Customer Reviews
Prejudiced - By: G. J. Weeks, 08 Dec 2008 
Having really enjoyed White Mughals I opened this book with anticipation which was not to be realised. In his previous book I saw Dalrymple did not like the Evangelicals who gained control of The East India Company. Here his dislike really shows. He simplisticly seems to put them as the cause of the mutiny & the encouragers of brutal reprisals. Other sources do not agree. In his Urdu book, Asbab-e Baghawat-e Hind (Causes of the Indian Mutiny),[25] Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan asserted
"I believe that there was but one primary cause of the rebellion, the others being merely incidental & arising out of it ... [T]he Natives of India, without perhaps a single exception, blame the Government for having deprived them of their position & dignity & for keeping them down ... Was not the Government aware that the Natives of the very highest rank trembled before its officers, & werein daily fear of suffering the greatest insults & indignities at their hands?" The resulting atrocities would make Cromwellin Ireland appear to be a model of military rectitude.
In his previous book there was one character whose story held the narrative together. The last emperor holds no such fascination. Despite the rave reviews my interest was not held.
A must read - By: Ibrahim Ali, 03 Sep 2008 
Dalrymple produces fantastically readable books & this history of 1857 is no exception. This, is perhaps one of the few histories written I English that attempts to use Urdu sources (the other notable book that does so is Amaresh Misra's War of Civilisations). However, Dalrymple doesn't make as extensive use of Urdu & Persian sources as he could have & he is over reliant on Ghalib & one or two others to portray the social history of the mutiny. However the book is still a wonderful read bursting with information & it attempts to portray a balanced view of the events. Dalrymple interweaves contemporary sources with his text masterfully & his inclusion & discussion of some of the poetry of the time makes for a most welcome distraction. Similarly the chapter where he discusses pre-mutiny Delhi is perhaps the most powerful, at least to any Indian Muslim, & it is almost unbearable to think of the city that we have now lost.
This is by no means a full account of the mutiny, the book concentrates mainly on eventsin Delhi & the life of the last Emperor. However it is a most welcome addition to the mutiny literature & required reading for anyone with even a casual interestin the history of India.
Superb picture of Mughal Delhi and its destruction in 1857 - By: William Podmore, 08 Aug 2008 This magnificent book is based on Persian & Urdu documentsin India's National Archives. It vividly portrays Mughal Delhi & its destructionin 1857. The last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar II (1775-1862), was at the heart of a court of great brilliance, home of `the greatest literary renaissancein modern Indian history'. Architectural historian James Ferguson called his palace `the most splendid palacein the world'.
Dalrymple shows that the Uprising resulted from the Raj's growing racism & hatred, its `steady crescendo of insensitivity'. Its arrogant schemes to impose Evangelical Christianity & Christian laws on India `usheredin the most obnoxious phase of colonialism'.
The uprising was `along distinct class lines', with workers to the fore. It was the most serious armed challenge to imperialismin the 19th century, posed to the world's greatest military power. Dalrymple notes the rebels' military, strategic, administrative, logistical & financial failings & their war crimes. But the accusations of rape by the rebels were false: the official inquiry found not a single case of rape; the only mass rapes were by British soldiers after the reconquest of Delhi.
He reveals for the first time `the full scale of the viciousness & brutality of the British response', as detailedin the records of the revived British administration. "The orders were to shoot every soul. ... It was literally murder ... Heaven knows I feel no pity ..." wrote British officer Edward Vibart. Colonel A. R. D. Mackenzie boasted that we "exterminated them as men kill snakes wherever they meet them." After killing three unarmed captive princes, Captain William Hodson wrote to his sister, "I am not cruel, but I confess I did enjoy the opportunity of ridding the earth of these wretches."
Lieutenant Charles Griffiths wrote of John Clifford, the former collector of Gurgaon, "He shook my hands, saying that he had put to death all he had come across, not excepting women & children, & from his excited manner & the appearance of his dress - which was covered with blood stains - I quite believe he told the truth." Governor-General Lord Canning told Queen Victoria that the British forces displayed `a rabid & indiscriminate vindictiveness'.
Palmerston said that Delhi should be deleted from the map, `levelled to the ground'. British forces sacked, looted & emptied Delhi & massacred great swathes of its people. Much of the palace & its surrounding areas were razed. Most of its leading inhabitants were killed or transported to diein the Raj's new Andaman Islands camp for 10,000 prisoners. As far as the Mughal elite were concerned, the British response was `approaching a genocide' & `would today be classified as grisly war crimes'.
Dalrymple sums up, "That massacre of the inhabitants of Delhi, commanded & justifiedin the eyes of Victorian Evangelicals by their reading of the Christian scriptures. ... `In the city no one's life was safe,' wrote Muin ud-Din Husain Khan. `All able-bodied men who were seen were taken for rebels & shot.' Ghalib, who had disliked the sepoys from the beginning, was now no less horrified by the barbarity of the returning British. `The victors killed all whom they found on the streets,' he wrotein Dastanbuy. `When the angry lions entered the town, they killed the helpless & weak & they burned their houses. Mass slaughter was rampant & streets were filled with horror. It may be that such atrocities always occur after conquest.'"
The Last Mughal's Pollyanna - By: R. S. Loch, 23 Jan 2008 The first rule of history is not to take sides, one that William Dalrymple breaks almost on the first page.
Attempting to replace the existing foreign ruling class of India with themselves, the British caused resentment that boiled overin 1857 into a full scale uprising. As the British & their Indian allies tried to put down the uprising both sides were the victims of, & the perpetrators of massacres, & both had their heroes & their villains.
Sadly Dalrymple undermines his detailed research by almost ignoring the massacres of Europeans & Christian converts & the culpability of the Mughal courtin them while reportingin detail any British wrongdoing.
This is a good book ruined by the author's prejudices.
the last mughal - By: Haroun Rashid, 23 Jan 2008 I have now read every single book ever published by William Dalrymple. I would be hard put to name a favourite as each one of them is something of a masterpiecein its own right. The Last Mughal must rate among the very best of Dalrymple's work & indeed must rank as one of the finest on the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Most accounts of the Mutiny are centred around the British forces gathered outside the walls of Delhi. This book gives a unique insight into what was happening inside the wallsin the weeks & months leading up to the British invasion & the aftermath.
Dalrymple's writing of history is,in a sense, unique. The Last Mughal reads like a rivetting thriller without ever compromising on fact or scholarship. The author has a profound appreciation of his subject. For anyone with even a passing interestin Indian or British colonial history, a must read.
