The diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai (Volume VIII)

By Anantarankam Pillai

Enter the council rooms of French India, day by day. A city watches empires shift. The diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai (Volume VIII) carries you into 18th century Pondicherry, where merchants, ministers, soldiers and scribes negotiate survival. Written as a colonial era diary by a Tamil intermediary close to the governor's circle, it records the texture of work and witness: petitions, prices, protocol, rumours, and the human cost behind official decisions. Pillai writes from the hinge between worlds, translating courtly French power into local realities, and preserving the everyday speech of a port town in flux. Edited by H. Dodwell as an annotated critical edition, this instalment of a multi-volume diary collection is prized for its granular view of the French East India Company and French colonial administration at the height of colonial trade and diplomacy. The pages illuminate Dupleix French India, shifting alliances in French India South India, and the pressures that feed the Carnatic Wars primary sources historians rely on. For readers of academic colonial history it is indispensable; for the curious it is irresistibly immediate, a South Asian studies reference that also reads like lived reportage. Its reputation rests on detail and candour: an unparalleled record of policy meeting commerce. Add it to any classic-literature shelf alongside your key documents of empire today. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9353704804
• ISBN13: 9789353704803
• Release Date: May 2019
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.5"