本书讲述了东印度公司在印度的历史。在作者看来，英国征服印度，更准确的说法应该是东印度公司——一个以伦敦某个只有五个窗户的办公室为总部的不受制约的私人公司，来实现的。1600年12月31日，英格兰女王伊丽莎白一世授予该公司王家特许状，给予它在印度贸易的特权。实际上这个特许状给予了它对东印度贸易的垄断权。在100多年的时间里，东印度公司就从一个商业贸易企业变成印度的实际主宰者，不仅从事贸易，还拥有军队，在将势力扩张到整个南亚次大陆后更是对其进行殖民统治。然而，权力变大之后，它对英国的政治体制也进行了侵蚀，特别是英国议会受其影响最大，其中一些正直的议员对其发起了挑战和限制。而在印度，东印度公司的残酷剥削以及对当地宗教信仰和社会文化的漠视，导致于1857年爆发了席卷印度全境的兵变行动，东印度公司的土著部队对该公司倒戈。1858年，它最终被解除行政权力。

本书是一部对商业力量与王权关系的研究之作。它审视了公司如何对政治，以及政治如何对公司施加影响。它也考察了权力和金钱如何滋生腐败，以及商业和殖民化的方式为何以及如何总是步调一致。西方帝国主义和企业资本主义总是一同诞生，且都是现代世界诞生之源。

William Dalrymple was born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was twenty-two. The book won the 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award; it was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize.

In 1989 Dalrymple moved to Delhi where he lived for six years researching his second book, City of Djinns, which won the 1994 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. From the Holy Mountain, his acclaimed study of the demise of Christianity in its Middle Eastern homeland, was awarded the Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award for 1997; it was also shortlisted for the 1998 Thomas Cook Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. A collection of his writings about India, The Age of Kali, won the French Prix D’Astrolabe in 2005.

White Mughals was published in 2003, the book won the Wolfson Prize for History 2003, the Scottish Book of the Year Prize, and was shortlisted for the PEN History Award, the Kiryama Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

William Dalrymple is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic Society, and is the founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

In 2002 he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his ‘outstanding contribution to travel literature’. He wrote and presented the television series Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. His Radio 4 series on the history of British spirituality and mysticism, The Long Search, won the 2002 Sandford St Martin Prize for Religious Broadcasting and was described by the judges as ‘thrilling in its brilliance... near perfect radio’. In December 2005 his article on the madrasas of Pakistan was awarded the prize for Best Print Article of the Year at the 2005 FPA Media Awards. In June 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the University of St Andrews “for his services to literature and international relations, to broadcasting and understanding”. In 2007, The Last Moghal won the prestigous Duff Cooper Prize for History and Biography. In November 2007, William received an Honourary Doctorate of Letters, honoris causa, from the University of Lucknow University “for his outstanding contribution in literature and history”, and in March 2008 won the James Todd Memorial Prize from the Maharana of Udaipur.

William is married to the artist Olivia Fraser, and they have three children. They now live on a farm outside Delhi.