Dr Liz Driver: Reasons for Tod’s dismissal as Political Agent in the Western Rajput States 1818-1822

This talk aims to re-assess Tod’s role as Political Agent in the Western Rajput States for the brief period 1818-1822 and to determine what went wrong. It will address Tod’s visit to Maharaja Man Singh in Jodhpur but the focus will be on the events in Kotah in 1820-21. It will draw on Tod’s own account in the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan and on the, often vituperative, correspondence between Tod and his immediate superior, Sir David Ochterlony, and with the government in Calcutta.