Inglorious Empire
In the eighteenth century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. By 1947, it had decreased six-fold. In Inglorious Empire, Shashi Tharoor tells the real story of the British in India, from the arrival of the East India Company in 1757 to the end of the Raj, and reveals how Britain's rise was built upon its depredations in India. India was Britain's biggest cash cow, and Indians literally paid for their own oppression. Britain's Industrial Revolution was founded on India's deindustrialisation, and the destruction of its textile industry. Under the British, millions died from starvation--including 4 million in 1943 alone, after national hero Churchill diverted Bengal's food stocks to the war effort. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannons, massacred unarmed protesters and entrenched institutionalised racism. British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed. Tharoor takes on and demolishes the arguments for the Empire, demonstrating how every supposed imperial 'gift', from the railways to the rule of law, was designed in Britain's interests alone. This incisive reassessment of colonialism exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain's stained Indian legacy.
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What Hacker News says
- Inglorious empire is another good one by Tharoor. Provides letters and statements from British officials and officers to show the intent and exploits.
- On the topic of the colonization of India, "Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India" is an illustrative book - especially if you want more context to draw conclusions about the scale of wealth taken from India.
- Anyone interested in a very thorough writing on the British occupation of India should read "The Inglorious Empire" by Shashi Tharoor. It is a very well researched work!
- The horrors committed by the British Empire are sadly under-reported and not well taught, it has been "Whitewashed". They have not been held accountable nor forced to pay reparations till date.
In particular; the devastation wrought on India beggars belief.
Watch this first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB5ykS-_-CI . Also Read the book Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, (aka An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India) by the above speaker.
British Raj siphoned out $45 trillion from India: https://www.livemint.com/Companies/HNZA71LNVNNVXQ1eaIKu6M/Br...
For a description of "Perfidious Albion" read Empire in Asia, How We Came by It: A Book Of Confessions by William McCullagh Torrens.
- So much of the tragedy of our times has been along those lines. Reading this book (amongst others) about the atrocities committed in service of the British idea of utopia in India evoked similar feelings: https://www.amazon.com/Inglorious-Empire-What-British-India/....
In comparison, the turn towards soft power in the 21st century on the macro (political) and micro (personal) levels is much appreciated, despite all of its ills.
- I recommend reading this book as a supplement. https://www.amazon.in/Inglorious-Empire-What-British-India/d...
