‘It’s never too late, Nirav. Anyway, so I was saying, in the eighteenth century, the Persian king Nader Shah Afshar trounced the weak Mughal ruler Muhammad Shah Rangila’s forces in the Battle of Karnal and took the keys of the city of Delhi, then the pride of Asia. Nader’s 1,50,000-strong army comprising musketeers and horsemen carrying swivel guns put down the resistance of a million-strong army of the Mughals. Delhi then was a city of riches, history, adab or humility, and tehzeeb or manners.

‘Nader lost no time in making himself comfortable in the royal apartments of Mughal emperor Shahjahan in the magnificent Red Fort. The next morning, there was an altercation between the rough, aggressive Persian cavalrymen and a grain merchant of Paharganj in Old Delhi. There were casualties on both sides. When the news of the killing of his soldiers reached Nader, he was filled with rage – the rage of a victor against the temerity of a defeated country’s population to confront his soldiers. He gathered his troops and marched at their head, riding a tall horse and wearing full battle gear. He reached Chandni Chowk, unsheathed his sword and raised it to the sky, signalling the attack.

‘Nader’s army then began what is known as one of the worst chapters in Delhi’s history, the Qatl-e-aam, killing one lakh helpless civilians. He stopped killing only after he was paid a ransom of Rs 100 crore and took away a big war booty, including the Mughal bejewelled Peacock Throne, Koh-i-Noor and Darya-i-Noor diamonds and Timur Ruby.’

‘What about the British invaders? Do enlighten us on how they ruined us?’ Rohit asked.

Around four hundred years ago, on 31 December 1600, the English East India Company was incorporated in London through a royal charter. The mandate? To conduct trade with India and Southeast Asia. It had the right to set up its own army, just like the French East India Company. It began as a monopolistic trade body but transformed quickly into a brutal, exploitative tool of British imperialism. The company’s defeat of the Portuguese in India in 1612 secured for it trading concessions from the Mughals.

‘The company traded in cotton, silk piece goods, indigo, tea, spices and salt petre, among other things, and gradually began acquiring political and military ascendancy in parts of India, beginning with Bengal in 1757. Then Bengal ruler Siraj ud-Daulah and the French East India Company were defeated in the Battle of Plassey by the British company’s forces. A 3,000-strong British company army, led by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Clive, would trump the numerically superior Bengal–French troops that were 50,000 strong, with better battle manoeuvres and tactics.’

‘What do you mean by better tactics when talking about a mid- eighteenth century battle?’ Atharv asked.