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Inglorious Empire: what the British did to India - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Inglorious Empire: what the British did to India

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In the eighteenth century, India’s share of the world economy was as large as Europe’s. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation.

British 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. He goes on to show how Britain’s Industrial Revolution was founded on India’s deindustrialization and the destruction of its textile industry. In this bold and incisive reassessment of colonialism, Tharoor exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain’s stained Indian legacy.

ISBN-13: 9781947534308

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd

Publication Date: 05-08-2018

Pages: 336

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

Shashi Tharoor served for twenty-nine years at the UN, culminating as Under-Secretary-General. He is a Congress MP in India, the author of fourteen previous books, and has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Tharoor has a PhD from the Fletcher School, and was named by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1998 as a Global Leader of Tomorrow.

Table of Contents

Chronology
Acknowledgements
Preface

1. The Looting of India
2. Did the British Give India Political Unity?
3. Democracy, the Press, the Parliamentary System and the Rule of Law
4. Divide Et Impera
5. The Myth of Enlightened Despotism
6. The Remaining Case for Empire
7. The (Im)Balance Sheet: A Coda
8. The Messy Afterlife of Colonialism

Notes and References
Bibliography
Index