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 24 FEBRUARY 2025 18.30-20.00 GMT (ZOOM)
The Rise and Fall of the City of Lucknow
Rosie Llewellyn-Jones
Lucknow enjoyed a short but spectacular rise after the Nawabs of Avadh made it their capital. Celebrated as a city of palaces, shrines and extraordinary European-inspired architecture, the arts of dance, music, drama, poetry, painting and silverware flourished under its immensely wealthy rulers. This cultural splendour ended when the East India Company annexed Avadh and the Indian Mutiny erupted. The city was occupied by rebel sepoys and Lucknow became famed throughout the Empire for the defence of the British Residency by its garrison of soldiers and civilians, its reliefs by Havelock and Outram and its eventual fall to the British, which reduced sectors of the city to rubble.
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Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones MBE is a renowned historian of colonial India. Her many books include Lucknow 1857 (2022); The Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah; The Uprising of 1857; A Fatal Friendship: The Nawabs, the British and the City of Lucknow; and, most recently, Empire Building: The Construction of British India, 1690-1860.
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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