The Mughal empire had been in decline for about a century when the nineteenth century began, but there was still a Mughal emperor in Delhi. The British East India Company, which took control of the Mughal capital in September 1803, had risen as a new force. The 'hybrid half-century' that followed, when the two regimes overlapped and Delhi was on the verge of modernity and undergoing significant change, is the subject of an extraordinary study in Swapna Liddle's book. The Broken Script provides a first-person account of early British rule in India and describes in great detail the complex struggle between the East India Company and the last two Mughal emperors, one of whom held significant symbolic authority and the other a rapidly expanding military and political force. Above all, it tells the tale of Delhi's inhabitants during this time, some of whom are already well-known, like the poet Ghalib, and others who are largely forgotten, like the mathematician Ram Chander: the city's cultural and intellectual elite, business titans, the former landed nobility, and the mysterious new ruling class?the British. Through these, it examines the changes in the social, political, and cultural landscape over the course of six decades.