William Dalrymple is an eminent historian, author, curator, and art historian whose work provides profound, cross-cultural insight into the history and art of the Indian Subcontinent, the Muslim world, and early Eastern Christianity. As a co-founder and co-director of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival, he is a pivotal figure in global cultural discourse. All eight of his acclaimed books have won literary prizes, cementing his reputation as one of the world's most distinguished narrative historians.
Dalrymple’s expertise is rooted in meticulous research and engaging storytelling, with his books translated into over 40 languages. His major works include The Anarchy, a history of the Indian Subcontinent during the crucial period of the Mughal collapse and the rise of the East India Company, and his critically acclaimed Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. His television series, Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, which he wrote and presented, won the prestigious Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002.
He holds highly distinguished academic and advisory positions, including being appointed a Whitney J. Oates Visiting Fellow in the Humanities by Princeton University and the OP Jindal Distinguished Lecturer at Brown University. His contributions to historical writing and cultural understanding were recognized with the President’s Medal of the British Academy in 2018. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Geographical Society.
As a highly sought-after speaker and contributor to publications like The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, Dalrymple provides audiences with profound insights into the intersection of history, art, and contemporary politics. His latest book, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World, reinforces his focus on emphasizing issues of global importance and concern, for which he received the Media Citizen Puraskar from the Indian Confederation of NGOs in 2011.
