Heart Like a Fakir: General Sir James Abbott and the Fall of the East India Company

Heart Like a Fakir is a history of the final forty years of British East India Company rule in India, based on extensive research into primary source documents. It explores the troubled period between William Dalrymples White Moghuls and the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and General Sir James Abbott, one of the most remarkable characters in British colonial history, is the narrative thread. It examines British perceptions of race, gender, and social and sexual relationships, leading up to the Great Rebellion of 1857.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 390 pages
Publication date: 15 November 2022
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Heart Like a Fakir: A History of the Final Forty Years of British East India Company Rule in India, as Witnessed by General Sir James Abbott (1807–1896)
General Sir James Abbott, the man for whom the Pakistani town of Abbottabad is named, is the subject of this book, which explores the turbulent period between William Dalrymple's White Moghuls and the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Abbott was a remarkable figure in British colonial history, becoming Great Britain's first guerilla leader, the first Briton to reach the fabled Central Asian city of Khiva, and a British Deputy Commissioner who became the King of Hazara. He may have also been the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King and the character of Mr. Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness.
This book chronicles the collapse of the social contract between Britons and the peoples of India in the first half of the nineteenth century, taking a fresh look at British perceptions of race, gender, and the nature of social and sexual relationships between them, leading up to the Great Rebellion of 1857—the cataclysm that ended British East India Company rule.

Weight: 592g
Dimension: 152 x 230 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538169575