James Tod

Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod
The frontispiece of the 1920 edition of Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Rajas'han
Born	(1782-03-20)20 March 1782 Islington, London, UK
Died	18 November 1835(1835-11-18) (aged 53) London
Cause of death	Apoplectic fit
Occupation	Political Agent; historian; cartographer; numismatist
Employer	East India Company
Notable work	Annals and Antiquities of Rajas'han; Travels in Western India
Spouse(s)	Julia Clutterbuck (m. 1826–35)
Children	Grant Heatly Tod-Heatly Edward H. M. Tod Mary Augusta Tod
Parent(s)	James Tod Mary Heatly

Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod (20 March 1782 – 18 November 1835) was an English-born officer of the British East India Company and an Oriental scholar. He combined his official role and his amateur interests to create a series of works about the history and geography of India, and in particular the area then known as Rajputana that corresponds to the present day state of Rajasthan, and which Tod referred to as Rajas'han.

Tod was born in London and educated in Scotland. He joined the East India Company as a military officer and travelled to India in 1799 as a cadet in the Bengal Army. He rose quickly in rank, eventually becoming captain of an escort for an envoy in a Sindian royal court. After the Third Anglo-Maratha War, during which Tod was involved in the intelligence department, he was appointed Political Agent for some areas of Rajputana. His task was to help unify the region under the control of the East India Company. During this period Tod conducted most of the research that he would later publish. Tod was initially successful in his official role, but his methods were questioned by other members of the East India Company. Over time, his work was restricted and his areas of oversight were significantly curtailed. In 1823, owing to declining health and reputation, Tod resigned his post as Political Agent and returned to England.

Back home in England, Tod published a number of academic works about Indian history and geography, most notably Annals and Antiquities of Rajas'han, based on materials collected during his travels. He retired from the military in 1826, and married Julia Clutterbuck that same year. He died in 1835, aged 53.

Tod's major works have been criticised as containing significant inaccuracies and bias, but he is highly regarded in some areas of India, particularly in communities whose ancestors he praised. His accounts of the Rajputs and of India in general had a significant effect on British views of the area for many years.

Tod was born in Islington, London, on 20 March 1782. He was the second son for his parents, James and Mary (née Heatly), both of whom came from families of "high standing", according to his major biographer, the historian Jason Freitag. He was educated in Scotland, whence his ancestors came, although precisely where he was schooled is unknown. Those ancestors included people who had fought with the King of Scots, Robert the Bruce; he took pride in this fact and had an acute sense of what he perceived to be the chivalric values of those times.