History of Delhi Under the Later Mughals

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Two hundred years ago, Delhi had been a great and imperial city for a century, with anything between one and two million inhabitants. It was the largest and most renowned city, not only of India, but of all the East from Constantinople to Canton. The purpose of this study is to trace the history of Delhi from the time that if ceased to be the capital of Mughul India until it became a completely British city after the Mutiny in 1858.

The story of Delhi during these years is not one of weaklings or mountebanks, creeping amidst decent and subterfuge, but of strong men lusting for power. It is a story of men throwing away successively in the heat of that passion everything that could make that power worth having, and mutually squandering the resources for which they were all contending. The nemesis of these men was the nemesis not of weakness but of strength not allied to principle, not of idealism but of power politics.

The first part of the book is a sketch of the Kingdom of Delhi until its conquest by the company in 1803. The second part of the book consists of a series of studies on the Delhi city and territory under British Administration from 1803-1857. This part falls into three further sections.

This book is a study of Delhi and its adjacent territory during the late Mughul and early British periods. It covers the period from the emergence of the 'Kingdon of Delhi' with the reces- sion of both Afghans and Marathas after the battle of Panipat in 1761, until the Mutiny in 1857.

The first section of the book is a sketch of the Kingdom of Delhi until the British conquest in 1803, special attention being, paid to the period 1782-8 when the kingdom passed from a precarious independence to Maratha control. While secondary authorities have been largely used for this period, the object being to analyse and co-ordinate already available material, original sources have been used for the vital years 1782-88.

The second part of the book consists of a series of studies of the Delhi city and Territory under British administration from 1803-57. This part falls into three sections. The first deals with the relations of the British with the Mughul emperors or 'Kings of Delhi' and the internal life of the Mughul family. The second is a study of the British administration of the Delhi Territory and specially of the 'Metcalfe system'. This has been dealt with by Kaye and Thompson in their lives of Charles Metcalfe, but from a different point of view. The third deals with a number of separate topics-British life in Delhi, the Colebrooke case, the Fraser murder and finally the Mutiny and its aftermath in Delhi mainly from the Indian point of view.

The second and third sections of this book are based on original sources. These materials, both manuscript and printed, are drawn from the official records, Parliamentary papers, diaries and memoirs, and private papers to which I have been fortunate to be given access. A substantial proportion, though not of course all these materials, have been used for the first time.