The East India Company the British trading giant that once ruled vast swathes of India and laid the groundwork for colonial rule has closed down once more, this time as a high-end luxury retailer based in London. The modern incarnation of the firm, revived in 2010 by British-Indian businessman Sanjiv Mehta, has gone into liquidation, bringing an unusual chapter in post-colonial business history to an abrupt end.
The original East India Company lost control of India following the 1857 Indian Rebellion, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, when the British Crown assumed direct governance in 1858, marking the beginning of the British Raj. The company was formally dissolved by the British Parliament in 1874.
Nearly 152 years after going…