A profound and ground-breaking new history of one of the most important encounters in the history of colonialism: the British arrival in India in the early seventeenth century.
Nandini Das OBE is professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture in the English faculty at the University of Oxford. Brought up in India, she was educated at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, before moving to England for further study. Among other books, she is co-editor of The Cambridge History of Travel Writing. A BBC New Generation Thinker, she regularly presents television and radio programmes, including Tales of Tudor Travel: The Explorer's Handbook on BBC4. In 2025, she was awarded an OBE for services to Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities and to Public Engagement.
A triumph of writing and scholarship . . . 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 . . . Her style, while nuanced and
erudite, is also jaunty and often witty. The book is as full of
lovely passages of prose and finely shaded pen portraits as it is
of new archival research, of which there is a great deal . . . It
is hard to imagine anyone ever bettering Das’s account of this part
of the story
*Financial Times*
A fascinating glimpse of the origins of the British Empire . . .
The picture that emerges of the first official encounter between
Jacobean England and Mughal India is a vivid one, drawn in dazzling
technicolour. Courting India is as much about Britain as India, a
glimpse of one of history’s turning points, and the start of a
relationship that would change not just England but the world
*Spectator*
The story of the very earliest years of British activity on the
Indian subcontinent, Das’s book goes to the heart of the initial,
heady meeting of courts and cultures and presents a novel look at
the roots of colonialism
*Financial Times*
Skilfully reconstructs the slights and stand-offs, the escalating
tensions . . . Courting India is a scholarly biography with an
antiquary’s eye for detail . . . Das’s leisurely diversions into
the world of Jacobean fashion, food and curiosities are
fascinating
*The Times*
An utterly absorbing narrative . . . What makes Das’s account of
Roe’s experiences in India so fascinating is the depth of her
research. She has mined the East India Company archives . . . as
well as Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and, particularly, Mughal
sources, to present Roe’s four years in the round . . . Das has
portrayed Roe and the unfamiliar world of the Mughal court in which
he found himself with the piercing detail of a miniature painted
with the finest squirrel-hair brush
*Literary Review*
Captivating . . . A truly impressive work of scholarship and an
enthralling read . . . Makes a major contribution to our
understanding not just of the origins of empire in India, but of
the seventeenth-century world
*History Today*
[Das] is the rare scholar who combines a sensitivity to the
literature of Jacobean England with a sympathetic and nuanced
understanding of the Mughal empire … Das successfully rescues [Roe]
from the stilted role of the progenitor of colonial rule and
reveals something more interesting: an ambassador too honourable
and too inexperienced to achieve anything much for either himself
or his country … Das does not flinch from this difficult history of
the spread of European dominance. Yet she remains admirably
evenhanded in her appraisal, revealing the subtle change of views
and blurring of boundaries in this unpropitious moment of
intercultural contact
*New York Times*
A sparkling gem of a book. Beautifully written and masterfully
researched, this has the makings of a classic
*Peter Frankopan*
Stretching from the dark waters of the Thames to the blossom-strewn
floors of the Jahangiri Palace, Courting India covers a vast
canvass with masterful aplomb. Nandini Das's debut is a marvellous
piece of detective work
*Amanda Foreman*
What a joy to find the first official Indo-British encounter
receiving the scholarly attention and enthralling treatment it
deserves . . . A modern masterpiece, delightful, enlightening and
faultless
*John Keay*
This is a book I wish I had written! It’s a glorious read by a
talented historian about an important and rather overlooked
journey. Marvellous
*Suzannah Lipscomb*
Startlingly eye-opening. . . . If we want to to truly understand
the impact and legacy of the British Empire on our modern world, we
have to start where it all began
*Pragya Agarwal, author of 'Sway'*
Jacobean London and Mughal India come face to face through the eyes
of Thomas Roe. A figure previously marginalised, in Nandini Das’s
layered exploration, Roe finds a new life. And with him, we
encounter rich pictures of imperial Britain being formed. A fine
achievement and a great read
*Professor Ruby Lal, author of 'Empress: The Astonishing Reign of
Nur Jahan'*
This well researched and written volume is a work of authority and
quality. It is essential reading for the understanding of Britain's
early encounter with India
*Ian Talbot, Emeritus Professor in the History of Modern South Asia
at the University of Southampton*
Nandini Das moves seamlessly between the inner worlds of the courts
of seventeenth century England and India and with a mastery of
both. This important book brings the earliest days of the British
empire vividly to life
*Dr Yasmin Khan, University of Oxford*
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. Professor Nandini Das captures the mixture of
excitement, prejudice, anxiety, misunderstanding and mutual
interest that characterised an encounter that did so much to shape
the contours of the modern world
*Professor Andrew Hadfield, University of Sussex*
Courting India is a tour de force of detailed archival research and
riveting storytelling. Its main character, King James I's first
ambassador to India Thomas Roe, emerges here in all his historical
as well as individual complexity – a low-budget, over-dressed
herald of the juggernaut that the East India Company would become,
and a bit-part actor in a transnational theatre of state he
couldn't begin to fathom
*Professor Jonathan Gil Harris, author of 'Masala Shakespeare'*
Courting India, by Nandini Das, is a brilliant and insightful study
of Thomas Roe’s embassy at the Mughal court. It serves as a rich
repository of cultural memories from the beginnings of the colonial
encounter – memories that have continuing resonance and relevance
in our own era as we grapple with the aftermath of empire. Das
offers a compelling account in which deft archival research
navigates through English intellectual, literary and political
worlds as they interconnected with the Mughal empire
*Jyotsna G. Singh, Professor, Department of English, Michigan State
University*
Nandini Das's rich, absorbing account of a critical juncture of
global history, the Englishman Sir Thomas Roe's embassy to the
court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, charts both a remarkable
personal narrative and the prehistory of colonial expansion, told
from the perspective of an imperial go-between. This is a
fascinating story of early modern political and cultural
transactions, brilliantly researched and attractively written. It
is destined to become the classic treatment of its subject.
*Professor Supriya Chaudhuri, Department of English, Jadavpur
University*
Fascinating . . . India was a huge continental empire, England a
minor maritime kingdom on the fringe of Europe; but with their
itchy feet the English were pushing to expand global trade. Their
paths would cross in ways they could never have dreamed of’
*BBC History Magazine, 2023 Books of the Year*
Courting India is ostensibly a study of Sir Thomas Roe’s time as
the East India Company’s representative to the Mughal court from
1615 to 1619, but it is so much more than that . . . [Nandini’s]
book makes us rethink the idea that Britain was always dominant in
India
*BBC History Magazine, 2023 Books of the Year*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
