Inglorious Empire

What the British did to India

Shashi Tharoor

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English

Scribe Publications
30 April 2018

History; British & Irish history; Colonialism & imperialism

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"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.

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 deindustrialisation, 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.

'Ferocious and astonishing. Essential for a Britain lost in sepia fantasies about its past, Inglorious Empire is history at its clearest and cutting best.' -Ben Judah, author of This Is London

'I had read only a few pages of Inglorious Empire before I thought, ""What a wonderful book this would be to teach from."" It's witty and fast-paced, the what-ifs and what-might-have-beens set up to provoke discussion. And the author's digressions, sometimes more enthralling than the topic under discussion, raise important questions about who he is

and

the country that has made him.' -Robin Jeffrey, Inside Story

'Inglorious Empire is a bracing, polemical work.' -Christopher de Bellaigue, The New York Review of Books"

By: Shashi Tharoor
Imprint: Scribe Publications
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 278g
ISBN: 9781925713527
ISBN 10: 1925713520
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 30 April 2018
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active