EARLY BRITISH IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA - DEEP DIVE WITH DR. RUCHIKA SHARMA

EVENT DATE : 25 SEPTEMBER

In 1585 Queen Elizabeth I of England sent a letter to Jalal-ud-din Muhammad #Akbar, the powerful Mughal emperor of India, in an attempt to open trade relations between their two countries. Fifteen years later she would grant the Royal Charter to a group of London merchants to trade with India. This would become the infamous #EastIndiaCompany (EIC), which would go on to assume military and administrative control over all of #India, and in process intertwine the destiny of Britain and India for several centuries.

We know a fair amount through our studies and movies about the #British-Indian relations during the #colonial period. However, what is much less discussed and understood is the period before the British became the occupiers and oppressors (1608-1764), when the interactions were centred around trade and cultural exchange instead of conquest and domination.

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REFERENCES :

• I. Sen, Women and Empire, Representations in the writings of British India (1858-1900), New Delhi.

• Hermionede Almeida, Indian Renaissance: British Romantic Art and the Prospect of India

• Ruby Lal, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)

• R. Hyam, Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017)

• Ruchika Sharma, "The Indian Nautch Girl in Early Colonial Travel Writing," ed. Mythili Anoop and Varun Gulati (Lanham: Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)

PUBLICATIONS :

Website: https://du-in.academia.edu/RuchikaSharma?from_navbar=true

1. Recent Publications - 1) A Woman Who Ruled An Empire, Book Review of the Empress: The Astonishing Reign Of Nur Jahan, Ruby Lal in Book Review, ISSN no. 09704175, vol. 43, Number 4, April 2019. Download link - https://www.academia.edu/38694690/Book_Review_-_EMPRESS_THE_ASTONISHING_REIGN_OF_NUR_JAHAN_By_Ruby_Lal

2. Engendering Śṛṇgāra, Procuring Love: Sakhi, Duti, and Go-between in Rīti Poetry, The JMC Review: An Interdisciplinary Social Science Journal of Criticism, Practice and Theory, Vol. II, pp. 169-190. Download link - http://www.jmc.ac.in/the-jmc-review/content-2018/ OR

https://www.academia.edu/37530843/Engendering_%C5%9A%E1%B9%9B%E1%B9%87g%C4%81ra_Procuring_Love_Sakhi_Duti_and_Go-Between_in_Ri_ti_Poetry

3. https://servantspasts.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/my-faithful-servant-concubinage-and-service-in-early-colonial-households/