Trade Winds

The Jewels of the Maharajas symbolized power and a connection with the divine. Anyone who wanted to be a greater ruler would want them as a symbol of sovereignty. This is the story of Nader Shah and his quest for the Koh-i-Noor diamond and other jewels of the Mughals.

The ‘Curse of the Kohinoor’ is this: Any man who wears the diamond will suffer a terrible fate. But is this true? Or was this simply a story that conveniently allowed the British Empire to justify the colonial appropriation of the diamond? 

COVID19 border control are based on problematic colonial responses to outbreaks in the 19th century. We examine a pandemic that originated in India and changed how we travel forever.

When the British Empire abolished slavery in 1833, it found that African slaves would much rather not work on its colonial plantations — even for a salary. It found a new source of labourers in India.

Plants are more than medicine. They have driven exploration, empires and colonization. The transformation of plants has sometimes overthrown millennia of indigenous medical wisdom.

Clarke and his friends explore and excavate a shipwreck off Sri Lanka and find a treasure of Mughal-era silver coins. They attempt to piece together the history of the ship and its precious cargo. We journey with him and ask, to whom does found treasure belong?