COURTING INDIA

A richly textured account of the first Englishman to make meaningful contact with India via the Mughal court in the early 17th century.

In 1615, Thomas Roe (1581-1644) became the first ambassador to the Mughal court, and he was enormously influential in how India was portrayed in England henceforth. As Oxford historian Das shows, at the beginning of the reign of James I, England had not yet become a colonial power, as Elizabeth I had embraced isolationism in international politics. Nonetheless, the English were hungry for luxury goods; James needed to raise money, and trade with Asia was integral. The East India Company, founded in 1600, was increasing its profits every year. The eager Roe, who had cut his teeth in the Amazon basin and then at the Ottoman court, was recommended to the post of ambassador so that English interests could be secured. Das examines the fabled reputation of India before Roe arrived, especially through the works of Chaucer, Ariosto, and Shakespeare. The author vividly describes Roe’s acceptance at the sumptuous court of Jahangir at Agra. She delves intriguingly into the roles of his sons, in-laws, and harem as well as the elaborate court rituals and layers of access, the role of women, and, most vexing for Roe, “the problem of finding and giving the right gifts.” Das offers elucidating digressions into the roles of Roe’s chaplain, Edward Terry, and Jahangir’s queen, Mihr-un-Nisa, “the effective co-sovereign” of the empire. Ultimately, Roe had to adjust his initial view of the emperor as a “stock-figure of Asian tyranny” and his duplicitous court as rather more warmhearted and nuanced. Keen to the incursions of the Portuguese and Dutch, Roe was anxious to secure British trade interests because, at the time, “European politics was a powder keg waiting to explode.”

Ornately detailed study of an early ambassador, with an emphasis on fruitful trade in India.