This groundbreaking volume examines how the Mughal Empire used architecture to refashion its identity and stage authority in the 18th century, as it struggled to maintain political power against both regional challenges and the encroaching British Empire.

After Aurangzeb Alamgir, History Has Been Singularly Unkind To The Later Mughals. Even The School History Books Do Not Talk Of Them. But The Period With Its Vicious Court Intrigues, Recalcitrant And Increasingly Independent Provincial Governors, And A Ruling Class Which Had Become Utterly Amoral, Corrupt And Unscrupulous Makes For A Gripping Story And Fascinating Parallels Can Be Drawn With The Political Scene Of Today.

Although the study of painting under the Great Mughals is one of the most popular topics of Indian art historical research, scant attention has been given to the continuation of this tradition--the painting and illustrated manuscripts produced at the Delhi court and various regional schools from the reign of Bahadur Shah 1 in 1707 to the end of the reign of Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1858. This volume addresses several important themes of the era: the development of the styles of major artists, such as Chitarman, Dip Chand, and Imam Baksh, and their influence on later Mughal painting; the proliferation of regional styles during these years; and finally offered are new appraisals of the European contribution to Indian art of these 150 years.

WINNER OF THE DUFF COOPER MEMORIAL PRIZE | LONGLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 'Indispensable reading on both India and the Empire' Daily Telegraph 'Brims with life, colour and complexity . . . outstanding' Evening Standard 'A compulsively readable masterpiece' Brian Urquhart, The New York Review of Books A stunning and bloody history of nineteenth-century India and the reign of the Last Mughal. In May 1857 India's flourishing capital became the centre of the bloodiest rebellion the British Empire had ever faced. Once a city of cultural brilliance and learning, Delhi was reduced to a battered, empty ruin, and its ruler – Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last of the Great Mughals – was thrown into exile. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj's Stalingrad: a fight to the death between two powers, neither of whom could retreat. The Last Mughal tells the story of the doomed Mughal capital, its tragic destruction, and the individuals caught up in one of the most terrible upheavals in history, as an army mutiny was transformed into the largest anti-colonial uprising to take place anywhere in the world in the entire course of the nineteenth century.