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Incarnations: India in 50 Lives

Documentaries

Factual: History

The history of India told through the lives of 50 phenomenal people.

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Incarnations: India in 50 Lives: Incarnations: India in 50 Lives - Omnibus

Incarnations: India in 50 Lives: Incarnations: India in 50 Lives - Omnibus: Akbar, Malik Ambar, Shivaji, Nainsukh

11/11/2016

Akbar, Malik Ambar, Shivaji, Nainsukh

Incarnations: India in 50 Lives - Omnibus

BBC Radio 4 - Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, Incarnations: India in 50 Lives - Omnibus, Akbar, Malik Ambar, Shivaji, Nainsukh

Exploring three lives from the world of power and one from the world of art.

This edition explores three lives from the world of power and kingship, and one from the world of art.

An omnibus edition of Professor Sunil Khilnani's audio portraits of figures who have shaped Indian history over two thousand years. Today he explores three lives from the world of power, politics and kingship in late medieval India - and another figure, more humbly born, an artist whose paintings reflected in a unique, intimate way, the life of a north Indian prince.

He begins in the 16th century with the greatest ruler of the Mughal Empire. Akbar showed no mercy in his pursuit of power and secured his gains with an iron fist. And yet he seems to have grasped the diversity of beliefs and culture across the land he ruled and propagated his own system of religious faith known as Din-I-Lahi.

On the Deccan plateau of central southern India Akbar - and later his son Jahangir - met their match from an unexpected source: an Ethiopian warlord who had originally come to India as a slave. His name was Malik Ambar but Jahangir had another name for him: The Dark-Fated One.

Malik Ambar's guerrilla tactics would be adopted and refined half a century later - again in the hill country of Maharashtra - by Sunil Khilnani's next subject. Shivaji was a warrior king who's still finding new incarnations as a symbol of regional pride and identity - and most recently as an inspiration for would-be entrepreneurs.

Sunil Khilnani also profiles Nainsukh, the 18th century artist whose intimate and engaging portraits of a prince's life created a new vision for Indian art. This is the story of two men: one a painter with a unique talent to express humanity and individuality; the other a prince who unselfconsciously gave himself to the artist as subject.


Producer: Jeremy Grange.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

The history of India told through the lives of 50 remarkable individuals

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Incarnations: India in 50 Lives

Incarnations: India in 50 Lives - Omnibus

Akbar, Malik Ambar, Shivaji, Nainsukh

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