Trading on reputations

LUBAABA AL-AZAMI has mixed feelings about an insightful but sometimes Eurocentric look at the development of the East India Company

- LUBAABA AL-AZAMI

The long joint history of India and England is far from unfamiliar. Much of it is understood through the lens of two centuries of British colonialism, from the mid-18th century to Indian independence in 1947. Colonised first by the East India Company (EIC), India was later celebrated as the "jewel in the crown" of the British empire. In scholarly texts as much as popular writings, England features as imperial master over a subordinated India. Even in the period prior to colonisation, England is seen as a coloniser-in-waiting, with the EIC framed as an empire builder. Yet this understanding is far from accurate, and David Howarth's new book provides a compelling and necessary corrective to that long-held view.

Howarth does what many a historian has failed to do: places a critical lens on the story of England and India that pushes back on colonial narratives, particularly in the early period. He clarifies that the EIC began as an unstable entity focused exclusively on trade. Far from being early proponents of colonial mastery, these first travellers were merchants in pursuit of eastern trade. As Howarth observes of the EIC: "How wrong it is to think there was something inevitable about its socalled rise as a systematic monolith that was somehow predestined to govern India."

Adventurers' 16 chapters follow a broadly chronological arrangement while thematically traversing the history. Howard explores the EIC's foundation and evolution, from its turbulent beginnings as a joint stock company to later struggles with the British crown as the nation headed towards civil war. We are also introduced to England's key European competitors in Asia, the Portuguese and the Dutch. Anglo-European trading efforts across key Asiatic regions are explored, covering the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires, Japan and the "Spice Islands" of Indonesia.