The summer of 1857 changed the course of Indian history. For over a century, the East India Company had been expanding its territorial economic control over India. The Company used coercion, deception, and cooption, and appeared invincible.

But beneath the surface of deceptive calm, there was discontent against what was the foreign corporate rule. From soldiers to peasants, princely rulers to landlords, Hindus to Muslims, the most unlikely of allies came together to wage the most powerful rebellion that the nation had seen. The British, with the utmost cruelty, succeeded in repressing the uprising. But Company Raj ended, giving way to the Crown.

In this episode, William Dalrymple, the author of The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857, joins HT to discuss the Mutiny, its roots, its significance, and how it changed the British colonial architecture in India.