--- product_id: 97467959 title: "The Anarchy" price: "HK$233" currency: HKD in_stock: true reviews_count: 7 url: https://www.desertcart.hk/products/97467959-the-anarchy store_origin: HK region: Hong Kong --- # The Anarchy **Price:** HK$233 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Anarchy - **How much does it cost?** HK$233 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hk](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/97467959-the-anarchy) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Anarchy [Dalrymple, William] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Anarchy Review: Marvelous Colonial History - William Dalrymple is a wonderful historian and researcher of Anglo-Indian history who seems to know all the relevant archives (including private ones) in every language all of which he seems to be fluent in. Of his quartet (this book, 'White Mughals', 'The Return of the King' and 'The Last Mughal'), this is the best for providing an overview of the British conquest, the other three more interesting for their focus on key episodes, the relationship of the East India Company to the Mughal government in Hyderabad ('White Mughuls'), the invasion of Afghanistan ('The Return go the King') and the 1857 Sepoy revolt in Delhi ('The Last Mughal'), which was a turning point in Anglo-Indian relations. For this reader, the most eye-opening paragraph of this book was this (page 14): 'India then [1608 when the first East India ship showed up in India] had a population of 150 million - about a fifth of the world's total - and was producing about a quarter global manufacturing.... In comparison, England then had just 5 percent of India's population and 3 percent of the world's manufactured goods.' Of course there's some statistical BS going on here (even if you can believe statistics from 1608) since 5 percent of 'India's population' was 1% of the world producing 3 percent of it's goods. Today India represents about 19% of the world's population and produces 3.27% of world GDP. Maybe the Raj didn't turn out so well for India, despite what neo-imperialists like Niall Ferguson say. Dalrymple isn't in Ferguson's school. The heyday of Anglo-Indian relations for Dalrymple lasted from about 1750 until 1810, when there was a lot of friendly fraternizing between the cultures, and every 16-year old younger son of an English baronet could ship out to India and, assuming he didn't succumb to disease in the first year, acquire a fortune, a Bibi and a harem. 'White Mulghals' describes this culture well, though even better are the memoirs of William Hickey. Dalrymple is especially a connoisseur of the poetry, painting, festivals and court intrigues of the era. His 'Forgotten Masters: Indian Paintings for the East India Company' is a delight. Of course, an historian like Dalrymple of past centuries is relying on written records and cultural artifacts of elite culture, so a reader should assume that the voices of the poor and illiterate (90% of India at the time?) are unheard, except as they may have been seen causing mayhem (the Sepoy mutiny) and described by the literate in letters or show up in letters and petitions dictated to scribes, probably at exorbitant cost. A final note, about White Mulghals, which was the most affecting of the books to me. It tells the story of the love affair of James Kirkpatrick, the British resident (essentially ambassador) to the Mughal court at Hyderabad with Khair un-Nissa, a young noblewoman descended from the Prophet, who becomes pregnant by Kirkpatrick at age 14. Kirkpatrick was 36, and the affair nearly ruins his career with the East India Company. Then, because she was a Muslim. Today it would certainly ruin his career because of her age, which seems not to have been a problem then, but life then was much shorter. Kirkpatrick dies at 41; Khair un-Nissa dies 8 years later at 27. Review: A great book, with many references and factual information. - I have been reading William Dalrymple’s books for the last few years - White Mughals, Return of a King, The Last Mughal, and now this book - The Anarchy. It was a fantastic read, gripping, though sometimes comes across biased, especially when narrating stories of war strategies, exploits, and plundering by British East India Company’s Generals and Governor Generals. Speaking of war, this book has a large dosage of it - to be clear, the war strategies and wins by the EIC. Sometimes History becomes irrelevant for what is not being told, speaking of which, the loot and plunder of EIC become monotonous in this book, halfway through, as it was not balanced with wins of native rulers. Though I was not looking for a feel-good book, I was looking for a balanced narrative. I skipped some of the gory details about how the psychotic Ghulam Qadir tortured Shah Alam. The author did write about how Burke and Charles James Fox and other parliamentarians who tried to bring some sense of accountability to the anarchist EIC. This was revealing. However, the fact that Indian revenues propped up the entire British society for decades, came in the way of the Crown taking any manful action to control the suffering of the natives. The details about the Bengal famine will make anybody’s heart sink. In today’s age, Clive would be prosecuted and hanged in the town square for all his misdeeds and greed. As fate would have it, he shot himself to death. The chapter on Tipu will make you wonder that the propaganda started by the British about Tipu’s fanaticism is still finding followers. Tipu consulting Brahmin astrologers for conducting wars, his generous donations to temples, and the general love of his people towards their ruler Tipu were all in a new light. Tipu however was not as sagacious as his illustrious dad, Haider, who foresaw what EIC would do to native kingdoms and forged alliances to defeat EIC. Perhaps some of the negative narratives we hear about Tipu were real to some extent but they seem very exaggerated. He had enmity with Marathas, who peddled the same propaganda that EIC did. In the end, history is history, whether we like it not, but the final words by the author making it appear as a result of greed by a corporation has totally missed the point. This was and will remain forever as, misdeeds and greed of European imperialist powers. EIC is just a symptom of such greed and unbridled supremacy and arrogance. Someday all of those criminals must be prosecuted. One other interesting fact about EIC was that their expansionist and degutting policies were foreseen by American patriots in 1773. From the book: Patriot John Dickinson described EIC tea as ‘accursed Trash’, and compared the potential future regime of the East India Company in America to being ‘devoured by Rats’. This ‘almost bankrupt Company’, he said, having been occupied in wreaking ‘the most unparalleled Barbarities, Extortions and Monopolies’ in Bengal, had now ‘cast their Eyes on America, as a new Theatre, whereon to exercise their Talents of Rapine, Oppression and Cruelty’. - Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy (pp. 27-28). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. EIC dumped the tea that they could not sell elsewhere in the American colonies, with jacked up taxes. This event triggered the American Revolution when the tea was dumped in the Boston harbor. It is striking that what American patriots foresaw about EIC was missed by native Indian rulers of that time. As Karma would have it, this lack of vision in the 18th century had contributed in coalescing Indian peoples as one, united under tyranny, leading to the Indian Union of today. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #65,782 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1 in India History #34 in Economic History (Books) #42 in Asian Politics | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (8,987) | | Dimensions | 6.65 x 1.85 x 9.8 inches | | Edition | Illustrated | | ISBN-10 | 1635573955 | | ISBN-13 | 978-1635573954 | | Item Weight | 2.31 pounds | | Language | English | | Print length | 576 pages | | Publication date | September 10, 2019 | | Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing | ## Images ![The Anarchy - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91GJRFNgocL.jpg) ![The Anarchy - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71NdOuPwamL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Marvelous Colonial History *by B***R on February 24, 2021* William Dalrymple is a wonderful historian and researcher of Anglo-Indian history who seems to know all the relevant archives (including private ones) in every language all of which he seems to be fluent in. Of his quartet (this book, 'White Mughals', 'The Return of the King' and 'The Last Mughal'), this is the best for providing an overview of the British conquest, the other three more interesting for their focus on key episodes, the relationship of the East India Company to the Mughal government in Hyderabad ('White Mughuls'), the invasion of Afghanistan ('The Return go the King') and the 1857 Sepoy revolt in Delhi ('The Last Mughal'), which was a turning point in Anglo-Indian relations. For this reader, the most eye-opening paragraph of this book was this (page 14): 'India then [1608 when the first East India ship showed up in India] had a population of 150 million - about a fifth of the world's total - and was producing about a quarter global manufacturing.... In comparison, England then had just 5 percent of India's population and 3 percent of the world's manufactured goods.' Of course there's some statistical BS going on here (even if you can believe statistics from 1608) since 5 percent of 'India's population' was 1% of the world producing 3 percent of it's goods. Today India represents about 19% of the world's population and produces 3.27% of world GDP. Maybe the Raj didn't turn out so well for India, despite what neo-imperialists like Niall Ferguson say. Dalrymple isn't in Ferguson's school. The heyday of Anglo-Indian relations for Dalrymple lasted from about 1750 until 1810, when there was a lot of friendly fraternizing between the cultures, and every 16-year old younger son of an English baronet could ship out to India and, assuming he didn't succumb to disease in the first year, acquire a fortune, a Bibi and a harem. 'White Mulghals' describes this culture well, though even better are the memoirs of William Hickey. Dalrymple is especially a connoisseur of the poetry, painting, festivals and court intrigues of the era. His 'Forgotten Masters: Indian Paintings for the East India Company' is a delight. Of course, an historian like Dalrymple of past centuries is relying on written records and cultural artifacts of elite culture, so a reader should assume that the voices of the poor and illiterate (90% of India at the time?) are unheard, except as they may have been seen causing mayhem (the Sepoy mutiny) and described by the literate in letters or show up in letters and petitions dictated to scribes, probably at exorbitant cost. A final note, about White Mulghals, which was the most affecting of the books to me. It tells the story of the love affair of James Kirkpatrick, the British resident (essentially ambassador) to the Mughal court at Hyderabad with Khair un-Nissa, a young noblewoman descended from the Prophet, who becomes pregnant by Kirkpatrick at age 14. Kirkpatrick was 36, and the affair nearly ruins his career with the East India Company. Then, because she was a Muslim. Today it would certainly ruin his career because of her age, which seems not to have been a problem then, but life then was much shorter. Kirkpatrick dies at 41; Khair un-Nissa dies 8 years later at 27. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A great book, with many references and factual information. *by G***N on September 9, 2020* I have been reading William Dalrymple’s books for the last few years - White Mughals, Return of a King, The Last Mughal, and now this book - The Anarchy. It was a fantastic read, gripping, though sometimes comes across biased, especially when narrating stories of war strategies, exploits, and plundering by British East India Company’s Generals and Governor Generals. Speaking of war, this book has a large dosage of it - to be clear, the war strategies and wins by the EIC. Sometimes History becomes irrelevant for what is not being told, speaking of which, the loot and plunder of EIC become monotonous in this book, halfway through, as it was not balanced with wins of native rulers. Though I was not looking for a feel-good book, I was looking for a balanced narrative. I skipped some of the gory details about how the psychotic Ghulam Qadir tortured Shah Alam. The author did write about how Burke and Charles James Fox and other parliamentarians who tried to bring some sense of accountability to the anarchist EIC. This was revealing. However, the fact that Indian revenues propped up the entire British society for decades, came in the way of the Crown taking any manful action to control the suffering of the natives. The details about the Bengal famine will make anybody’s heart sink. In today’s age, Clive would be prosecuted and hanged in the town square for all his misdeeds and greed. As fate would have it, he shot himself to death. The chapter on Tipu will make you wonder that the propaganda started by the British about Tipu’s fanaticism is still finding followers. Tipu consulting Brahmin astrologers for conducting wars, his generous donations to temples, and the general love of his people towards their ruler Tipu were all in a new light. Tipu however was not as sagacious as his illustrious dad, Haider, who foresaw what EIC would do to native kingdoms and forged alliances to defeat EIC. Perhaps some of the negative narratives we hear about Tipu were real to some extent but they seem very exaggerated. He had enmity with Marathas, who peddled the same propaganda that EIC did. In the end, history is history, whether we like it not, but the final words by the author making it appear as a result of greed by a corporation has totally missed the point. This was and will remain forever as, misdeeds and greed of European imperialist powers. EIC is just a symptom of such greed and unbridled supremacy and arrogance. Someday all of those criminals must be prosecuted. One other interesting fact about EIC was that their expansionist and degutting policies were foreseen by American patriots in 1773. From the book: Patriot John Dickinson described EIC tea as ‘accursed Trash’, and compared the potential future regime of the East India Company in America to being ‘devoured by Rats’. This ‘almost bankrupt Company’, he said, having been occupied in wreaking ‘the most unparalleled Barbarities, Extortions and Monopolies’ in Bengal, had now ‘cast their Eyes on America, as a new Theatre, whereon to exercise their Talents of Rapine, Oppression and Cruelty’. - Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy (pp. 27-28). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. EIC dumped the tea that they could not sell elsewhere in the American colonies, with jacked up taxes. This event triggered the American Revolution when the tea was dumped in the Boston harbor. It is striking that what American patriots foresaw about EIC was missed by native Indian rulers of that time. As Karma would have it, this lack of vision in the 18th century had contributed in coalescing Indian peoples as one, united under tyranny, leading to the Indian Union of today. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review *by F***K on October 20, 2020* one of best book I have read... ## Frequently Bought Together - The Anarchy - The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hk/products/97467959-the-anarchy](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/97467959-the-anarchy) --- *Product available on Desertcart Hong Kong* *Store origin: HK* *Last updated: 2026-05-01*