Last Mughal , livre ebook

William Dalrymple

THE LAST MUGHAL
The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857
Contents
About the Author
Dedication
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Maps
Dramatis Personae
1: A Chessboard King
2: Believers and Infidels
3: An Uneasy Equilibrium
4: The Near Approach of the Storm
5: The Sword of the Lord of Fury
6: This Day of Ruin and Riot
7: A Precarious Position
8: Blood for Blood
9: The Turn of the Tide
10: To Shoot Every Soul
11: The City of the Dead
12: The Last of the Great Mughals
A Note on the Author
Illustrations
Notes
Bibliography
Glossary
Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin
Copyright
About the Author
William Dalrymple was born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of Firth of Forth. He is the author of five books of history and travel, including the highly acclaimed bestseller City of Djinns , which won the 1994 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. His previous book, White Mughals , garnered a range of prizes, including the prestigious Wolfson Prize for History 2003 and the Scottish Book of the Year Prize. It was also shortlisted for the PEN History Award, the Kiriyama Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. A stage version by Christopher Hampton has been co-commissioned by the National Theatre and the Tamasha Theatre Company.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic Society, Dalrymple was awarded the 2002 Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his outstanding contribution to travel literature and the Sykes Medal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs in 2005 for his contribution to the understanding of contemporary Islam. He wrote and presented three television series, Stones of the Raj , Sufi Soul and Indian Journeys , the last of which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. In December 2005 his article on the madrasas of Pakistan was awarded the prize for Print Article of the Year at the 2005 FPA Media Awards.
He is married to the artist Olivia Fraser, and they have three children. They divide their time between London, Scotland and Delhi.
Praise for the Book
[Dalrymple] builds an urban narrative as evocative as Richard Cobb s depiction of Revolutionary Paris . . . There is so much to admire in this book-the depth of historical research, the finely evocative writing, the extraordinary rapport with the cultural world of late Mughal India. It is also in many ways a remarkably humane and egalitarian history . . . This is a splendid work of empathetic scholarship. As the 150th anniversary of the uprising dawns there will be many attempts to revisit these bloody, chaotic, cataclysmic events; but few reinterpretations of 1857 will be as bold, as insightful, or as challenging as this - David Arnold, Times Literary Supplement
[ The Last Mughal ] shows the way history should be written: not as a catalogue of dry-as-dust kings, battles and treaties but to bring the past to the present, put life back in characters long dead and gone and make the reader feel he is living among them, sharing their joys, sorrows and apprehensions . . . Dalrymple s book rouses deep emotions. It will bring tears to the eyes of every Dilliwala -Khushwant Singh, Outlook
The Last Mughal is the most definitive account of events centred on Bahadur Shah Zafar and the great Indian mutiny in and around Delhi in 1857-58. Based upon an immense amount of empirical research, often unearthing archival material hitherto untouched by historians, Dalrymple achieves an admirable balance between fairness and a moving empathy with the subjects of his book. This is essentially a story woven around the human beings involved, each driven by a multiplicity of often-conflicting motivations rather than by impersonal, historically inexorable forces. Dalrymple brings home the overwhelming grandeur of the tragedy enacted in those fateful months and its aftermath -Harbans Mukhia, Emeritus Professor of History, Jawaharlal Nehru University
The best book of 2006-history at its archival yet lucid best. Dalrymple combines meticulous research with a wonderful writing style. He captures the zeitgeist of both pre and post 1857 brilliantly. More than anything else he has produced a book that is not just about the past, but that has contemporary significance as well. If only other Indian historians-both at home and abroad-emulated him, history would be both educative and evocative, both enlightening and entertaining -Jairam Ramesh, The Hindu Books of the Year
A compelling, vivid account of the 1857 resistance . . . different and delightful . . . A powerfully vivid and tactile retelling of the story [in which] the breathless and brutal pace of action is craftily combined with insights into the religious and class elements underlining it . . . It is the untidiness of the unfolding drama which makes it extraordinarily human. Instead of black and white categories, we encounter a gamut of various shaded tones. [Finally] the book captures the tragedy of a mutilated Mughal capital and its butchered populace -Nayanjot Lahiri, Hindustan Times
Monumental . . . painstaking . . . attractive . . . sympathetic and very accomplished. The Last Mughal will remain a book with lasting value for three reasons. Firstly, it is a vivid portrait of a remarkable man who lived through a fascinating period of history. Secondly, it is the most meticulous work as yet on 1857 in Delhi. And finally it is proof once again of Dalrymple s ability to write history in the most gripping manner -Pavan K. Varma, DNA
The Last Mughal is narrative history at its very best . . . a gripping story seen through the eyes of the Britons and Indians who were caught up in the maelstrom. At the same time the book provides larger insights into the nature of the uprising . . . Dalrymple s account is both evocative and sensitive -Swapan Dasgupta, The Telegraph
Dalrymple narrates the story of Delhi s capture and fall with a rare humanity, a zest that is infectious, and in a prose that is handsome, sure-footed and flowing with breezy purpose. Few writers understand as well as Dalrymple that the function of history is not merely to inform but also to engage and entertain . . . The book provides a fascinating account of the last days of Mughal Delhi . . . [and] these personal stories add up in some incalculable way to provide a picture of Mughal Delhi that is intimate and meaningful . . . When the British defeat [Zafar] and strip him of his kingship, they do more than just end the Mughal dynasty; they destroy a form of Indo-Islamic civilisation. In many ways, this splendid book is a stirring lament for this loss -Mukund Padmanabhan, The Hindu
Dalrymple brings out the poignancy and pathology of a Mughal Lear with the ease and lan of a master storyteller . . . In The Last Mughal , history is human drama at its elemental best . . . History ceases to be a dead abstraction on his pages [but instead] an enduring enchantment -S. Prasannarajan, India Today
[Dalrymple] has vividly described the street life of the Mughal capital in the days before the catastrophe happened, he has put his finger deftly on every crucial point in the story, which earlier historians have sometimes missed, and he has supplied some of the most informative footnotes I have ever read. On top of that, he has splendidly conveyed the sheer joy of researching a piece of history, something every true historian knows . . . I had thought that Dalrymple would never surpass his performance in writing From the Holy Mountain , but The Last Mughal has caused me to think again -Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Guardian
If you have not already read this book, please do so. William Dalrymple, who has already established his credentials as a powerful writer, skilfully unfolds the life history of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal, against the backdrop of 1857 Rebellion and the Mughal empire s disintegration. His is a painstakingly researched book with plenty of new insights -Mushirul Hasan, Indian Express
William Dalrymple s new book is an invaluable addition to the literature on the revolt of 1857. It looks at the uprising in Delhi largely on the basis of sources which have not previously been read by any historian. He brings alive those fateful months, and in the process recreates also the outstanding literary achievements of the dying Mughal court. It is a poignant story, extremely well narrated, with new facts and analysis -Rudrangshu Mukherjee, author of Avadh in Revolt, 1857-58, Spectre of Violence: The 1857 Kanpur Massacres and Mangal Pandey: Brave Martyr or Accidental Hero?
William Dalrymple s study, centering around the final years of Bahadur Shah II, the last titular Mughal Emperor, is an outstanding book for three reasons. Meticulously researched, it makes full use of an extraordinary number of previously unexplored sources in British and Indian archives. Its author displays exemplary fairness and empathy in his judgments on events and people and in his selection of episodes. And finally, Dalrymple is as attentive to literary style as he is to historical research. The book s brisk narrative quickly grips our attention and holds it to the end. This is well-reasoned history at its enjoyable best -C.M. Naim, Professor Emeritus, South Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Chicago
The Indian rebellion of 1857-8 and the deposition of the last Mughal Emperor were events of epochal importance. William Dalrymple tells this dramatic and tragic story with literary elegance, erudition and a wealth of new material -C.A. Bayly, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge
Dalrymple s extensive archival research has enabled him to present a striking new perspective on the tragic events of 1857 as centred on Delhi. Drawing upon hitherto largely untapped records and sources, he has insightfully and engagingly recovered the