Review of ‘The Anarchy’: How the British took India

A commonly asked question: ‘How did the East India Company, a small London-based corporate entity become the looter, occupier and eventual ruler of India?’

‘The Anarchy’ by renowned writer and historian, William Dalrymple, explores this historical upheaval and gives a good overview of how the Company took on the might of the Mughal Empire and succeeded in destroying it.

Europeans had been trading in India since the 15th century. However, it was the British who came out on top. They went from small scale traders to colonisers of this vast, wealthy and much sought after land. The way in which they achieved this is intriguing to many and explored in much detail by Dalrymple.

When King James I sent a royal envoy to Emperor Jahangir in 1615, the Mughal ruler was unimpressed. On the other hand, his envoy Sir Thomas Roe was in awe of the wealth and grandeur of the Empire.

Roe was trying to secure a trade deal with the Emperor, but he was not interested and saw the British as “very low priority.”  

After no success with the Mughals, the East India Company started trading more in the south of India with the Deccan Sultanate, rivals to the Mughals.

Over a hundred years later, the position of the Company was to change dramatically. Dalrymple states that it  was the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 that changed the fortunes of the Company, after which it was able to make substantial headway in India. The Mughal Emperors after Aurangzeb were not strong leaders and the Empire’s power became weaker and weaker.

Aurangzeb had expanded the Empire significantly until it covered most of India, but after his death it began to unravel. This provided a good opportunity for the East India Company to establish itself, and it was very skilful at taking advantage of such chances when they arose.

With a weakening central power base, other rulers in India began flexing their muscles and establishing rival power structures and independent areas of rule. They all felt they could also secure a slice of the pie. This created ‘anarchy’ in the country for many years.

The Indian rulers made alliances with the British where it suited their interests and vice versa, and this allowed the Company’s power to grow further. With their skill in administration and finance, and superior methods of warfare, the Company was beginning to grow into a serious force to be reckoned with in India.

Dalrymple also highlights the British alliance with the Indian bankers, which helped finance their interests in India. The bankers were not aligned to any regime, and saw economic opportunity wherever it presented itself. For the bankers, they began to see their fortune resting with the British.  

In essence, the British were using India’s own money to help them subjugate the country.

Although the Mughal Empire kept steadily declining in the 18th century, the British recognised that the Empire did hold a certain legitimacy with the local people. This was the reason they kept the Mughals as figureheads, but took the power and fortune for themselves.

The British were plundering and pillaging the country for their own profit. They were controlling trade and not paying tax on this. The profit was all going back to London. The Indians were suffering immensely and the devastating scene for the Great Bengal famine was being set.

The British acted inhumanely with the famine of Bengal. They continued to make money from the suffering of the people.

News of the East India Company’s treatment of the Indian population was getting back to London, and politicians began holding the Company to account. Many felt that the Crown needed more control over the affairs in India, as the power and money was mainly going to this small group of rich traders.

Parliament succeeded in having more of a stake in the Company. They appointed a Governor General for India, but the Company was still semi-autonomous.

This continued until the Indian revolt of 1857 which was a very serious challenge to the power of the British, and they lost many men in the fighting. After this, the Mughal Empire was abolished by the British, and the Crown stepped in and took over power of India. This became known as the British Raj. It ruled the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947.

Dalrymple shows the complexities of politics and power in India, which was a huge land of many different rulers and power structures. The Mughal Empire was the overall ruling power, but it struggled with many pockets of resistance. The decline of the Empire after Aurangzeb, and the rise of local rulers and challenges to Mughal power, created instability and a breeding ground for the East India Company to make inroads.

The cunning and manipulation tactics, along with the more advanced warfare of the British, helped them to rise to power. The Company made alliances where it was beneficial to their ambitions, and along with support from the Indian bankers who were also only interested in making money, these ambitions were slowly realised.

"In many ways the East India Company was a model of commercial efficiency: one hundred years into its history, it had only thirty-five permanent employees in its head office. Nevertheless, that skeleton staff executed a corporate coup unparalleled in history: the military conquest, subjugation and plunder of vast tracts of southern Asia.”