For all with an interest in the history
OF THE East India Company and the British Raj
The British in India Historical Trust presents Zoom lectures by authors of recently published books of interest to descendants of the British in South Asia between 1600 and 1947 and all who want to know more about the East India Company and the British Raj. It also awards annual book prizes for excellence in non-fiction historical writing. The British in India Historical Trust is a small charity.
The Hooghly, a distributary of the Ganges flowing south to the Bay of Bengal, was for centuries a river of global significance, attracting merchants, missionaries, mercenaries, statesmen, labourers and travellers from Europe, Asia and beyond. Robert Ivermee focuses on those who built settlements along its banks and struggled to control its waters—the Portuguese at Hooghly, the Mughals at Murshidabad, the Danish at Serampore, the French at Chandernagore and the British at Calcutta—and examines how the Hooghly provided a conduit for trade, imperialism, technological change and new ideas.
Robert Ivermee is Lecturer in British Civilisation at the Catholic University of Paris. He is the author of Hooghly: The Global History of a River (Hurst Publishers 2020) and is currently working on a book on French colonialism and Anglo-French exchanges in India.
>>BOOK NOW<< See the Lectures page for all forthcoming lectures and booking links
Proceeds of lectures help fund prizes for non-fiction historical writing on British India.
BOOK PRIZES
Two prizes will be awarded in 2023 for books published in 2022: The British in India Book Prize and The British in India Military History Book Prize. Further details are available here.
A European, thought to be British Resident Sir David Ochterlony, in Indian dress, smoking a hookah and watching a nautch in his house at Delhi c.1820 (detail). British Library, CC0.
FEATURED LECTURE
Hooghly
The Global History of a River
Robert Ivermee
17 JANUARY 2023 18.30 GMT (ZOOM)