About this talk

When historians have talked of British territorial power in India it was almost always to the experience of eighteenth century they referred. For good reason. That was, after all, when the Raj annexed vast swathes of the subcontinent. I suspect that the foundations had been laid earlier. And yet the historical problems were evident enough. How was it possible for the East India Company – a private joint-stock trading company – to become a fully-fledged colonial power, particularly when faced with the might of the Mughal empire and rival European powers, notably Portugal and the Netherlands? Despite the legitimation in its founding charter of 1600, it soon becomes apparent that the company could not simply take land into its possession. Legally, its actions were defined by the tradition of English Common Law and the Law of Nations, a shared legal code which set the boundaries to European exploitation of overseas territories. Furthermore, there were interrelated political, economic, military and cultural problems that had to be addressed. In this seminar, I hope to reflect critically on some of these concerns. Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College with a long-standing interest in the nexus between London and India which has resulted in a number of publications.

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