Why are you a historian of India?
It’s the nation that the majority fascinates me and the place I’ve chosen to stay since I used to be 18.
What’s an important lesson historical past has taught you?
That those that by no means research historical past are destined all the time to repeat it.
Which historical past e-book has had the best affect on you?
The Fall of Constantinople 1453 by Steven Runciman.
What e-book in your discipline ought to everybody learn?
Vidya Dehejia, The Physique Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries Between Sacred and Profane in India’s Artwork.
Which second would you most like to return to?
Gupta India, or the Mughal Courtroom of the Emperor Akbar.
Which historian has had the best affect on you?Â
The good Indian artwork historian, B.N. Goswamy.
Which individual in historical past would you most prefer to have met?Â
The seventh-century prince Mahendravarman Pallava and his cousin Vajrabodhi, the Indian tantric Buddhist reply to Merlin.
What number of languages do you could have?Â
Hindi, Urdu, French, Italian and somewhat Persian and Arabic.
Is there an necessary historic textual content you haven’t learn?Â
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve by no means learn Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
What historic subject have you ever modified your thoughts on?
The British in India, who I as soon as regarded upon as a benign drive.
What’s the commonest false impression about your discipline?Â
That China, not India, was Rome’s biggest buying and selling companion.
Who’s probably the most underrated individual in historical past…Â
Bahadur Shah Zafar.
… and probably the most overrated?
Robert Clive (‘of India’).
What’s probably the most thrilling discipline in historical past at this time?
Early India and its monumental pan-Asian affect.
What’s your favorite archive?Â
The Lahore Archives.
What’s the very best museum?
The Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.
What expertise has modified the world probably the most?
Agriculture. I’m fascinated by how a lot the Neolithic Revolution modified our species.
Advocate us a historic novel…Â
Robert Graves’ Rely Belisarius.
… and a historic drama?
Babylon Berlin.
You possibly can remedy one historic thriller. What’s it?
I’d like to search out the tomb of Chinggis Khan.
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William Dalrymple’s newest e-book is The Golden Highway: How Historic India Remodeled the World (Bloomsbury, 2024).