In the footsteps of the ‘Macedonian Conqueror’: Alexander the Great and British India.

The prevalence of classical education coupled with the ready availability of ancient and modern sources describing his history made Alexander the Great a tangible presence for Britons writing about and working in India during the 19^th century. The imperial significance of Alexander's presence is perhaps clearest in the extent to which the classical descriptions of India surrounding his career contributed to British characterisations of Indian civilisation as stagnant or retrograde. This was one pillar in the ideological edifice of British imperial domination of India, and it is the imperial dimension of the classical tradition most often stressed by scholars. It is also clear that many Britons linked to India saw themselves reprising Alexander's explorations, conquests, and even his world-historical mission to civilise Asia. However chimerical it now seems, this belief was a powerful element in British imperial identity. And while it made Alexander's life a source of precedents to be mined, refined, and deployed to justify the imperial project, it also made his life a source of inspiration to the soldiers who conquered and garrisoned India, the adventurers and antiquarians who explored it, and the civil servants and statesmen who administered it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]