After years of ruling over the Indian subcontinent, the East India Company was nationalised by the British state in 1858. India and its people were to be governed by the newly created British Raj, with Queen Victoria at its helm. But how did this once-powerful organisation lose its grip on power? Dr Tom Young tells Jon Bauckham why he believes that the answer lies in the sketchbooks and scrapbooks of amateur artists in India, and explores how art reshaped ideas about colonial rule in the early 19th century.

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Tom Young is the author of Unmaking the East India Company: British Art and Political Reform in Colonial India, c1813-1858 (Yale University Press, 2023)

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Authors

Jon BauckhamProduction Editor, BBC History Magazine

Jon Bauckham is the Production Editor of BBC History Magazine and previously held the same role on BBC History Revealed. He is responsible for writing, editing and proofreading content, and ensuring that the magazine goes to press smoothly each month. When he’s not poring over pages with a red pen, he can be found recording episodes of the award-winning HistoryExtra podcast, chatting to authors about subjects ranging from Lord Kitchener to Russian pianos

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