Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India

Shashi Tharoor's Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India is an indomitable case against British Rail in India to debunk anything that Britons might try to glamorize about their occupation. Despite conducting a vast historical analysis, Tharoor convincingly explains how the impact of two centuries of British rule impoverished, divided and transformed India in ways that are still felt today. Tharoor carries on from his speech that was delivered at Oxford Union in 2015 to argue the severity of exploitation, the Ironies, and the extent of injustices that colonial masters subjected India to.

Tharoor starts his work by enumerating India's economic losses due to British presence and policies. India was a wealthy country before the British intervention; it contributed close to 23% to the global economy in early 1700. Even when the British were forced out in 1947, India's share of the worldwide cotton trade was as low as 3%. This huge fall, according to Tharoor, was due to British greed and planned exploitation, which sought to dismantle the burgeoning industries of India - none more noticeably than the textile industry. British colonial policies dismantled every capacity India had to export and produce its products and flooded domestic markets with manufactured products from Britain. The final content was a great loss to India's economy, where a self-sufficient economy turned into a dependent and poor economy.

In Tharoor's view, British people wanted to tell everyone that they Anglicized India, meaning that they modernised the country, as per the claims of the imperial apologists. Tharoor well documents how the British launched the railways, telegraphs, and the like, but these belonged to Britain, not India or Indians. Railways, for example, were constructed to move raw materials from the interior of India back to Britain and not for the uplift of Indians. These changes, like the English language and the Western education system, were purposely put in place to fashion out a subjugate set of Indians who would help Britain manage the empire. Contrary to receiving gifts, these alterations were part of a more elaborate plan to continue with the subjugation of the Indian people by the British.
The social and political effects of this British rule were as negative as the economic impact. Tharoor also succeeds in arguing that British policies aggravated and facilitated the cultural and lunatic separation of India along religious and caste lines that culminated in the devastating partition later in 1947. People of both Hindu and Muslims were consciously divided by British imperial rule through its policy of 'divide and rule' that brought forth seeds of Communalism that boomed during the period of Partition. Tens of millions were displaced and, in the ensuing turmoil, about a million people were killed, a catastrophe that Tharoor links to British intervention.

Tharoor is very harsh on the British colonial mindset and more over the racism that was seen in the British approach towards colonised nations. To support this view, Amity presents a long list of examples of how superior British officers treated Indian culture and people with contempt, which proves the point in the Empire of White Supremacy. No figure, even those considered prestigious by the West, such as Winston Churchill, is exempted from a Tharoor critique. He describes Churchill's indifference as he moved policies that made the Bengal famine of 1943 worse, which claimed three million Indian lives. Churchill's infamous quote in which he attributed the famine directly to Indians for being excessively reproducing happily by using the word 'rabbit' symbolises the attitude Tharoor says formed the base of British imperialism.

However, clearly, one of the biggest assets of the book is that it builds economic, social and political arguments against colonialism into one grand anti-British narrative. Tharoor enacts a detailed account of how British colonization ruined India for good and in so many ways and left a wounded, poor nation in its wake. He is more of a humorist than a technical writer, and he is not afraid of using sarcasm when delivering a serious message. The whole feeling of this book captures Tharoor's emotional attachment to India's colonial history and his indignation at the continued celebration of British colonialism.

Of course, one can argue that there is a magnitude of criticism that can be launched at Inglorious Empire. One of them is that the book has a clear-scrolling view of the evil the British were bringing to the conquered, and no redeeming feature is acknowledged. Tharoor rejects the claim of triumphalists that the British provided a positive impact on Indians in terms of introducing universities, putting an end to some destructive practices such as Sati and bringing legal systems. Still, these contributions are named, at least, though most of the time, they are swiftly drowned out by the greater point that Tharoor makes about colonial oppression. As with many such books, these might seem partially biased to some of the readers - all while Tharoor's main goal is to challenge the British imperialism that had been portrayed in a more sympathetic light.

This is why, as a student of international relations, I find the knowledge provided by the Inglorious Empire relevant. First, the book offers a very good example of how relations of power, oppression, and domination were constructed during colonialism and are still in operation in today's geopolitics. Describing the ways in which colonialism altered India's economy and social structure, Tharoor reminds the readers of imperialist impacts on many colonies, including India. The concepts of economic underdevelopment and ethnic conflicts are very relevant issues in the study of international relations, and Tharoor's criticisms of British colonialism are very coherent.

In conclusion, the Inglorious Empire ought to be on the list of books every person who wants to know the real history of the British Empire should read.