About the lecture

In this module, Christopher introduces the East India Company, and explains how a private enterprise came to administer large regions of the Indian subcontinent. Beginning in 1600, when the East India Company was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth, Christopher explains how the Company built warehouses and administrative centres (sometimes called 'factories') in India, and the company began hiring a private army to protect its property. The Company exploited regional unrest - especially in the North-West of the country - to gain further administrative powers, including the signing of a treaty with Shah Alam II which allowed them to collect taxes in Bengal in exchange for military support for the unpopular leader. As the Company expanded its influence (and profits), their behaviour in the country worsened, with several executives being recalled to London to be prosecuted on charges of corruption. In 1857, rebellions broke out across India. The British dealt with the unrest quickly, but the British Government had seen enough: the Government of India Act transferred all powers of the Company to the Crown, and Victoria was dubbed Empress of India.

About the lecturer

Christopher grew up in London before heading ‘up north’, as it seemed at the time, to Oxford University. Following an undergraduate degree in History, he was the co-founder of a company producing music for the computer games industry, before being lured back into academia via an MSt in Historical Research and then a DPhil in South Asian history, both at St Antony’s College, Oxford.

In 2004 he had the opportunity to go to Japan for a couple of years on a Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Scholarship, studying the language intensively, working on some comparative South Asia – Japan research, and training and working as a journalist with Tokyo’s Asahi Shimbun.

He returned to the UK at the start of 2007 to take up a post at Edinburgh University, where he now researches and teaches on both South Asia and Japan.

In April 2012 he was privileged to be the recipient of the EUSA Teaching Award for Best Course (Pioneers of Cultural Communication 4MA) and to receive the Runner Up award for Innovative Teaching.

He is one of AHRC/BBC's ten New Generation Thinkers for 2013, with contributions to Radio 3's Nightwaves beginning in June 2013.

Chris can be found on X (formerly Twitter) at @drchrisharding, while he also writes an Asian history newsletter (IlluminAsia.org).