Global Encounters and the Archives: Britain’s Empire in the Age of Horace Walpole

The Peace Makers of India, 1770

When George Grenville expressed his support for the Stamp Act in 1765, he simultaneously pushed Robert Clive of the East India Company (EIC) toward acquiring territorial sovereignty over Bengal. This print affords a compelling glimpse into the nature of British power in India in the decade that followed. The Peace Makers of India features Hyder Ali, Nawab of Mysore, holding Britain's politicians by the nose while European figures in the background fan flames of conflict on the ground. It inverts the power dynamics traditionally associated with British imperial rule. Instead of Europeans dictating the terms of governance, the Indian leader here holds power over company officials and British politicians. The company's mistreatment of native Indians became a major subject of political scrutiny in Parliament in the 1770s, leading many to question whether the empire had failed in its stated purpose of extending liberty to native communities across the globe. Catalog Record

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library

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