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Synopsis

A play based on original historical research about an almost-forgotten battle in India in 1803, when Major-General Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) decisively defeated a great Maratha army. Till then he was unknown, in fact in his first engagement in India, just before the capture of Seringapatam, he had made a serious error. At the end of his life he was to declare that Assaye had been his fiercest battle. This battle not only gave the young general valuable experience he used later, but it was the first step to establishing British supremacy in India, fulfilling his brother’s desire to turn the British empire in India into the British Empire of India. The play opens with a fictional Subadar Mootoo, a low-caste man, of the 8th Madras Native Infantry, relating the events of the battle to other old soldiers at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, as Wellington is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in November 1852. This is a radio play.

Duration

60   Minutes

No of characters

7