An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India

Shashi Tharoor whose brilliance enchanted over 3 million people on YouTube with his debating skills at an Oxford Union debate continues in the same vein in his new book "An era of darkness". Essentially the debate was about whether colonialism was good or bad. It may seem anachronistic and even cruel for the victims of Colonialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America that such thing can even be debated. But anything can be debated in public school debating clubs of UK ! In the English tradition all these schools prepare you for a legal or a parliamentary career where you could argue either way on any issue depending on the context. Many of our own parliamentarians are trained in the same tradition and argue brilliantly in Indian courts as well as in the Indian Parliament and we can see them hold forth brilliantly on the pro of a policy and equally brilliantly on the cons of it depending on whether they are in the treasury benches or in the opposition, inducing inevitable cynicism. However the sincerity of Tharoor in arguing that British colonialism did inestimable all sided harm to India shows through this tome where he marshals literally hundreds of facts (well organised quotes run into nearly 300). His passion for the subject comes through every page, his sardonic tone and twist of the English phrase even while cursing the power that imposed English language with "Tommy jackboots" hits the reader with a genuine force. Along with accolades from Indians in all walks of life, including PM, Narendra Modi, Tharoor got some feeble criticism as well after his short Oxford Union talk. That has prepared him for much more disdainful and patronising vitriol from apologists of British colonialism. All his arguments and quotes seem to be in preparation of that assault. He does not leave any leaf unturned in his endeavour including the Tea leaves of Assam, Bengal and Oooty. In fact the topics he chooses to argue include the whole gamut of issues which are normally quoted as "gifts" of two centuries of British rule over India: good governance, English sense of fairplay, Austinian judicial system, Railways, social reform of Hindu society, Cricket, Tea and even the English language. He tears them up one by one with profuse facts and anecdotal quotes from largely British and other Western sources. Some of the insights he provides are important for colonial studies. He points out that the public finance in pre-colonial India was based on taxing trade where as the British themselves being traders made a drastic change and made agriculture and land revenue the focus, (and even called their chief district level representative: Collector) thereby causing immense hardship to peasantry. He traces the creation of the landless peasant and the increased dependence of large segment of the population on agriculture for livelihood due to the destruction of artisans and manufacture and also large scale man made famines under colonialism. In these days when corruption, its roots and elimination often becomes a matter of public discussion he narrates its massive rise due to the practices of the East India Company and its officers. He makes an astute observation that despite historical animosities between England and Scotland a compact was established to include Scotland into the United Kingdom ( though initiated by a fudged parliamentary vote in 1707) by promising plum positions for Scots in colonial India. That explains the unusually large proportion of Scots in the administration and the army in India. Twisting the knife further he adds that perhaps the loss of this income from India into Scottish homes is leading to disenchantment and fueling separatism in Scotland ! His remarks on the creation of a decadent gentry of Rai Bahadurs and Diwan Bahadurs and even the more abhorrent profligate and promiscuous Princes replacing the older far more grounded aristocracy are insightful. Besides going into the financing of Indian Railways and how gold plating was done by many an English investor assured of guaranteed returns and how Railways during construction and later were used to drain the Indian economy and increase the national debt, Tharoor makes an important point that in the operational finances of Railways it was the third class passengers traveling in sub human conditions that subsidised freight and the first class ! His discussion of British communal divide and rule as well as re-imposition of caste inequalities through the Gentoo Code under Warren Hastings and in the post-1857 construction of colonial state are extremely important but often forgotten in the modern Indian discourse on communalism and casteism. It is an enjoyable read, passionately written smooth in flow while being richly cross referenced. The blemishes are few. Note worthy ones are his quoting Marx completely out of context to show purportedly that Marx supported British colonialism in India which is contrary to facts; and frequent comparisons of genocidal massacres under British with unsubstantiated figures of deaths caused supposedly by Stalin etc. Perhaps we can ascribe it to his anxiety towards taking a swipe at his leftist political rivals in his parliamentary constituency in Kerala. Other weakness of the "Era of Darkness" is total neglect of the role of Ghadar revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh and his comrades and even the war of Independence --the Great Ghadar of 1857, chronicled as the biggest war of 19th century world, and the colonial tactics of chicanery and brutality employed by British, while Tharoor does bring out such facets from the rest of colonial history. I would recommend every young Indian to read this book to get a perspective of our colonial past in the present day mesmerising euphoria of the global village in spite of Trump.

4.5 rating I can’t seem to recall the exact quote by John Oliver which went something along the line that most, if not all, international problems of the world today can be traced back to a the last 100 years with A few white men in a room with a map and drawing lines. Believe me I spent almost a day searching for it. Haven’t found it yet but I am sure it’s there. I digress. The reason for the publishing of this book is quite a well known fact. Shashi Tharoor (former diplomat, current politician and a Member of Parliament) made an impassioned speech at the Oxford University during a debate on British colonisation of India back in 2015. There, he highlighted the degradations of Indian society at the hands of the British, and their long-lasting after effects (hint: they’re not good). Once the video got online and took a viral life of its own, earning praise from most of the Indians, irrespective of their own political stance. People came forward to support him and asked him to write a book on the subject. This book is a detailed version of that talk. It starts with the comparison of Indian economy’s percentage in the world to that of British and other European nations. From there, it moves through the 200 year rule the British maintained in the subcontinent, first the company and then the Crown rule. The rule wasn’t benign or even mostly harmless (as some people choose to describe). It was out and out exploitation of resources, both human as well as material. All the ‘gifts’ the empire imparted to the subcontinent, including education, the English language, railways, parliamentary system of government, and even cricket, were incidental and not an objective. This can clearly be seen by comparing the statistics the country had right after the independence and the current numbers. Although the book covers quite extensively covers all the major events in the struggle, some points are misrepresented or simplified for the sake of the narrative (I’m not sure if it was intentional or just glossed over to fir the author’s political stance). For example, Jinnah’s retreat to London and his change of attitude towards secularism is attributed to Gandhi’s fame whereas it was a little more complex. Also, there seems to be no mention of backstabbing by INC (Indian National Congress) when they chose not to honour the agreement the party had with the Muslim League post election. Furthermore, it is mentioned that Tagore gave up his Knighthood and Gandhi his title Kaiser-i-Hind to protest the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre, when the reality is that they gave up their titles because the British, instead of punishing the perpetrator General Dyer, chose to honour him. This little change in the reason of giving up the title and protesting help in understanding that they weren’t irrational in their protests, but gave a chance to the other party to accept their fault. On a side note, the release year of the movie Lagaan is erroneously mentioned as 2003 instead of 2001, but that’s just nitpicking. The book treads some slippery slopes and becomes quite self-aware when it comes to discuss the author’s own command over English language and his fondness for a sport the empire gave to the country, cricket. But somehow, it manages to not sound hypocritical and still be engaging and informative. Apart from all the seriousness of the book and the subject, it somehow manages to squeeze in a few moments where you would chuckle, or at the very least put a smile on the face. A simple line like “Nadir Shah stole it fair and square” does it. Also, when talking about a certain Mr. Nirad C Chaudhuri, the author choosing the most eloquent of words manages to say something on lines of “the ill-informed scholar had his nose up the colonial ass”. If I had my way, I’d recommend this as a compulsory read in all the schools of India, in whatever language possible. It not only gives an objective outlook of the 200 history during the British Empire, but also a subjective point of view to comprehend the scale. Although, that somehow becomes slightly biased however hard the author tries to maintain to not be so. However, the writing and the language are again top notch. Definitely worth a read

This book depicts the immense and deep knowledge of author on Pre Independence era. His exhaustive research and the way he garlands the points into a meaningful lecture, binds the reader to the very last page. However, there happens to be some incidents, where it would have been more useful to get some reference. For example the railway accident in 1861 between Connogor and Bally, or why Brits chose Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiris for the tea plantation, etc. Inspite of that this book gives an insight into how Brits mere exploited this land for their own benefits and later manipulating us to believing they did a greater favour to us rather than being unconditionally apologetic. Its a shame that 80 percent of the current Brits still have a racial outlook towards Indians, and that they did a great job in uplifting the Indians, rather than oppressing them. Anyways, this book is extremely insightful and that must be read by every Indians across the globe.

The book is of good quality and worth the money. The photos and the actual product matches. Recommended!

To write a review on the books of Sashi Tharoor is a great honor to the reviewer. The seeds of this book were down on his Oxford University address where he said that the Crown should give compensation to India for its relentless looting. Their genius was displayed in their ingenious ways of looting the resources of this country, without any mercy and let or go. The author has touched every part of their rule right from the Clive to its end in all branches of society. How they declared some people as martial race thereby degrading those who opposed them tooth and nail. With the introduction of the census they brought new ways of divide and rule. How they kept the foreign exchange rate high for the purpose of looting our resources. In short the author leaves nothing in his criticism. I wish that the author write a sequel to this telling as how did India fall down so miserably into the latches of the foreign invaders.

Good read

This book, as the author informs us in the Preface, began with a speech. A very famous speech, in fact - Dr Shashi Tharoor's Oxford Union debate of 2015, one of his most widely shared videos in recent years, in which he argues that Britain owes reparations to India. This book is a detailed presentation of the ideas and cogent arguments put forth by Dr Tharoor in the debate, including topics like the looting of India by the East India Company, the "divide and rule" policy and counter-arguments to those arguing in favour of the empire. The author digs up little-known facts to buttress his case, for example - "A rare Cambridge-educated Indian judge appointed on the bench of the Allahabad High Court in 1887, Justice Syed Mahmud, suffered daily discrimination and prejudice, especially from Chief Justice Sir John Edge, who Mahmud felt treated him like a conquered subject rather than a judicial equal. As a young man freshly returned from England enthusiastic about Empire, Mahmud had dreamt of a day when 'the English people are known to us more as friends and fellow subjects, than as rulers and foreign conquerers'. That was not to be... Mahmud... resigned in 1892, unable to reconcile his faith in British law with his exclusion from the high table at the institutions administering it, turned to drink and depression, and died a broken man at the age of just fifty-three." "The British left a society with 16% literacy, a life expectancy of 27, practically no domestic industry and over 90% living below what today we would call the poverty line. Today the literacy rate is up at 72%, average life expectancy is nearing the Biblical three score and ten, and 280 million people have been pulled out of poverty in the twenty first century." Much of the book is written with the author's characteristic wit, for instance - "And as for aid, British aid amounts to less than 0.02 per cent of India's GDP, and somewhat less than the Government of India spends on fertilizer subsidies - an appropriate metaphor, perhaps, for the aid argument." "This was all part of the policy of divide and rule: no one in any responsible position in Britain as late as 1940 had any serious intention whatsoever of relinquishing the Empire or surrendering the jewel in His Majesty's Crown to a rabble of nationalist Indians clad in homespun. But the devastation of World War II meant that only one half of the phrase could survive: bled, bombed and battered for six years, Britain could divide but it could no longer rule." On the whole, a great book and an important contribution to the growing literature about the British Raj. The only shortcoming I could find is poor proofreading, for example, "restrained" is mis-spelt as "retrained" on page 101. A more glaring example of the printer's devil is on page 126, which tells us that William Jones founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1797. In fact, Sir William Jones had died in 1794; but he had become the founder president of the Asiatic Society much earlier, in 1784.

This book is a product of the famous Oxford speech Tharoor gave in 2015 (if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it NOW). In the preface, Tharoor mentions that he believed his arguments at Oxford to be well-known in India, only to be surprised to find that this was not true. And thus, “An Era of Darkness” was created, not as a chronology of historical events during British rule (as in Dalrymple’s “The Anarchy”), but as a deeper scrutiny of arguments claiming that British rule was in any way beneficial to India, as well as some of the standard apologist perspectives (regarding the Indian railways, the English language, etc.) After reading this book, there is no doubt in my mind that British rule is the darkest stain upon Indian history, and there is no excuse for the way they destroyed what was once among the most powerful countries in the world; to give you a broad sense of the havoc the British wreaked upon us, India before the British contributed to around 23% of the world’s GDP; after the British, that number dwindled down to a horrifying 3%, as the British took everything they possibly could from our country - from food, to resources, historical treasures and much, much more, leaving a nation of poverty-stricken, starving Indians to clean up the mess. And they still had the audacity to claim that they were the more civilised people. Reading this wonderfully written book opened my eyes to the unbelievable extent of damage and destruction caused by the British, leaving me saddened and disgusted at their rampant barbarism poorly disguised as noble administration. I would highly recommend this to everyone - for us Indians to educate ourselves on the darkest era of our history, and for those in other countries to learn the truth of what really happened during this terrible time.