Foraying into the Indian Subcontinent through Trade and Diplomacy

Alvin Thomas

Foraying into the Indian Subcontinent through Trade and Diplomacy

Before India became a colonial power of the British, there existed a period when the Englishmen thought of India as a faraway land of exotic spices and commodities that had demand across the world. This is a story of the English travellers who explored India and built a bridge of trade and diplomacy with her.

Thomas Roe being welcomed into the court of Jahangir (Source: Pinterest)

In the early seventeenth century, when the Mughals were the dominant rulers of India, England was going through a period of political turmoil with social upheaval marked by civil wars. Several Englishmen found their way into East Asia and India in particular, transforming the socio-political landscape of the region. They included travellers, authors, and diplomats who used their skill sets to establish trade relations, document the foreign landscape, and communicate back to the royalty in England about the newfound possibilities.

Among them were Thomas Roe, Edward Terry, and John Fryer who visited India in the 1700s and had a lasting impact on the bilateral relations between the nations.

Thomas Roe, a proficient scholar and a patron of learning, was an English diplomat who represented England in various voyages, ranging from Central America to India. Establishing himself as an explorer on the state-sanctioned journey to the Amazon forest, he gained credibility and was then selected to ambassador England’s trade advances with the Mughal empire in India.

So in 1616, he embarked on his journey to the eastern end of the world. With the aim of getting permission for establishing an East India Company factory in Surat, he arrived at the Agra court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. During his three-year stay in India, he developed a great rapport with the emperor, something that would later grow into a partnership between the East India Company and the Mughal Empire and lead to England’s colonising of the Indian subcontinent.

A few decades after the duo left their mark in pre-colonised India, John Fryer, a travel writer who was an expert in medicine was appointed as a surgeon for the East India Company. His voyage to the east took him through Comoro islands before arriving at Masulipatnam in modern-day Andhra Pradesh, the earliest English settlement on the Coromandel coast. From here, he sailed to Madras and reached his ultimate destination of Bombay in 1673. He remained in the subcontinent for eight years, researching and furnishing materials for his ‘New Account of East India and Persia’.

With sharp scientific training under his belt, John was able to generate accurate observations in geology, meteorology and natural history. His writings also provide insights into the rule of the Mughal dynasty during Aurangzeb’s reign. How the news writers of the day were influential enough to deceive the emperor was a chapter that elevated his writings and put him on par with his foreign counterparts who were also documenting the life and culture in India at the time.

With time, more travellers and explorers arrived in India from across the world and though they all did create value in their own unique ways, the contributions of Sir Thomas Roe, Edward Terry and John Fryer will always stand out, for the time period they worked in was of great importance to the order of the world, and their feat in opening the doors of India to British trade and exploration created ripples that continue to be felt.

While Roe was working his way towards building strong relationships, Edward Terry, an English chaplain was appointed by the East India Company as one of the fleet chaplains for a trip to India. He joined Roe and with him, followed the Mughal court for the next couple of years in and around present-day Gujarat and Bihar, which were Mughal strongholds.

Also an author, Terry extensively documented the various ethnic groups in the region, delving into their cultures, traditions, and religious beliefs. He compiled his writings and published “A Voyage to East India”, which was one of the first detailed descriptions of Indian culture and life portrayed to the English audience.

One of the first to introduce Indian vegetarianism to early modern England, Terry used his writings to capture the essence of life in Indian heartlands, providing an in-depth analysis to the English of the land that they were to conquer soon.