'A remarkable book that frames the history of the colonial state in the Persianate Mughal world. Travers has done a great service to eighteenth-century history in his subtle invocation of the Mughal political practice of petitioning to understand the wheels of law and justice in early colonial India. A brilliant non-Euro-centric gaze on the making of colonial India.' Seema Alavi, Delhi University 'Deeply researched and carefully argued, this masterful study tracks the influence of Mughal legal practices and Indian petitioners on the emerging colonial state. A must read for anyone interested in the history of property and credit, legal writing, and British imperial policies in South Asia.' Lauren Benton, Yale University 'This is a path-breaking piece of scholarship that offers a rare bridge between the pre-colonial and the colonial in South Asian history. Using a wealth of Persian materials in addition to better-known colonial sources, the book reconceives East India Company rule in late eighteenth-century Bengal as a Persianate empire, showing how Mughal governance practices, laws and ideologies continued to be adopted and repurposed by the incoming colonial regime.' Nandini Chatterjee, University of Exeter ' an enriching and essential read for all scholars interested in South Asian legal history but also more broadly in the history of modern South Asia.' Priyasha Saksena, Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History
