Inglorious empire by shashi tharoor5/20/2023 This incisive reassessment of colonialism exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain's stained Indian legacy. 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 is a timely book, for in the era of Brexit, when bold claims are being made about Britain’s global aspirations, the need to temper British imperial nostalgia with postcolonial responsibility. British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannons, massacred unarmed protesters and entrenched institutionalised racism. 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. Britain's Industrial Revolution was founded on India's deindustrialisation, and the destruction of its textile industry. India was Britain's biggest cash cow, and Indians literally paid for their own oppression. The Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller on Indias experience of British colonialism, by the internationally-acclaimed author and diplomat Shashi Tharoor. 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. In the eighteenth century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's.
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