Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire

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What followed in India was a turning-point in history, a story of palace intrigue, scandal, and mutual incomprehension that unfolds as global trade begins to stretch from Russia to Virginia, from West Africa to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. The British Academy Book Prize, formerly known as the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize, was established in 2013, to reward and celebrate the best works of non-fiction that demonstrate rigour and originality, and have contributed to public understanding of other world cultures and their interaction. Professor Charles Tripp was joined on the 2023 Book Prize judging panel by Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed FBA, Professor Rebecca Earle FBA, Fatima Manji, and Professor Gary Younge Hon FBA. When Thomas Roe arrived in India in 1616 as James I's first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, the English barely had a toehold in the subcontinent. On behalf of the British Academy, it is my honour to congratulate Nandini Das on this exceptional work.

Fascinating and comprehensive account of Thomas Roe’s embassy from the impoverished James I to the opulent Mughal Court of Jahangir.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Roe’s time in India apparently had little impact on the Mughals (he is barely mentioned in Jahangir’s own comprehensive writings). Although a micro history, this book shines a clear light on the wider times including on the mores and politics of the leaders the Mughal Court, including Shah Jahan, who would go on later to commission the Taj Mahal. as well as Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and, particularly, Mughal sources, to present Roe's four years in the round .

The announcement was made by Chair of the Book Prize judging panel, Professor Charles Tripp FBA, at a celebration at the British Academy. Courting India is an interesting account of the British arrival in India in the early 1600's from the perspective of Thomas Roe, James I’s first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, who arrived there in 1616. Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire by Nandini Das is today named as the winner of the 11th British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding. This lucid and imaginatively written book tells us a great deal about the hesitant early days of the first British Empire, as a traditionally inward-looking island nation sought to engage with the wider world.Meanwhile, the court he entered in India was wealthy and cultured, its dominion widely considered to be one of the greatest and richest empires of the world. Nandini Das moves seamlessly between the inner worlds of the courts of seventeenth century England and India and with a mastery of both.

She is a scholar of Renaissance literature, travel, migration, and cross-cultural encounters, and has published widely on these topics, from major sixteenth and seventeenth century authors like Philip Sidney, Shakespeare and Cervantes, to the fleeting presence of three Japanese boys in sixteenth century Portuguese-held Goa, India. For Das the Roe mission is the lens through which to give sharp focus to a remarkably wide-ranging study that does much to illuminate the bigger story of the unpromising origins of British power – and initial powerlessness – in India . The book recasts the story of Britain and India, moving us beyond a Eurocentric telling with an even-handed, entertaining tale of the encounter of two cultures and the ambitions, misunderstandings and prejudices that came to the fore.Informative, educational and beautifully written, with hints of the absurdity of the merchant life, this has been one to savour. Conflicts over precedence did nothing to advance his mission of securing trade rights, which was the real reason Roe had been sent across the Indian Ocean. The power of good writing and a well-told story in getting people to understand each other should not be underestimated.

This is something of a micro history, focusing as it does on a three year period from 1616 to 1619; the years of the ambassadorship of Thomas Roe from the Court of King James 1 of England to Mughal India.This book does just that, drawing on the best of the academic and the literary traditions to shed light on how we are today.