European Adventurers in North India 1750–1803
This book explores how European particularly French adventurers shaped early modern India. It highlights the significant contributions of these adventurers in social political economic and intellectual life of north India in the 18th and the 19th centuries. The author examines how the French adventurers played a key role in bringing Western science and ideas to a polity in flux. He examines the role of individuals like René Madec Sombre De Boigne Perron Gentil Canaple Delamarr Sonson and Pedrose who made instrumental contributions in modernising armies of pre-modern states in South Asia. The volume also underlines how French adventurers’ commercial networks developing from their enterprises opened up markets in the heartlands of north India for European consumers. Further it brings to the fore intellectual pursuits of the leading French figures such as Anquetil Duperron Polier Gentil De Boigne and Perron whose engagement with Indian literature opened a new chapter framing studies of the Occident. Rich in French English and translated Persian archival resources this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of colonial history early modern history military history and South Asian studies. | European Adventurers in North India 1750–1803
