Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor PDF Download

Details of Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor Book

Book Name: Inglorious Empire
Authors: Shashi Tharoor
Pages: 164
Genre: History
Publish Date: March 2017
Language: English
Format: PDF, ePub, Mobi

Book Review:

At the start of the 18th century, India's share of the global economy accounted for about 23%. Two centuries later, when the British left India, the subcontinent's share dropped to around three percent. It was a dramatic transition, and what exactly transpired within that colonial era sits at the heart of *Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India* by Shashi Tharoor.

I'm your host Shivan, and welcome to a Caspian Report review for the bookshelf. Having served nearly three decades as the undersecretary general at the United Nations and currently serving as a member of the lower house of the Indian Parliament, Shashi Tharoor is a veteran in foreign diplomacy.

In addition to his political career, he has written more than a dozen nonfiction books on Indian history, politics, and society. Since the 1980s, he has also published articles in *The Washington Post*, *The New York Times*, *Time* magazine, etc. For his work, he has won numerous awards and frequently takes part in forums and conventions.

In 2015, Tharoor delivered an intriguing speech at the debating society of Oxford University, where he argued that the United Kingdom owed reparations to its former colonies. Have a look: when four million people died because Winston Churchill deliberately, as a matter of written militant policy, proceeded to divert essential supplies from civilians in Bengal to steadied tummies and Europeans as reserve stockpiles, he said that the starvation of anyway underfed Bengalis mattered much less than that of sturdy Greeks.

This is Churchill's actual quote. When conscience-stricken British officials wrote to him pointing out that people were dying because of this decision, he peevishly wrote in the margins of the file, "Why hasn't Gandhi died yet?" So all notions that the British were trying to do their colonial enterprise out of enlightened despotism to try and bring the benefits of colonialism and civilization to the midnight it even.

I'm sorry, Churchill's conduct in '43 is simply one example of many that give lie to this myth. As others have said and on the proposition, violence and racism were the reality of the colonial experience, and no wonder the sun never set on the British Empire because even God couldn't trust the English in the dark.

To sum things up, it was a playful and compelling dialogue that articulated many valid points. A link to the full video can be found in the description. In any case, before long, the video went viral in India with over 5 million views as of this review.

Soon afterwards, Tharoor was contacted by his publisher, who suggested transforming his 15-minute speech into a book. The fruit of that labor is *Inglorious Empire*, which dismantles the self-serving myths that were constructed to rationalize Britain's enlightenment mission in India.

Using evidence from British, American, and Indian historians and thinkers, *Inglorious Empire* demonstrates with gripping argumentation how the British Empire destroyed pre-colonial legal systems and how punitive taxation of farmers led to famines that cost millions of lives. The book also tells the story of India's extreme protectionist laws and how such regulations came into being.

The author argues that even positive projects, from the railways, the press, and the parliamentary system to the rule of law, were specifically designed to benefit London. Any good that came out of it was entirely coincidental and never the genuine motive. The intention, the author goes on, was to strengthen British rule and enable the exploitation of India.

Tharoor explains that pre-colonial India was not a backward society but a prosperous one with a sophisticated manufacturing sector and pre-existing international trade networks. India's commercial activity was as large as Europe's combined output. Yet by 1947, after two centuries of British rule, India's share of the world economy decreased six-fold.

One of the wealthiest and most industrialized economies had been reduced to an empty shell. During that colonial era, Indians were subjugated and humiliated while their industries were destroyed and looted. In fact, the very word "loot" traces its origin to India. When the country gained independence, it had been transformed into one of the poorest, most diseased, and most illiterate nations on earth.

Essentially, what the author claims is that Britain's Industrial Revolution was founded on India's deindustrialization and the destruction of its manufacturing sector. That is a bold statement, and this hypothesis, known as the drain theory, has circulated the academic and political circles of the Indian elite since the 20th century and forms the core premise of *Inglorious Empire*.

Having said that, the author acknowledges that a dreadful colonial past is no excuse for the present poor state of governance by Indians themselves. But Tharoor wants the reader to understand how the past has haunted India since the mid-20th century and how many difficulties, such as corruption, protectionism, ethnic and religious animosity, etc., trace their origins to British rule.

But the book has another motive. In recent years, there has been a trend of historical books that hailed the achievements of the British Empire. Many of the authors of such books also have political connections and thereby contribute to the formation of new policies.

For instance, Niall Ferguson, the author of *Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World*, was named by *Time* magazine as one of the hundred most influential people in the world in 2004 and served as an advisor to several Republican lawmakers in the United States.

Meanwhile, Andrew Roberts, the author of *A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900*, which shrouded itself in the style of the white man's burden, enjoyed the backing of the Bush administration. This is to say nothing of Nick Lloyd's revisionist account of the Amritsar Massacre published in 2011 and Lawrence James's *The Rise and Fall of the British Empire*.

*Inglorious Empire* is a response to the recent trend of imperialist revisionism. Tharoor does not claim to be impartial, nor does he claim that his book is neutral. Rather, *Inglorious Empire* is a political essay. This does not imply that what the author writes is factually wrong. The evidence that is presented is powerful.

Cricket, tea, and the English language covered the benefits of British rule. Meanwhile, impoverishment, starvation, institutionalized racism, mass deportations, forced opium production, and the systematic theft of natural resources and cultural treasures are just some of the charges that are brought forth by the author.

Besides the striking content, *Inglorious Empire* is gracefully written. Its narrative is lucid and engaging, the arguments are rational and well presented, and scattered throughout the chapters are interesting quotations by British public figures. It's also a timely book.

In the era of Brexit, revisionist sentiment is growing. For instance, in 2014, a survey by YouGov revealed that about 59% of the people in the United Kingdom perceived the British Empire as something to be proud of, while nearly half believed that the colonial nations were better off.

Finally, a third expressed that they would like to see the Empire still in existence today. Such audiences will not appreciate the strong claims made in *Inglorious Empire* and its suggestion that imperial nostalgia must be addressed with post-colonial accountability.

Nevertheless, for anyone interested in Indian politics and history, *Inglorious Empire* is a must-read. And although the attempt to address this complicated and contentious topic is commendable, it is not a full account of the past. The author only presents evidence that backs his side of the argument, and his book is mostly a reaction to the recent surge in imperial revisionist sources. So as with all political books, critical thinking is necessary on the reader's part.

Now, if you want to purchase the book, check out our Amazon store. Items that are bought there will not cost you extra, but it will allow us to earn some fees. The link to the store will be in the description. This was a Caspian Report review for the bookshelf. Credit goes to our community on Patreon for giving us the means to produce content like this. If you want to help out and gain access to some perks, visit patreon.com/CaspianReport. In any case, thank you for your time, and so well.

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