Doolally Sahib and the Black Zamindar

In July 1765 Robert Clive, in a letter to Sir Francis Sykes, compared Gomorrah favourably to Calcutta, then capital of British India. He wrote: ''I will pronounce Calcutta to be one of the most wicked places in the Universe.''
Drawing upon the letters, memoirs and journals of traders, travellers, bureaucrats, officials, officers and the occasional bishop, Doolally Sahib and...