City of gins
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You’ll need a stiff drink for this |
At the Bombay launch of William Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal, the author railed so heavily against the cruelty of the British Raj that we were left wondering whether he had attended JNU. Turns out he’s just a Scot 
By my count, this marks the third book the author has squeezed out of Mughal history. The defender of 2nd gen writers is an industry unto himself.
A Dalrymple reading in the U.S. might have been at a small SAJA dinner or an uptown Barnes & Noble. Slightly novelized history doesn’t move on Oprah. But not in Bombay — here the British Council threw a beautiful poolside reception at the Taj Lands End, which costs less in pounds. As at most Bombay book launches, instead of bookish readers, you got glam, struggling actors, models and expats. The consulates had emptied for the evening.
Dalrymple’s tale of the fall of Bahadur Shah Zafar of the house of Timur was interesting despite the puffery about being the only man to have ever inspected most of the Sepoy Mutiny papers in Delhi. He painted a nuanced picture of a rebellion more anti-Christian than anti-British, a population which at long last accepted the legitimacy of the Mughals, Punjabi mercenaries facing off against jihadis and upper-cast Hindu rebels locked inside the Delhi walls, and a British side which nearly succumbed to the revolution. Hollywood’s version would star Tom Cruise (the last Mughal, natch), lecturing Zafar on the culture of Samarkand.
Hurree Babu attended the Delhi launch and purred at the ghazals. Amardeep previewed an excerpt and its nonfiction predecessor, City Of Djinns.
Anuvab and his better half — sadly, that’s not a figure of speech:
on Friday, December 8th, 2006, 10:18 pm in Bombay, Events, History, Literature, Photos › 
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Wow Manish — you are plugged into Mumbai High Society to snag this invitation! I thought Dalrymple’s “City of Djinns” was an entertaining (and informative) read. One of the best 1857 Revolution/Mutiny stories is “Our Bones are Scattered” by Andrew Ward about the “Cawnpore” massacre. I’ll have to check out “The Last Mughal”. Thanks for the pointer.
The link “White Mughals” lead to the review for City of Djinns.
So true!
Which section did you represent ;).
White Mughals and City of Djinns were both interesting reads. Dalrymple has been constantly bashed up for exocitcising stuff as an outsider. This piece by Amardeep presents a very balanced viewpoint on the same.
Nah, only dissolute thespians :)
Thanks, fixed.
Bloggers :)
I am reading “White Mughal” right now. I am enjoying it so far.
Way to go, Manish. Way to go. Bravo !!!
Next thing, you will married to a Mumbai model
By the way, how’s the book you’re working on coming along?
Dudes, struggling models are all over the place here, it’s the image industries. No biggie.
Derick, just collecting material right now, which is an all-purpose excuse :)
Manish, whats with the new spellings “Maanish”?
When is your movie releasing!
You iinsult me, muusikkal! ;)
City of Djinns talked about the Mughals, but certainly was not about them. I remember it started with the 1984 riots and ended with the clay pottery of the early Vedic period. White Mughals is about the court of Hyderabad. In my count this seems to be the first book by Dalrymple explicitly about Mughal history.
You might be referring to some other books by him I don’t know about. My apologies in that case.