pDeScriPtionppAt the start of the nineteenth century, there was a Mughal emperor on theppthrone in Delhi, but the Mughal empire, in decline for almost a century, waspppractically gone. A new power had emerged-the British East India Company, ppwhich captured the Mughal capital in September 1803, becoming its de factoppruler. Swapna Liddle's book is an unprecedented study of the 'hybrid halfcentury' that followed-when the two regimes overlapped and Delhi was atppthe cusp of modernity, changing in profound ways.ppWith a ground-level view of the workings of early British rule in India, TheppBroken Script describes in rich detail the complex tussle between the last twoppMughal emperors and the East India Company, one wielding considerableppsymbolic authority, and the other a fast-growing military and political power.ppIt is, above all, the story of the people of Delhi in this period, some alreadyppwell known, such as the poet Ghalib, and others, like the mathematician RamppChander, who are