Mughal Project — Mayukh Goswami

I’m developing a project based on the diary of Sir Thomas Roe. He was the first royal ambassador sent from England to the Mughal court.

Background

Thomas Roe is an interesting POV in my opinion, because he goes to India with zero knowledge and is a good lens to look at India as it existed at the time. The dynamic that he presented was also interesting. England (not UK yet) had just come fresh into the world stage after beating the Spanish Armada. They were a young upstart that still had to get into the empire business. The English were insecure and thirsty to make a name. The Mughal court on the other hand were at their height and didn’t know much or care about England. This I think is an interesting dynamic knowing what comes after. Roe’s diary was extremely detailed and he kept a close account of everything and everyone he saw. He knew that his diary would be read by future ambassadors from England and wanted to be thorough.

Why do I care?

It’s a really interesting first person account of a time in history (Indian history, early 17th century) that I feel we don’t talk about that much. We know the big things that happened but what was it like to walk in the court of the Great Moghul? Who were the power players? What were the regular people up to? I find it annoying how much of the history of the time is being erased right now. We’re acquiring an amnesia about the Mughal time period in my country.

What do I find interesting in the text?

The thing that I find most interesting in Roe’s diary is how much incompetence is on display from absolutely everyone. Roe lays down faux pas after faux pas. The Portuguese keep bungling their schemes, their captains keep getting into piracy to make a quick buck on the side. The Mughals are typical in their incompetence in way that would be familiar to the modern Indian audience in the experiencing of their own government. There is corruption everywhere, everyone (including Roe) is trying to skim money here and there, and doing it badly. The comedy just writes itself.

What is the project going to be?

There are couple of possible routes for this:

1) A short story about East meets West in mutual admiration of sorts. This is true for Roe who was impressed by the prosperity and majesty of the Mughal Empire (though he was also critical about a bunch of stuff). The tone could form a dramatic irony for the colonization that was to follow. After all, no one in the Mughal court could guess that the country Roe represented would put the final nail in the Empire’s coffin.

2) A set comedic episodic stories about the many schemes and bunglings of the English embassy and how they’re saved by even more incompetence from their enemies (Portuguese and factions within the Mughal court).

These could be animation or graphic novel; ask me this a year from now.