The Foundations of Modern India

Bread cut with sawdust. Horses boiled to the bone. Men trading pet dogs and mice for scraps.In the brutal winter of 1914 to 1915, the grand Austro-Hungarian fortress of Przemyśl came under siege. Cut off by Russian armies and doomed by the vanity of their own generals, the garris ...  Show more

In 1698, a 6’8” Russian giant went on a bender through an English gentleman’s estate. He trashed portraits, burned furniture and drunkenly rammed wheelbarrows through a prize-winning holly hedge. The giant in question was Peter the Great, and this wasn’t just a royal lads' holida ...  Show more

In 1857 tensions in Company-controlled India came to a head in what the British called 'The Indian Mutiny', now referred to in India as the First War of Independence. The uprising and bloody reprisals sent shockwaves through the Empire, ended the rule of the East India Company, a ...  Show more

Join William and Anita for the latest episode of Empire, which picks up in the aftermath of the 1857 Rebellion and the establishment of the British Raj. The episode covers the birth of Gandhi, the arrival of Michael O'Dwyer, Indian soldiers in the First World War, and the lead up ...  Show more

For the latest in our everything you want to know series, historian Dr Anwesha Roy revisits the 1947 partition of India, which divided British-ruled India into two independent countries. In conversation with Rob Attar she explains how India came to be divided and considers why th ...  Show more