Podcast with Manu S Pillai, author of “False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma”

Manu Pillai

It can be easy to think of the recent history of India—especially for those who aren’t from there—as a straight line, from the Mughal Empire, through the British Empire, to independent India. That, of course, is hugely simplistic, missing the mess of competing polities, interests, and people that made up Indian history over the last few centuries.

 

 

Flase Allies:: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma, Manu S Pillai (Juggernaut, September 2021)
False Allies:: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma, Manu S Pillai (Juggernaut, September 2021)

Manu Pillai’s False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma, looks at a few of these political actors: the Maharajas of India, who led the “princely states”. Not quite sovereign entities, not quite directly-ruled colonies. Pillai portrays the stories of a few of these princes and princesses through the life of famed Indian artist Ravi Varma as he travels around India in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

In this interview, Manu and I talk about the princely states, the Maharajas, and why Manu chose Ravi Varma to tell the stories of the Indian princes.

Manu S Pillai is the author of the award-winning The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore (HarperCollins India, 2015), Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji (Juggernaut, 2018), and The Courtesan, the Mahatma & the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian History (Context, 2019). He can be followed on Twitter at @UnamPillai and on Instagram at @WaatCoconut.


Nicholas Gordon has an MPhil from Oxford in International Relations and a BA from Harvard. He is a writer, editor and occasional radio host based in Hong Kong.