Rhiannon Davies: As you write in your book, when England sent its first ambassador to India in 1615, it wasn't a huge success. So why did you choose to focus on it in Courting India?
Nandini Das: When we think about England’s connection with India, we often imagine it as a pre-planned, pre-meditated project. But in this very, very early stage, it was marked by uncertainty. That’s the most exciting thing – that sense of risk and unpredictability. This was a moment when England was by no means the huge British empire that it would come to be.
What would you say England's position on the world stage was at this time?
I think it’s a question of rejigging our mental map. When we think about the world players of the 18th and 19th centuries, we tend to think about European imperial presences, not only within Europe but beyond Europe. So we think about the British in India and in the Americas, and the Belgians in Africa, for instance.
Roll back to the early 17th century, however, and the big geopolitical powers across the globe weren’t the Europeans: they were Islamic. It’s the Ottomans, the Safavids of Persia, and the Mughals of northern India who controlled most of the mercantile trade routes. That’s where the power lay.
England, by contrast, was very much a bit player, hanging on the margins of the stage. At this point, there was a belatedness that haunted English travel and English global plans. By the time that they arrived in India, the Portuguese had already been there for just over a century.
