I, Ivy Manna (founder of Candid Economics), was invited to introduce the multi-award-winning historian William Dalrymple, in his talk entitled ‘The Anarchy’ a cautionary tale of the rise of the East India Company: the world’s first corporate giant. This talk was held at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, which was broadcast live by Sky Arts. The largest and oldest literature festival in the world, the Cheltenham Literature Festival is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
It was a true honour and privilege for me to be able to meet and introduce such a renowned historian, and I gained much insight into the economics and politics of India during this tumultuous period. While delivering a speech in front of an 800-strong crowd was slightly nerve-wracking experience for me, it was an amazing opportunity, and one I will always remember.
The work of William Dalrymple combines two passionate interests of mine: the real-life application of competition economics, and the evolution of colonial India. My interests in academics fall in the intersection of subjects: I am an interdisciplinarian at heart. Thus, Dalrymple’s latest book: ‘The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Tea Company’, combining economics and politics, lies squarely within my interests.
William Dalrymple is an internationally-renowned historian and broadcaster, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Geographical Society, and of the Royal Asiatic Society. His books, including ‘White Mughals’, ‘The Age of Kali’, and his latest, ‘The Anarchy’ have won numerous awards and prizes, including the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Hemingway Prize, the Kapuściński Prize, and the Wolfson Prize. Mr. Dalrymple is a co-founder of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival, and was awarded the President’s Medal of the British Academy in 2018.
‘The Anarchy’ has already been accoladed as a ‘Top 5 Sunday Times Bestseller’, and has been longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. It is a tale detailing the history of the Indian Subcontinent, which saw the collapse of the Mughal imperial system, rise of the Maratha imperial confederacy, and the militarisation and rise of power of the East India Tea Company. As I read ‘The Anarchy’, what struck me was Mr. Dalrymple’s ability to adeptly weave the meteoric rise of the East India Company with the turmoil of the political landscape in the background. Throughout the book, and indeed the talk, Mr. Dalrymple artfully brought out themes of morality, juxtaposition, poverty, and opulence: all of which were both informative and thought-provoking.
During the event, Mr. Dalrymple illustrated how the majority of the British population are oblivious to even the existence of the corporate multinational that was the East India Tea Company. He called for a reform of the UK history curriculum, in order to raise awareness about the role of Britain in world history, for the generations to follow. This call to action resonated with me, as I have experienced first-hand, from growing up on three different continents, how curriculums vary across borders. While this is largely a positive concept, and I have learned a great deal from these variations, I wholeheartedly agree that the way only we can begin to understand these events, is by learning about them collectively.
The lecture ended on a cautionary note about the abuse of corporate power, which is a thought that hits disconcertingly close to home. Picture this:
A board of company directors are summoned before a select committee of the UK government. The company in question has already been bailed out, detrimentally impacting the British economy, and parliament has been tasked with figuring out the extent and cause of the debts. The company directors face accusations of embezzlement and corruption, including a whopping £210 million worth of ‘presents’ doled out to supporters.
Is this scene taken from the collapse of Lehman Brothers? Facebook? Bear Stearns perhaps? If you thought any of the above, you’re wrong. This is the East India Tea Company circa 1772, and according to Dalrymple, can be classed as “one of history’s first mega-bailouts”.
This shows that the work of William Dalrymple, while retrospective, is perhaps more relevant today than ever before. If we, as a society, are to move forward and tackle the abuse of corporate power, we need to recognise its recurring pattern throughout history. And reading and appreciating ‘The Anarchy’ might just be the first step in that process.
