Henry George Keene

Henry George Keene was a British civil servant, historian, and writer whose career in India informed a substantial body of historical work. The Fall of the Moghul Empire traces political change in Hindustan from the death of Aurangzeb to the collapse of Maratha power, concentrating on the eighteenth century and the competing forces that reshaped northern India. Keene also wrote St George’s Cross, a historical story set in the Channel Islands during the seventeenth century. The two titles show the breadth of his interests, from imperial and regional history to historical fiction. Educated at Rugby and Wadham College, Oxford, Keene entered the Bengal Civil Service in 1847 and retired in 1882. His other books include A Sketch of the History of Hindustan, Fifty-Seven, and an edition of The Oriental Biographical Dictionary. Keene’s historical interpretations reflect the assumptions of his period and require critical reading today. Even so, his books remain useful evidence of how a nineteenth-century colonial official organized and narrated South Asian history for English readers.