenor of relations between the British and the Muslims, as well as between the Muslims and the Hindus, and how they changed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Certainly it is ama...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Ben Dutton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bahadur Shah Zafar II was the last of the Great Mughals, a monarch whose reign saw the city of Delhi transformed from backwater into a place of cultural brilliance and learning, only to be devastated in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. In his history of this man, this city and the Uprising, William Dalrymple has produced a work of astounding power, informed by his erudite reading of events, backed up by exhaustive primary materials, many of which have never been employed before to tell this story.

I fi...more Bahadur Shah Zafar II was the last of the Great Mughals, a monarch whose reign saw the city of Delhi transformed from backwater into a place of cultural brilliance and learning, only to be devastated in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. In his history of this man, this city and the Uprising, William Dalrymple has produced a work of astounding power, informed by his erudite reading of events, backed up by exhaustive primary materials, many of which have never been employed before to tell this story.

I first became aware of Dalrymple through his 1994 book City of Djinns (which is sitting in my book cupboard waiting to be read again), and over the decade and a bit between that book and this, he has taken much time to learn and study the city of Delhi: and has produced numerous books that explore the connections between East and West, Christian and Islamic and Hindu. His latest work, for instance, is Nine Lives: in Search of the Sacred in Modern India, in which he explores how modern faith is transforming this rapidly changing nation. It is easy to see it is a natural continuation of work begin in City of Djinns and advanced here.

The Indian Mutiny of 1857 is a rather infamous and bloody moment in British Colonial rule in India. Until I read this book, I had no idea the extent or sheer bloodiness of the conflict, and I admire the manner and sober attitude Dalrymple takes in telling it. His writing is so evocative and humane, it is easy to picture the horror – and though that is a good thing, it doesn’t always feel so. Details in this book turned my stomach. It is no surprise it won him the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize.

What becomes initially surprising about his book, is that he informs us he is using Indian documents regarding the Mutiny, documents that include personal testimonies and diaries of both Muslims and Hindus, and that barely any of these documents have ever been used to recount the story. It is use of these materials, along with the already familiar British documents, that give his tale equality, and provides deeper understanding. It highlights the mistakes made by all sides, and the sheer brutal ignorance of native cultures shown by the British (no surprise there, though).

This conflict had been brewing in India for some time, but all sides managed to find equilibrium again before it rose to violence on a grand scale. However, it was the introduction of the Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle that was to prove the final insult, and kick-start the rebellion. To load one of these rifles, the Sepoys (Hindu and Muslim soldiers in the British army) had to bite the cartridge open – the cartridge was coated in both pork fat and tallow. For those who do not understand the problem here: pork is regarded as unclean by Muslims, and tallow, which is beef fat, comes from the cow, sacred to Hindus. To fight in the English regiments, both the Muslims and Hindus were forced to break their sacred vows. Disgust at this was expressed to British rulers, but their complaints were roundly ignored. Very soon afterward, the city of Delhi was at war.

The bulk of Dalrymple’s excellent book is given over to an extremely detailed breakdown of events in Delhi, from British, Muslim and Hindu perspectives. It reveals the inability to act by Zafar II, the stupidity of the British forces who allowed themselves to be caught off guard more than once, and the hunger and illness that ravaged the city as clean water and food became scarce. When the British retake Delhi, the savagery they show is so total, and so harrowingly described, it is almost like one is there, with these men. Dalrymple’s writing roves the devastated city streets, into the nearby caves and settlements, into the royal court and the British camp, and excavates the truth of the Mutiny. He shows how it all could have been avoided. He reveals the end of an era and shows the beginning of another – and how events of this conflict lead directly into the modern conflict between East and West. For the Uprising became the first jihad – lessons that should have been learnt after Delhi have been ignored, as they are ignored now… and it is this that makes Dalrymple’s book more than history, it is a warning, a lesson, a plea for the peoples of the world to not commit to another holy war.

The Last Mughal then is a great book. It is unique, powerful, and one that should be read by all and especially by those in power. William Dalrymple should be applauded.(less)

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Apr 23, 2013 Ranjan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

William Dalrymple’s THE LAST MUGHAL is a delightful account of a reluctant emperor thrust into a cause that he failed to live up to and the tragic consequences that eventually led to the consolidation of British power in India. It offers a fascinating insight into the two sides that made up the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, also called the ‘First War of Independence’ and lays bare, in the most unsentimental manner the atrocities committed by both the sides, leading ultimately to the fall of the great Mugha...more William Dalrymple’s THE LAST MUGHAL is a delightful account of a reluctant emperor thrust into a cause that he failed to live up to and the tragic consequences that eventually led to the consolidation of British power in India. It offers a fascinating insight into the two sides that made up the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, also called the ‘First War of Independence’ and lays bare, in the most unsentimental manner the atrocities committed by both the sides, leading ultimately to the fall of the great Mughal dynasty which was in any case, just a token and tottering identity by the mid-19th century. Meticulously researched through Urdu and English accounts contained in what the writer calls the ‘Mutiny Papers’ that run into thousands of pages, the book is a labour of love by a man who loves his Delhi. For a dilettante like me who dabbles in history occasionally without any comprehensive knowledge, this book offered not only a panoramic view of the historical forces that led to the tragic events, but also close-ups of men and women, their personal histories and lifestyles, ranging from the court to the streets. It reeks of the sweat of petty shop-keepers and Hindu traders, the sounds of bejeweled courtesans and impoverished princes who borrowed money from Jain money lenders to indulge in their passions, palace intrigues and harem politics, rivalry between an egoistical Ghalib and the court poet Zauq, the multicultural fabric influenced heavily by a tolerant Sufism and the gradual inroads made by Wahhabi Islam that began to threaten the permissiveness that the city was famous for. The Mutineers who take over the city are praised for their foolhardy courage without any focus and criticized for holding a city to ransom, including the emperor and his favourite Red Fort. (They weren’t very popular with the Delhi populace, and Ghalib hated them.) The book goes on to detail how the Britishers, caught unawares initially, raise an assortment of Gurkhas, Sikhs and Muslim fighters from the North Western provinces who slowly but steady turned the tide, massacred the rebels and engaged in the most ruthless rape of a city in living memory, killing thousands of innocent citizens with the avowed intention of erasing all memories of the great Mughal empire, including its beautiful architectures and libraries. Delhi, and India would never be the same again.
The greatness of the book lies in its poignant depiction of this transition in Indian history that would define British rule in the next 90 years. The East India Company officials interpreted the revolt as an international Islamic conspiracy (whereas the truth was that nearly 65 percent of the rebels were high-caste Hindus from the East, fighting along with their Muslim brethren). It makes tremendous sense in today’s post 9/11 scenario where the West once again has found its scapegoat in Islam. After the fall of Delhi, when it was deprived of most males, only the Hindus were allowed to return and take up the cudgels. The tide was turned against the Muslims and the Hindu money lenders and traders took full economic advantage of the situation. The ‘divide and rule’ policy was generated and the Hindus, henceforth, rose steadily in the social graph.
It’s a sad but engaging journey, written in a lucid language, rich in details and footnotes that remind one of the author’s other great work – THE WHITE MUGHALS. I would highly recommend it to anybody who loves books and wants to know more about India – not only its past, but how it impacts the present, with a clue to the future. After all, that’s what the study of non-partisan history is about.
Now looking forward to reading Mr. Dalrymple’s latest offering – Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan.

(less)

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Sep 10, 2012 Sagnik Bakshi rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Last Mughal, by William Dalrymple, is not about history, in the traditional sense of the word. Rather, it is a detailed reportage of the city of Delhi, and primarily its people, between May and September of 1857. How was this era to a non-elite common man living in this era, who, say, engaged in a small scale business to earn his living, had a family to feed, and read the Dilli Urdu Akhbar every morning? Dalrymple takes this common man's perspective to look at the times, and the way it chang...more The Last Mughal, by William Dalrymple, is not about history, in the traditional sense of the word. Rather, it is a detailed reportage of the city of Delhi, and primarily its people, between May and September of 1857. How was this era to a non-elite common man living in this era, who, say, engaged in a small scale business to earn his living, had a family to feed, and read the Dilli Urdu Akhbar every morning? Dalrymple takes this common man's perspective to look at the times, and the way it changed, rather overnight, changing not only the life of this certain person in example and the people around him, but also the entire Indian sub-continent.

Even though Bahadur Shah Zafar is the central character of Dalrymple's book, we get some very interesting insights on other characters of prominence, some of them being: Zeenat Mahal, Zafar's youngest and favorite wife, who although being more than forty years younger than her, influenced his decisions to a large extent and accompanied him to the exile in Rangoon; the renowned poet Mirza Ghalib, and the views he held on various subjects, one of them being polygamous relationships; the other, and comparatively less known poet in Zafar's court, Zauq, who used to be Zafar's chief poet before he died in 1854; the editor of the Dilli Urdu Akhbar, Maulvi Muhammad Baqar, who tirelessly published editions of this newspaper within the mutiny, and was later hanged by the British; his son Azad, who also was the disciple of poet Zauq, and who, after having lost his wife, son and father, kept as his only possession a collection of poetry by Zauq, determined to publish the same when the evil times were over; Britishers like Sir David Ochterlony, who dressed in traditional Indian outfits, smoked a hookah, had thirteen Indian wives, and was versed equally well in Urdu and Hindustani; Sir Thomas Metcalfe with his disciplined routine and manners; his son, Theo Metcalfe, who was a polar opposite of his father's character; the emerging love between Sir Thomas' daughter Georgina (better known as GG) and Edward Campbell, who became a Prize Agent when the British counter-attacked Delhi; other Britishers who embraced Indian culture as their own; the fact that there was a time when one in three Englishmen had Indian wives (more of them in Dalrymple's 'White Mughals'); And of course Zafar, with his distinct opinion towards secularism, his expertise in Urdu literature, poetry, calligraphy, miniature paintings and Sufism, to an extent that he considered himself more of a Sufi saint rather than a Mughal emperor capable of leading a rebel mutiny of the scale that happened in 1857.

Depicted in the book are situations when the British were nearly overpowered by the rebel sepoys, the most prominent of them being the assault by General Bakht Khan. Had it not been for some crucial events of these three months, the way our sub-continent got shaped henceforth would have been entirely different. For better or for worse, no one can say.

Dalrymple's detailed research work, comprising of books by other historians to the Mutiny Papers lying in the Delhi archives, provide a realistic picture of 1857's Delhi, and is genuinely appreciated.
(less)

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Aug 18, 2010 Nathan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, nashville-library

The raw material here is grand: the epically momentous dissolution of a glorious dynasty under massive and sometimes odious forces. It is a classic story, tailor-made for the popular historian. The problem is, Dalrymple is not the right sort of historian; he is too calculated, too bloodless, too starchy to imbue his narrative with the life it deserves. He leans heavily on contemporary accounts, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage: it saves us from completely losing the story to his col...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Tariq Mahmood rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a book, it is a historical masterpiece, completely factual and yet read like a novel end to end. This book should on the educational curriculum of every Indian and Pakistani. This is the second time I have read this book and have been impressed twice as much with the depth of material on offer. Darlymple has presented a very vivid picture of a lost history from the loser's perspective. He has brought to life the very culturally rich era of the Muslims who ruled India once, which are no more...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Victorian Explorer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 19th-century, asia, research

The Last Mughal is a very ambitious book. It seemingly has a rather narrow focus – Delhi during the Mutiny of 1857 – but the scope is still immense. William Dalrymple went where few had gone before him in taking on not only the sources from one side of the conflict, but both, and in doing so, he utilized Indian archival material in Urdu that has not been available to Western readers until this book was published.

With a florid and evocative prose, Dalrymple starts out by painting a picture of Del...more The Last Mughal is a very ambitious book. It seemingly has a rather narrow focus – Delhi during the Mutiny of 1857 – but the scope is still immense. William Dalrymple went where few had gone before him in taking on not only the sources from one side of the conflict, but both, and in doing so, he utilized Indian archival material in Urdu that has not been available to Western readers until this book was published.

With a florid and evocative prose, Dalrymple starts out by painting a picture of Delhi in the 1850s - the poets and artists; the princes and the colonial bureaucrats. The major events leading up to the fateful day of 11 May, 1857, are all described, as are the major players - Theo Metcalfe, Queen Zinat Mahal, the zealous Reverend Jennings and, of course, Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last Mughal Emperor himself.

The chain of events that lead to the massacre of Englishmen and the subsequent British attempt at extermination of Delhi, is described as complicated and going far back, being built into the very structures of the British presence in India. In one sense, the events seem perfectly unnecessary - surely, they could have been avoided with a little more tact and less polarisation - and at the same time, they seem as unavoidable as the impact of a running steam train.

Dalrymple doesn't spare the reader, neither in depicting the atrocities committed by both sides, nor by handing out simple answers, such as who was right or how this might easily have been avoided. It is remarkable to be able depict the wholesale slaughter of hundreds of humans in cold blood without dehumanising the perpetrators; something that might make the events easier to understand but would also serve to detach the readers. These horrors are committed by people, not monsters, and as such it is a chilling read, indeed.

One is struck – or at least I am – by how unfamiliar with the Hindu-Muslim culture of the Mughals most of us are, and how much Islam has been invariably linked with intolerance in Western propaganda, as if fanaticism is equal with true Islam, rather than an interpretation made by certain individuals. In that sense this book is invaluable in understanding the radicalisation of Islam and the part the Western world has played in it. In fact, anyone seeking to understand the roots of fundamentalist sects in Pakistan and Afghanistan today is well-served by reading this book, as is anyone with an interest in Indian history.

Highly recommended.(less)

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Sep 20, 2012 K.subramanian rated it 4 of 5 stars

A detailed account of the life and times of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
The book weaves a vivid description of the last Mughal who was a true dreamer and poet. He was entrapped by the wily machinations of the British,compounded by his inability to lead his countrymen from the front.His incapacity to manage the kingdom entrusted upon him, family members pulling the administration in several directions, the increased presence and influence of the English company have been dealt with...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Sean Mccarrey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a really wonderful example of William Dalrymple's ability to transcend styles of writing, from his normal first person journalistic styled endeavors, to this book, which was more along the lines of a classic Hopkirk styled history. I did however, have one problem with this book, it was that for all the information provided on both sides of the Sepoy Rebellion, little information was given about the actual causes and feelings among the Sepoy and Muslim community during the period pr...more

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Jun 22, 2010 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a bit of a desperation purchase at Singapore airport when I realised I was about to finish my book just before a 4hr flight, during which I was going to have to sit in the middle of a row. What a prospect! Anyway, it is well written and very engaging - you can tell he's a writer rather than an academic historian (and also that he's fairly posh, as previously noted by Terry). Using a wide range of quotes and longer extracts from Indian and British contemporary sources, Dalrymple foc...more

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Apr 19, 2008 Srin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Okay, I was sceptical that another anglo is once again writing the "other's" history and was waiting for this eurocentric patriarchal slant, but wow, the research he conducted (which only scratched the surface) put forth an eye opening view of the complex situation in 1850s...for you history buffs, I say this is a "blhaddy good" read.

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Jun 19, 2012 Aban (Aby) rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a detailed and scholarly account of the final years of the Mughal Empire (centered in Delhi) and of the life of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. It begins with an account of the royal court, and of Delhi itself, a center of learning where music, poetry, and the arts in general flourished and where Muslims and Hindus lived in peace, under Zafar's benign rule. (It also gives a fascinating account of the British who lived in Delhi at that time.) The focus of the book is on the I...more This is a detailed and scholarly account of the final years of the Mughal Empire (centered in Delhi) and of the life of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. It begins with an account of the royal court, and of Delhi itself, a center of learning where music, poetry, and the arts in general flourished and where Muslims and Hindus lived in peace, under Zafar's benign rule. (It also gives a fascinating account of the British who lived in Delhi at that time.) The focus of the book is on the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and its horrendous effects on Delhi and the Mughal Empire. It ends with Zafar's expulsion from Delhi and his final days in Rangoon, Burma.

Much of the book makes for compulsive reading, it gives such a clear picture of both the Indian and the British way of life and of thinking during this period and it certainly grips the emotions of the reader. I was equally appalled at the initial massacre of British men, women and children by the mutineers and by the violent and destructive reprisals taken by the British. It amazes, and saddens, me to think that a relatively few men from a small, and distant, island could control the lives and destinies of the vast Indian subcontinent and could destroy a once brilliant Empire. I found the author's conclusion especially fascinating: he links the events of this period to the current emergence of the Taliban and of al-Qaeda and today's conflict between Muslim fundamentalists and the western world.

If I have any complaint about the book, it's in the writing and its minute detailing. I found myself reading closely at the beginning and at the end, but skimming during much of the second half of the book.

One interesting piece of information that I learned, not from the book but from Shiraz (my brother-in-law) who is a mine of information on so many subjects, is that Zafar's writings haven't been entirely forgotten and that some of his ghazals are still sung to this day. Shiraz pulled up one on the Internet! I found this quite thrilling!

As a result of reading this book, I am eager to read "White Mughals" by William Dalrymple.(less)

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Mar 18, 2012 Manu Prasad rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: review

Once, during a trip to Delhi, seeing the way history seemed to come 'alive' in the old city at various corners, I asked my friend whether anyone had tracked what had happened to the descendants of the Mughals, and how they saw their legacy . In this book, William Dalrymple does shed some light on it, though a sad one. More than the last Mughal emperor, the book belongs to the First War of Indian Independence to which he was unwittingly bound. Bahadur Shah 2 or Bahadur Shah Zafar as we were taugh...more Once, during a trip to Delhi, seeing the way history seemed to come 'alive' in the old city at various corners, I asked my friend whether anyone had tracked what had happened to the descendants of the Mughals, and how they saw their legacy . In this book, William Dalrymple does shed some light on it, though a sad one. More than the last Mughal emperor, the book belongs to the First War of Indian Independence to which he was unwittingly bound. Bahadur Shah 2 or Bahadur Shah Zafar as we were taught in history classes, born in 1775, whose pen name meant 'Victory', and was depicted as the face of the revolution that almost threw out the British. A hapless man who was pulled by a desire to ensure that he did justice to his legacy, when all he wanted to do was write his poetry and live in the company of like-minded souls. A spiritual man who was even considered a sufi saint, and still is, at his grave in Rangoon.
It is now history, but at some point it was the life lived by people like us. 1857 seems like tangible history, an era that can still be felt by its influence, even if minimal. Using records from all kinds of people - common men and chroniclers across Indian and British nationalities, the author creates a vivid portrait of Delhi, before, during, and after the uprising. Characters such as Ghalib sometimes add philosophical layers to this narration, and help us understand the cultural high point that was regained in Zafar's court. It also shows Zafar as a normal human being of his era - with his own superstitions and insecurities, a subject of court intrigue courtesy his wife Zinat Mahal, his son Mirza Mughaal, Hakim Ahsanullah Khan, General Bakht Khan and others, despite being hailed as Padshah, the Lord of the World.
The book also makes a point to showcase the relationship between religious communities before the event, and as the author reinforces many a time, Zafar deserves quite some credit in understanding the fabric that held his city together and maintaining the harmony there. He also points out that the real reason for the uprising was not political, but religious. What started as a fight between Hindu sepoys and the British ended as a fight between a rebel force that was made mostly of Muslim jehadis and British mercenaries made of Sikh, Muslim Punjabi, and Pathans. And it was a war that could have gone wither way.
Late in the book, there is also a mention of a royal survivor - Zafar Sultan, Zafar's brother's son, who refused government pension, and made his living with a brick cart. Once, many years later, in his old age, he was abused and beaten up by a businessman. After quietly taking the first few blows, he hit the businessman hard enough to break his nose. He told the court that sixty years earlier, the man's forefathers would have been his slaves and that he had not forgotten his lineage. Dressed in dirty suits, made to get up and salaam the British (when he used to consider it an insult for anyone to sit in his presence), and verbally abused regularly, Zafar himself was the recipient of several injustices at the hands of the British, who did not even give any consideration for his old age after they 'captured' him.
What remains with me, and this is something I went back to, almost every time I picked up the book to continue, is the photo of Zafar, lying with his face to the camera - the face of a broken old man who through his life saw the dominion of his ancestors taken away from him until all he had was his city and an empty title, who had just been made to undergo a trial and many humiliations before it, eyes expressing melancholy, and resigned to his destiny.(less)

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Nov 14, 2011 Rk barman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: william-dalrympple

A nicely narrated historical account of the late mughal dynasty.A vivid story. for me the best part has been the historical part of that particular time.A very well reaserched book, much better than any native author's account.This is a powerful retelling of the fateful course of events.He ellaborates with facts on history of the Mughal empire in its dying days as well as on history of dalhi. It also presents on Hindu-Muslim collaboration and Indo-British relations during the phase,rise and fal...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I finished this book exhilarated by the sweeping aside of historical biases, ecstatic at the glimpses of a wondrous vibrant past Delhi and exhausted by the agony of war and prejudice exhibited by almost all sides in 1857, except, perhaps of Bahadur Shah Zafar.

The writers diligence to primary sources has created a panoramic view of the events of 1857, so that it can no longer be thought of a Mutiny, or the First War of Independence..rather the birth throes of modern India, and perhaps in many in...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Liam rated it 5 of 5 stars

"When someone once praised the poetry of the pious Sheikh Sahbai in his presence, Ghalib shot back, 'How can Shabai be a poet? He has never tasted wine, nor has he ever gambled; he has not been beaten with slippers by lovers, nor has he seen the inside of a jail.'" (41)

"Take a new woman each returning spring / For last year's almanac is a useless thing" (quoting Ghalib, 41)

"'The Emperor was powerless to repulse them [the sepoys]; their forces gathered around him, and he fell under their duress,...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Lavinia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

I loved this book. It reminded me why I always indicate "history" in the "Interests" section of my CV...
Though the situation and the events are very complex and complicated, the author manages to make it an understandable and fascinating story. Of course, a sad story, given that it is not a Western one. And though I cannot shake the feeling that Zafar was such a weak king, really the wrong person in the wrong moment, I also sympathise with his attitude and deeds. As the author points out a numb...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Usman W. Chohan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Perhaps what is more beautiful than the elegance of one's victory is the elegance of one's defeat. Following this premise, Dalrymple portrays the decline of the Mughal Empire in astounding detail. Zafar's personality is exposed using much evidence in archives still in existence, helping to show readers what tremendous sorrow must overcome the man who was, at least nominally, in charge of the wealthiest region of the world, only to see it slip away. This book is a must-read for all Pakistanis, fo...more

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Mar 03, 2009 itpdx rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Fascinating! This book tells the story of the Great Uprising of 1857 in the area around Delhi. The author uncovered a treasure trove of previously unpublished and/or untranslated records and accounts of this time period. And he can write! Whether he is describing a typical day in Dehli before the uprising; the British inhabitants deaths and escapes; the suffering of the inhabitants of Dehli during the seige; or the tenous position of the Dehli Field Force outside the walls, he makes it come aliv...more

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Nov 06, 2009 Nicholas rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dalrymple wrote this book from an Indian perspective which is absolutely remarkable given the fact that some of his previous books had a stereotypical westerner's view of India. He is brutally honest about the British injustices committed in India. He also brings out clearly a side of Indian history that had been deliberately whitewashed by the Brits during their rule in India. Its true that history is written by the conquerors and so, many Indians even today only know a side of history that had...more

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Jul 17, 2010 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

This isn’t comfortable reading, mainly because it’s mostly about a war, a violent and excruciating war. It’s set in India, at the end of the Mughal Empire. It’s 1857, and the British have been slowly taking more and more power into their own hands, even though they are set up as merely a commercial interest and not an occupying power. The revolt begins with the Indian soldiers who were working for the British East India Company, encompasses the emperor and his court, sucks up a lot of eager Jiha...more

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Feb 19, 2009 niloy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Amazing read: a delicate balance between history, accuracy, and an interesting/enthralling read. I enjoyed it. May be its also special to read the being while in Delhi -- since we have explored parts of the places described in the book. Or rather the parts which remain. The book seems to be very well researched. The writing style is fresh and interesting. Lots of lessons to be taken from the book -- some good, some obvious, some unpleasant but true. In hindsight it is almost depressing to observ...more

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May 14, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

On a hazy November afternoon in Rangoon, 1862, a shrouded corpse was escorted by a small group of British soldiers to an anonymous grave in a prison enclosure. As the British Commissioner in charge insisted, “No vestige will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Moghuls rests.”

Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last Mughal Emperor, was a mystic, an accomplished poet and a skilled calligrapher. But while his Mughal ancestors had controlled most of India, the aged Zafar was king in name only....more On a hazy November afternoon in Rangoon, 1862, a shrouded corpse was escorted by a small group of British soldiers to an anonymous grave in a prison enclosure. As the British Commissioner in charge insisted, “No vestige will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Moghuls rests.”

Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last Mughal Emperor, was a mystic, an accomplished poet and a skilled calligrapher. But while his Mughal ancestors had controlled most of India, the aged Zafar was king in name only. Deprived of real political power by the East India Company, he nevertheless succeeded in creating a court of great brilliance, and presided over one of the great cultural renaissances of Indian history.

Then, in 1857, Zafar gave his blessing to a rebellion among the Company’s own Indian troops, thereby transforming an army mutiny into the largest uprising any empire had to face in the entire course of the nineteenth century. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj’s Stalingrad: one of the most horrific events in the history of Empire, in which thousands on both sides died. And when the British took the city—securing their hold on the subcontinent for the next ninety years—tens of thousands more Indians were executed, including all but two of Zafar’s sixteen sons. By the end of the four-month siege, Delhi was reduced to a battered, empty ruin, and Zafar was sentenced to exile in Burma. There he died, the last Mughal ruler in a line that stretched back to the sixteenth century.

Award-winning historian and travel writer William Dalrymple shapes his powerful retelling of this fateful course of events from groundbreaking material: previously unexamined Urdu and Persian manuscripts that include Indian eyewitness accounts and records of the Delhi courts, police and administration during the siege. The Last Mughal is a revelatory work—the first to present the Indian perspective on the fall of Delhi—and has as its heart both the dazzling capital personified by Zafar and the stories of the individuals tragically caught up in one of the bloodiest upheavals in history.(less)

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May 20, 2013 Aleks rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: history lovers, india lovers

Shelves: hclib-ebook

A fascinating overview of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 that nearly drove the British out of India at gunpoint almost a century before Ghandi did it with Satyagraha. Dalrymple clearly loves Delhi and is a great admirer of the Hindu-Islamic hybrid civilization that the Mughals brought to India and that the British destroyed in favor of the Hindu nationalism that plays such a nasty role in modern Indian politics and the equivalent Muslim nationalism in what is now Pakistan. He has investigated the w...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Deon Stonehouse rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-set-in-india, non-fiction-history

Shah Safar was in his 80’s when it fell to him to either lead or reject the mutiny of 1857. Safar was a dreamer, a poet, and a mystic, the blood of his ancestors had diluted to a calm and placid stream by the time it reached him. He would not have been equipped to lead a violent uprising in his youth much less in his 80’s. His ancestors probably cried in their graves. Genghis Khan, Barbar, Akbar, these were men who knew how to handle a foe, to wage a war. These were men who would have roared int...more Shah Safar was in his 80’s when it fell to him to either lead or reject the mutiny of 1857. Safar was a dreamer, a poet, and a mystic, the blood of his ancestors had diluted to a calm and placid stream by the time it reached him. He would not have been equipped to lead a violent uprising in his youth much less in his 80’s. His ancestors probably cried in their graves. Genghis Khan, Barbar, Akbar, these were men who knew how to handle a foe, to wage a war. These were men who would have roared into battle and routed the British from their land. These were men who were long dead leaving India with a dreamer and a poet reluctantly attempting to rule a land in the grip of a bloody maelstrom. Cultures can misunderstand one another to a catastrophic degree. In the 1700’s the British East India Company was a trading company, specifically forbidden from messing with religion. The leaders of the day, William Fraser and Sir David Ochterlony, married Indian women, learned the language, and socialized with the Indian men. By the early 1800’s there had been a dramatic shift in British attitudes and policies. The natives were now seen as little more than ill mannered children to be governed by their superiors, the British. Fraternizing with the Indians was no longer desirable much less marrying them. The British East India Company’s policy toward religion did a hairpin turn, it was now part of the program to try and bring Christianity to the Indians, whether they wanted it or not. Tensions rose, culminating with the introduction of the Enfield rifle. Britain relied on the native troops; they were thought to be loyal and manageable. The Enfield rifle required the cartridge to be greased and bitten. A rumor ran through the Muslim and Hindu troops that the grease was from pigs and cows. While a few British officers took the concern of the troops seriously, most of them did an astonishingly excellent parody of an Ostrich and stuck their heads in the sand. They could not understand the anguish and turmoil in the native troops and so chose to ignore it with fatal consequences. They did not see that the troops believed the British were trying to force them to Christianity by defiling the Muslims and breaking the Caste of the Hindu with the animal fat greased cartridges. They did not see the way the aggressive preachers and changing rules fed this belief. Such are the matches that light a conflagration of violence that will destroy an empire. The native troops attacked with a cruelty and ruthlessness that was barbaric. British women and children were hacked to bits. Never an organized military action, with no powerful leader, the mutiny was crushed. The British took their vengeance with a violence and ruthlessness that was equally barbaric. They shot and hacked to death any native encountered, it did not matter if the person had taken part in the mutiny, they were judged guilty by color of skin. Intolerance and a lack of understanding exploded in a juggernaut of death and destruction. William Dalrymple had a veritable treasure trove of firsthand accounts to research in writing this book. In prior books about the mutiny the viewpoint has been decidedly one sided. Dalrymple had access to the records in India’s national archive. He used them well. He also had a bit of extra background information through his family. His wife Olivia is related to William Fraser thus giving Dalrymple access to his personal papers. Because of the wealth of material from both sides, Dalrymple was able to present a balanced view. It has been said that we need to understand the lessons of history or risk repeating them. (less)

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About William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple was born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was twenty-two. The book won the 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award; it was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. In 1989 Dalrymple moved to Delhi where he lived for six year...more William Dalrymple was born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was twenty-two. The book won the 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award; it was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. In 1989 Dalrymple moved to Delhi where he lived for six years researching his second book, City of Djinns, which won the 1994 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. From the Holy Mountain, his acclaimed study of the demise of Christianity in its Middle Eastern homeland, was awarded the Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award for 1997; it was also shortlisted for the 1998 Thomas Cook Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. A collection of his writings about India, The Age of Kali, won the French Prix D’Astrolabe in 2005.

White Mughals was published in 2003, the book won the Wolfson Prize for History 2003, the Scottish Book of the Year Prize, and was shortlisted for the PEN History Award, the Kiryama Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

William Dalrymple is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic Society, and is the founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

In 2002 he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his ‘outstanding contribution to travel literature’. He wrote and presented the television series Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. His Radio 4 series on the history of British spirituality and mysticism, The Long Search, won the 2002 Sandford St Martin Prize for Religious Broadcasting and was described by the judges as ‘thrilling in its brilliance... near perfect radio’. In December 2005 his article on the madrasas of Pakistan was awarded the prize for Best Print Article of the Year at the 2005 FPA Media Awards. June 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of St Andrews “for his services to literature and international relations, to broadcasting and understanding”. In 2007, The Last Moghal won the prestigous Duff Cooper Prize for History and Biography. In November 2007, William received an Honourary Doctorate of Letters, Honoris Causa, from the University of Lucknow University “for his outstanding contribution in literature and history”, and in March 2008 won the James Todd Memorial Prize from the Maharana of Udaipur.

William is married to the artist Olivia Fraser, and they have three children. They now live on a farm outside Delhi.
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White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India

From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East

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