The Last Mughal

If I have to define this great work,I have only one word excellent.Here the characters(historical and real of course) rise from the usual fetters of the page and come to life and live with us as we read the book.William dalrymple being a scholar in history there is no worry about the details,they are well researched(mainly from Delhi's 1857 urdu newslets and dociments)

The is mainly about the famous 1857 mutiny(as the Brits call it) or the independence struggle,where the Brits subdue the sepoy forces of Delhi gathered from all over India due to thier own mistakes.Then the Brits take over Delhi and send Bahadur Shah Zafar to Rangoon,where he is made prisinor.

The best part about the writer is he never slants to either the Brits side nor the Mughal's side but does the work of an uninvolved spectator.

William Dalrymple astonishingly gives the disrcription of the revolt of 1857, often which is called as the first war of independance.The condition of the last mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar,his life and his worst days when he got captured.The marriage procession of son of Bahadur Shah Zafar gives out the total picture of that time's richness of India under the british rule. The most reminding event is that when the children of the emperor were made naked and were made to run in the streets of Delhi.Again the story of Mirza Galib and Bahadur Shah Zafar about the mangoes is fabulous.Each and every story and chapter in this book gives the immense knowledge about the India's past.When we study it seems as if the events are happening in front of us. The most intresting part is to study about the last days of Bahadur Shah Zafar, saying that "he came on elephant, ruled for sometime and left Delhi on the bullock cart and went to Burma. The way of recaptulating the past events is just fantastic and fabulous.

Darlymple writes beautifully!!
He visits 19th century delhi and takes you along for the ride. You live amidst the delhi elite, taste their luxury, hear their rumors, and feel their fear. Even though a brit himself Darlymple never seems biased. He dwells elaborately on the prejudice of the company personell and the dying breed of those whom he calls "the white mughals". Whites who have adapted the lifstyle of the delhi elite... people like ochterloney, the frasers & the skinners who live in the style of a nawab and dorn the habit of a prince. They even maitain thieir own harems and marry aplenty. Learned in arabic and persian they quote galib and carry on as genuine mommadens.

Somewhere he contrasts a typical day of the delhites and the company persons and he does so with perfection and FEELING.

The vivid discriptions of the poetic mehfils, the mushairas create a nostalgic effect. And even though he talks of a time long past... you cant help feeling disappointed ...as if... you have MISSED something.

And then comes the mutiny... how the surreal reality is brutally destroyed. And the galib couplet at the end.... it breaks your heart!!

a must have. read it at leisure and recreate the glory of the Indian capital.
highly recommended!!

Once again Dalrymple enthralls and enlightens us through his in depth research, vivid description and intelligent and honest analysis. The amount of research and effort that has gone into writing this book is commendable and i salute Dalrymple for undertaking the mammoth work. It is perhaps the first account of the mutiny from the Indian point of view. Even though it does give us the entire story and centres round the part played by bahadur shah zafar, the reader can very well piece together the complete picture. Zafar may have been incompetent and spineless but as the descendant of a great dynasty he deserves to be remembered with far more respect than he actually was given.

Have been an ardent Darymple fan for quite a while and would remain so , The book is beautifully written about the mutiny of 1857 in Bahadur shah zafar's context, Darymple vividly explains the last Mughal emperor, his poetic and artistic brilliance and the sad end to one of the greatest dynasties of the world ,the book clears a lot of doubts one has about the mutiny of 1857 and why it completely failed. The price was finally paid by Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last Mughal with his last years in confinement in Rangoon and ultimately finding his grave there banished from his kingdom.