False Allies: India'S Maharajahs In The Age Of Ravi Varma

DETAILS : 

• Author : Manu S. Pillai
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Juggernaut Books
  
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 24, 2021
  
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
  
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
  
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9391165893
  
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9789391165895
  
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 800 g 

ABOUT THE BOOK

False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma is a groundbreaking revisionist history that challenges the popular colonial stereotype of Indian princes as "effete, jewel-bedecked puppets." Using the travels and paintings of the legendary artist Raja Ravi Varma as a narrative thread, Manu S. Pillai reconstructs the lives of the Maharajahs of five major princely states: Travancore, Pudukkottai, Baroda, Mysore, and Hyderabad. The book argues that many of these rulers were actually shrewd political "allies" who used traditional prestige and modern administration to resist British encroachment and preserve a degree of Indian sovereignty.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Manu S. Pillai is one of India’s most prominent young historians and the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar-winning author of The Ivory Throne. He is known for his "narrative history" style—meticulously researched yet written with the pace of a novel. His work consistently aims to reclaim Indian history from both colonial biases and modern nationalist oversimplifications, focusing on the agency of Indian figures who operated in the "grey areas" of the British Raj.