William Dalrymple is as much a desi as he is a videshi. The Scotland-born and India and London-based historian walked into Allen Park on Park Street, the venue of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2025, in a blue linen shirt, craving for a cold sip, while we kept ourselves warm in woollens in the Calcutta winter. However, he is also a true chai lover and enjoyed his masala chai post his session, ‘On a Golden Road’, with historian-author Rana Safvi.

One of the subcontinent’s most popular historians, Dalrymple’s oeuvre of books — The Age of Kali, City of Djinns, While Mughals, The Last Mughal, Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond, and many others — has a huge fan base in India and gives a compelling insider view of the history of India from an outsider’s pen. The co-founder of Jaipur Literature Festival, who will be up on the stage again at the Coal India Kolkata Literary Meet later this week, tells us why the term Silk Route was “a lie” in the Classical period, his Calcutta roots and his latest book, The Golden Road, that has become an instant bestseller.

Calcutta connection

This is where my family lived for eight generations. The first Dalrymple is on this Black Hole Memorial in St. John’s Church, who died in 1757. And as recently as my great-grandfather was born here in about 1902 or something. I love coming here. A lot of my professional work has been on Calcutta. The Anarchy is almost entirely a book about Bengal.

The Golden Road

The book started off with an interest in the Buddhist period. I started by working on Ajanta and it grew from that and then the spread of Buddhism and then also the spread of Hinduism. And it was only in the course of reading that the revelation of the Silk Route being a lie in the early period came to me.

Silk Route, a lie

The Silk Route is not an ancient phrase. There’s no ancient author talking about it. It’s a made-up phrase by a German geographer of the 19th century who wrote a book in German and it has been extended to give the impression that China was the dominant force in the East-West relations for most of history and that is simply not true. In my view, it began with the Mongol conquest in 1271. It happens in history that certain romantic ideas take rules and get regarded as established facts.

In the Roman and the Classical period, the main East-West trade was between India and Rome. It was a seaborne trade and wasn’t overland. It was using the monsoon winds and travelling up to the Red Sea and India was the number one trading partner of the Roman Empire. So, I get very irritated when people talk about the Silk Road as this eternal road focused on China. Let me tell you why. Firstly, it didn’t exist in the Classical period. Secondly, silk was never the most important article of trade. Thirdly, the Romans had no idea where China was. So, in every way, it seems to be a misnomer. India has underplayed its importance. It seems to be of far greater importance in ancient trade and in the diffusion of religion than China ever was. China comes into its own later.

Product of the lockdown

All my books are five-year projects. This was a lot more work than any of the previous books and it was a lockdown book. It was sitting with my library readings. I’d always been very interested in this period, but never written about it. And Covid gave me an opportunity to really dive deep into this. As soon as the lockdown ended, I went around Southeast Asia and took lots of notes. I had to spend time in quarantine in Indonesia.

Follow the footnotes

A third of this book is footnotes. So, I was aware when I was writing it that this is controversial material that needs to be proven through detailed academic references. So, I’ve put all the arguments into the footnotes. Hopefully, it’s still quite a smooth and easy read.
It’s also had a very good critical reception, which is a relief. It was a new period for me as I’d previously been writing about the 18th century and there was no guarantee it was going to necessarily get a warm reception. But I’m glad to say it has. There’s been a little bit of grumbling on the right. I think they’re a bit suspicious. In England, if you write about the ancient period, people don’t assume that you’re a right-winger. And if you write about the medieval period they don’t assume you’re a left-winger. But here, there seems to be a perception that only the right is interested in ancient history, and that only Marxists are interested in Mughals. I’m neither a Marxist, nor am I a member of the RSS. But, I’m interested in both.

Surprising factor

I think the thing that really surprised me was the story of how Indian mathematics and Indian number systems passed to the Middle East. There was this extraordinary family called the Barmecides who were hereditary Buddhist abbots from Afghanistan who converted to Islam. And they’re the ones who bring in the works of Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta into Baghdad in the 8th and 9th centuries. And that was the missing link which I was very excited to find — how Indian numbers pass into the West and then from there it moves and Fibonacci takes it from the Arab world to Italy.

Outsider yet an Insider

I’m not an Indian, however long I stay here. If I die here until I’m 90, I’ll still be Scottish. But I’ve lived here 40 years, so I know how things work. While that can be socially a slightly difficult position in that you’re never quite wholly Indian, as a writer, it’s quite a good position to be in because it allows you to see things that other people miss. The outsider has a heightened perception sometimes, which the insider doesn’t have. But the insider knows things better. So there’s that sort of complicated relationship. And to be both an insider and an outsider can be a very useful position to be in. I think you’re right. It’s a good observation.

Jaipur Literature Festival 2025

I think JLF 2025 has one of our very best lineups ever. It’s really, really good this year. There’s an awful lot of history, a lot in the Middle East. I’m particularly pleased with the non-fiction list this year. Some authors that I’ve been chasing for years have finally said yes like James Wood, the main fiction critic in the New Yorker. It’s taken 20 years to persuade him to come. Also, Pankaj Mishra, I’ve been trying to persuade him to come for many years. He’s finally coming. There will also be Stephen Greenblatt, the world’s greatest Shakespearean.