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FOR ALL WITH AN INTEREST IN THE HISTORY
OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND THE BRITISH RAJ

The British in India Historical Trust presents live and online 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. The proceeds from lectures fund annual book prizes for excellence in non-fiction historical writing on British India.

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Online lectures run from November to April and this year's programme is here. They are broadcast via Zoom and are available UK-wide and to an international audience. Lectures from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 series have been uploaded to YouTube as a free resource for all who are interested in the history of the British in South Asia. The playlist is available here.

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In 2024 The British in India presented two live lectures, ‘The Rise and Fall of the City of Lucknow’ by Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones and ‘Onward Christian Soldier: Havelock’s March to Cawnpore and Lucknow’ by Sir Mark Havelock-Allan. ​Next year’s lecture programme will be announced in early 2025.​​

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If you would like to be informed when booking opens for live and online lectures, and are not already on our mailing list, please sign up for news of lectures at the foot of this page.

FEATURED LECTURE

MONDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2024 18.30-20.30 GMT (ZOOM)

Empire Incorporated: The Corporations that built British Colonialism

Philip Stern

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This lecture challenges conventional wisdom about where power is held globally. Philip Stern argues that rather than playing a subordinate role, corporations took the lead in global expansion and administration. From Ireland to India, the Americas, Africa and Australia, British colonialism was above all the business of corporations. Corporations conceived, promoted, financed and governed overseas expansion, making claims over territory and peoples while ensuring that British and colonial society were invested, quite literally, in their ventures. Nor did venture capitalism cease with the end of empire. Its legacies raise questions about corporate power that are as relevant today as they were 400 years ago.

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Philip J. Stern is a historian of the British Empire and author of The Company-State and Empire, Incorporated (2023). He is Professor of History at Duke University.

BOOK PRIZES

Proceeds from lectures fund annual prizes for non-fiction historical writing on British India: The British in India Book Prize and The British in India Military History Book Prize. The results of The British in India Book Prize 2024 are given here.

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