In this bold and incisive reassessment of colonialism, Tharoor exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain’s stained Indian legacy. He goes on to show how Britain’s Industrial Revolution was founded on India’s deindustrialisation, and the destruction of its textile industry. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation.īritish imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes on and demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial ‘gift’ - from the railways to the rule of law - was designed in Britain’s interests alone. 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. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. In the eighteenth century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. In the eighteenth century, India’s share of the world economy was as large as Europe’s. Inglorious Empire tells the real story of the British in India - from the arrival of the East India Company to the end of the Raj - and reveals how Britain’s rise was built upon its plunder of India. Columnist and author of four published works of fiction and twelve of non-fiction, Tharoor is both well-read and an accomplished writer, and Inglorious Empire is smoothly and persuasively written, littered with apposite quotations, often by British figures damning themselves.
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