Short background about the author
"William Dalrymple understands India, Indian history and his readers in
ascending order. That is what makes him a very good writer and a reasonably sound historian writing on South Asia. The fact that his writing is not determined by academic exigencies such as the pressures of a thesis, the load of a prejudice or the hassles of artificial deadlines allows him the supreme freedom of choosing a topic and going all out to collect sources. And the fact that he deliberately writes for a larger audience than the incestuous circle of South Asian historians, allows him to present history in a form that is at once not intimidating to the layman and very challenging to the more professional practitioner of the craft.

"The Last Mughal"
It is a biography of the last Mughal Emperor (that is the romantic side of Dalrymple) but it is firmly rooted in the social, political and cultural changes of the times (that is the historian and the story teller in Dalrymple). It is a voluminous book, but its essence both as a literary and a history treatise can be captured a few short paragraphs:

1. It fills up a major lacuna in the historiography of India in the
sense that it supplements the works of Erick Stokes (for Northwestern
Provinces, modern UP) and Rudrangshu Mukherjee (Awadh) among others,
who have undertaken in depth regional studies to bring to light the complexities
of the Uprising of 1857. Before "The Last Mughal" Delhi was, rather, strangely, left out of such in depth treatment.

2. For less strange reasons, Bahadur Shah Zafar never enjoyed the
attention that his more illustrious forefathers received from Indian historians. Although, in many senses, he presided and lived through over a complex socio-political transformation that few of his predecessors except perhaps Babur did. Dalrymple successfully puts the focus back on this "black sheep" of the family.

3. Finally, and this is very important, Dalrymple clearly shows how complicated simple social divisions like class, caste, race, gender and loyalties were before, during and immediately after the mutiny.

4. In terms of substance, the book is rich is use of sources, nuanced in its arguments and very textured in the way that arguments and substantiation are knitted together.

From a historian's perspective:
Another new regional study on the events of 1857 - filling up a major void; unearthing of new sources - another big contribution to the historiography. But nothing new in terms of argument. Believe you me, we already knew the broader arguments around race and religion. In fact, Dalrymple's extra leap to connect the Jehadis of 1857 to
their current cousins seems like what it really is - a giant and unnecessary leap.

From a reader's perspective: That is the way to write history, each
character stands out on its own. And although it will not be apparent
to an ordinary reader, a trained eye will not miss the hard work that must
have gone to flesh out each character with such meticulous detail. And Oh
boy! What a style of writing - captivating to say the least. It does read like a
best selling thriller.

Lessons for the historian: "Isn't that the way we should write our
history so that more and more people read and understand what really happened and how?"

Subhajyoti Ray, president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, has already penned two books and is getting ready for a third. And no, it's not the virtual world that his pen traverses but the historical one. 'Historian Subho' takes Nidhi Jain on a journey back through time.

What made you write this book?
My first book was Transformation of Bengal Frontier. Spanning a period between 1750 and 1940, this book analysis the socioeconomic changes brought about by colonial rule in a frontier area of Bengal, Jalpaiguri.

It started as a chore as it was my PhD topic and the project grew on me and I became so fond of it that at the end of the day I thought I had written a second PhD. I didn't want it to confine it to a library shelf as a PhD thesis. I went out of my way to get it published. When one is working on a PhD it's like a baby and the final delivery is when the book comes out.
 

The second book was more interesting, it was co-authored with Sharmila, my colleague at CII, and is called India Building Partnership for CII. The institution was founded in 1985.

Book and Character
I am a historian, interested more in things of the past than present. I wanted to write a corporate history with a different feel of the process and perspective at CII.

Crux of the book
First, it questions certain beliefs, prejudices regarding the agrarian labour industry in the country. It looks at the national movement, management control of labour, agrarian relations.

What's next on your agenda?
Translating a book, an autobiography by a Bengali author. It's a fascinating account of 50-60 years of his life. How he left his home in Uttar Pradesh, lived in Calcutta, then Mumbai, before the First World War. It will give you more insights into Mumbai than many other books written on the city.

"I have just finished reading an old classic: "Confessions of a Thug" by Philips Meadows Taylor. The book was first published in Britain in 1839 to make the Victorian readers aware of the menace of the "Thugee". Essentially, the book is, as the title mentions, confessions of a Thug who had a long career in the business and was finally captured by the British and turned approver.

To those of much younger generations, Thugs were secretive groups of people who under normal circumstances were settlers in a village, purportedly engaged in normal trades and crafts. But during the travel season [in those days that would be after the monsoons and before the onset of summer], Thugs in organized bands took to the roads and highways with the express intention of looting travelers. The modus operandi too was very interesting. They disguised themselves as ordinary travelers and became a part of the convoy they planned to loot, and at an opportune moment in the journey they would strangulate unsuspecting travelers, bury them and move on with the booty. Each band would have specialist informers who would collect information of potential victims and their travel itinerary], specialist killer [who would strangulate the victims with their rumals] and specialist grave diggers [who were responsible or disposing off the bodies of the victims.

Because of the highly secretive nature of their business and connivance of the local rajas and landlords [who shared a part of the booty, this became a "menace" in large swathes of central, south and north India, till the British under Col Sleeman systematically hunted down thugees and gradually put an end to this form of banditry.

Confessions?. is the autobiography of one such Thug leader Amir Ali and covers his active life as a Thugee. It is a fascinating book to read for many reasons. First of all, it is the only such account which exists today in the written form. Secondly, it gives a vivid account of the political and social confusion that prevailed in most parts of India in between 1800 and 1850. And, finally, although a gory account of cold blooded murder and loot [Amir Ali himself is said to have strangulated over 700 people], it is a remarkable account of the syncretic nature of the popular culture of the age. To give just one example, although a devout Muslim, Amir Ali's best friend and confidant was always a Hindu and he and his fellow Muslim thugs never forgot to invoke Goddess Bhawani, who was the presiding deity of the Thugs.

It is a very rich autobiography on two counts: First it captures much more about the flavor of the period than many formal books on that period of Indian history. And secondly, it reflects the deep seated emotions, mental dilemmas, compromises and indeed principles of a man whom more civilized and genteel society would not have credited with such finer human expressions.

"Well, it would be difficult to get hold of a copy. But you can download the whole book from Google. Read it if you are interested in your past and I promise Amir Ali will not let you down".