★With this illustrated book, Kusoom Vadgama, Chairman of the Indo-British Heritage Trust, tells a long history of more than 400 years between India and Britain!
★The British went to India initially as traders, gradually occupying the country and eventually becoming rulers. However, they finally withdrew from the historical stage of India in the cries of national independence. This valuable and readable book celebrates over 400 years of shared history and heritage between the two nations.
★Without India, economically, and the sacrifice of Indian soldiers in both World Wars, Britain would not be where it is today. Without Britain, India would not be a unified country in law, language and education, or the global power it has become.

The first English trading ships arrived on the shores of India in 1591. Less than a decade later, in 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted a Royal Charter to the East India Company, giving it a monopoly on trade with India. King James I appointed Sir Thomas Roe as England's first envoy to the Court of the Moghul Emperor Jahangir, presenting himself for the first time on 10 January 1616. That same year, the first recorded Indian to visit England was baptised in a church in the City of London. This book celebrates over 400 years of shared history and heritage between the two nations. The British went to India initially as traders, gradually occupying the country and eventually becoming rulers. The characters and influences of those who governed for 347 years, first the East India Company and then the Raj, are carefully presented to show both the substantial benefits and the ruthless exploitation of their colonial rule. Despite its value to the British Empire, it was the colonial government's own actions which brought about its demise. Misguided acts of brutality such as the suppression of the mutiny in 1857, and the senseless massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh in 1919, led to an unstoppable nationalist movement for self-determination and independence, many of whose leaders were educated at elite schools created by the colonial government or at English public schools. Despite the bitterness of the struggle for freedom, Indian national leaders did not want to sever relationships with Britain when it finally gained independence in 1947, and despite huge differences in culture and religion, the bond between the two countries has continued for over 400 years from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Without India, economically, and the sacrifice of Indian soldiers in both World Wars, Britain would not be where it is today. Without Britain, India would not be a unified country in law, language and education, or the global power it has become.

Kusoom Vadgama, Doctor of Optometry, founded the Indo-British Heritage Trust in 2012 and Co-Chairs it with Michael Blacker, with Simon Blacker as an advisor. The year 2014 was the 400th anniversary of the first recorded arrival of an young Indian man to England as well as the appointment, by King James I, of the first English envoy to the Moghul Court in India. In 2014 the Trust inaugurated a debate in the Supreme Court and produced an exhibition to mark the historic events of 400 years of combined history of India and Britain (See YouTube/Empire Debate). The much neglected history of India in Britain, especially the contributions of the Indian soldiers in the two world wars and the Indo-British relations over the centuries are subjects of special interest to Kusoom. She feels privileged to have been able to, organise, with India Weekly, the Centenary celebration of the Indian National Congress with a Gala Dinner in London in 1985; Chair the short-lived Centre for Research in Asian Migration at University of Warwick in 1989; arrange a special event at the Honourable Society of The Inner Temple in 1991 to mark the centenary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi being called to the Bar and Chair a special Centenary Dinner in 1992 at the House of Commons to celebrate the election of Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian Member of Parliament at Westminster.
Kusoom is a Trustee and Treasurer of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust. In 2011, she was presented with the Asian Voice Editor’s Award for Research by C B Patel, Editor of the first Asian weekly in Europe.
Other titles by the author
India in Britain 1852–1947 with forewords by Prince Charles and Mrs Indira Gandhi (1984);
India – Indo-British Campaigns in Britain for Indian reforms, justice and freedom, with a foreword by Dr L M Singhvi (1997);
An Indian Portia – Selected letters of Cornelia Sorabji (1866–1954) with forewords by Lady Hale of Richmond QC, President of the Supreme Court and Britain’s most senior female judge and Coomi Kapoor, Former President, Indian Women’s Press Corps (2011).