Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan

by H.G. Keene

The rise and meridian of the Moghul Empire have been related in Elphinstone's " History of India: the Hindu and Mahometan Period; " and a Special Study of the subject will Also be found in the " Sketch of the History of Hindustan" published by the present writer in 1885. Neither of those works, however, undertakes to give a detailed account of the great Anarchy that marked the conclusion of the eighteenth century, the dark time that came before the dawn of British power in the land of the Moghul.

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1876

About the author

Henry George Keene (1825–1915)

C.I.E.; Fellow of the Univesity of Calcutta; grandson of Henry George Keene (1781–1864), orientalist (the brother-in-law of George Harris, first baron of Seringapatam). This author wrote articles for the Dictionary of National Biography.

Reviews

[Chetan Tyagi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am sure the book is historically accurate. The style or writing is extremely painful to follow though. A reader can just get lost in the extremely large number of characters that just burst on to the scene. This was the case for me even though I am from india and was familiar with at least some of these characters and events.

The degree of difficulty of reading and the sheer lack of interest the book generates can be gauged from that I could finish 3 other books in the time that it took me to give up on this one. What is even worse is that one of these books was War and Peace - the longest novel ever written!!

All in all, a thoroughly avoidable book..

[Varun Nayak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book traces the history of Northern India as the sun finally set on the Mughal Empire, covering a timeline of over a 100 years between 1707 to 1810s.

The author uses contemporary British, Mughal and Marathas sources to describe in detail, a period of Indian history that saw the rise of several races aspiring to fulfill the void left behind by the decline of the Mughals before the British established themselves as the Masters of the Subcontinent.

Some of the highlights of the book include the details regarding the Third Battle of Panipat, the slow yet steady rise of the British, the success of the mercenary French soldiers in India and so on.

[Karunakaran N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan by H.G. Keene... This is an after read to Alex Ruthurford's series on the Moghul Empire (6 in the series), though this does not have fictional narrative, it is more of factual details after the 6th Emperor Aurangzeb. Though the characters throughout the book are confusing, the temperament of the story line keeps the reader hooked to the book. The end of Moguls as seen from the various chronicles is when the Emperor Shah Alam is blinded on 20th August 1788, but the rule continues till the British takes over the realm by mid 19th Century. A very careful read to understand the characters.

[Mehul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Painfully slow to read