Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India

Written by Shashi Tharoor

Narrated by Shashi Tharoor

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 cannons, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalized 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781541449992

Shashi Tharoor

An elected Member of Parliament, former Minister of State for External Affairs and former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Shashi Tharoor is the prize-winning author of twelve previous books, both fiction and non-fiction. A widely-published critic, commentator and columnist, he served the United Nations during a twenty-nine-year career in refugee work and peace-keeping, at the Secretary-Generals office and heading communications and public information. He has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Reviews for Inglorious Empire

[John Ronzino · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book!!! Well researched. Made me want to read other books by the author and about British imperialism.

[Chellappan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An unbelievable chronicle of the British Raj and its colonialism vividly scripted and eloquently read-out by Mr Tharoor!! This quote will resonate forever “History belongs to the past, but an understanding of it is the Duty of the present”. Every Indian should make a conscious effort to understand it!! Pranam ?, Mr Tharoor!

[AA EAGER · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A well written & researched piece of work. As a Britt growing up in the 70’s & 80’s this work put an end to the propaganda myth that the British Commonwealth was a good thing and that Britain built the railways and gave the English language and upstanding educational and democratic institutions.

It was all about greed, exploitation and servitude at the expense of the many for the few with a healthy dose of cruelty and racism. Bad practices like the caste system and the division of India into India & Pakistan after independence came about due to the British specialty of divide and conquer. It is said that history told with the real truth and reasoning should shock and horrify, particularly if is against the teachings of your Mother country. This book achieved this and I feel enlightened as a result

[iudita_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I picked this book hoping to learn something about a topic that I knew nothing about. And I did learn a great deal, but it was written with such an angry, biased tone that it left me wishing I had chosen a more neutral title. I'm quite sure I didn't get the full story.

[davidwineberg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Empire Strikes Out

The plight of India under British rule is not as common a body of knowledge as it should be. Worse, the British continue to insist they were not merely benign, but actually enlightened colonizers. Inglorious Empire exposes the rather more harsh truth. In outrage after outrage, Shashi Tharoor explores the social, political and economic facets of 200-350 years of abuse that left India a third world country. When the British arrived, India was enjoying a quarter to a third of world trade. It had an effective and comprehensive education system. Hindus and Muslims worked together. By independence in 1947, it was battlefield basket case. In a 150 year period, British GDP increased 347%, while India’s rose 14%. This is far worse than benign neglect. This is world class looting and pillaging.

By the early 1800s, India had been reduced from a land of “artisans, traders, warriors and merchants, functioning and thriving in complex and commercial networks, into an agrarian society of peasants and moneylenders. Extensive scholarship has shown how the British created the phenomenon of landlessness, turned self-reliant cultivators into tenants, employees and bondsmen, transformed social relations and as a result, undermined agrarian growth and development ... There are no victimless colonial actions. Everything the British did echoes down the ages,” Tharoor says. Not to put too fine a point on it, they chopped off the thumbs of weavers so the British could rule the textile trade and made India an importer instead of the lead exporter.

Tharoor also shows the difference a country can make. France, a monarchy, indoctrinated it colonies in its language and culture, seeking to include them and spread its influence. Britain, a democracy, sought to crush its colonies, destroying their self-sufficiency, extorting their wealth, and keeping the colonists separate from them, out of government, out of business and out of education. The British took a loosely unified country and split it as many ways as possible to keep it subservient. They specified religions and castes, and prevented citizens from crossing faint lines between them. Certain occupations could only be performed by certain castes. Armed forces units were caste-pure. Using Brahmins to translate documents into English, the British allowed that caste to write its own ticket. They promptly promoted themselves into the civil service and built a dominating and domineering status for themselves in Indian society, which they did not have before the British improved things.

The British formula could also be seen in Ireland, where the Irish were kept out of office and business. Divide and Rule was the British modus operandi. It led to absurd situations where Indian divisions were sent to Poland by the British, to defend democracy against the fascist invaders. There is a special place in Hell for Winston Churchill, whose intolerance, racism and apparent hatred of all things Indian was a continuous stab in the back to the whole nation. (One example: during a 1943 famine, he ordered Indian foodstuffs be diverted to British soldiers, already well fed, and to top up stockpiles in eastern Europe, while also turning down offers of aid from the US and Canada for starving Indians.) Rather than elevating India to a functioning democracy, as the British like to claim, they created so many cultural, religious and geographic conflicts and obstacles that India was a time-bomb that went off at independence.

Even as India exported its grain to Britain in the 1800s, 17 million died in famines back home. Compare this to the estimated war dead of five million worldwide during the entire 19th century. (This too was no different than the way the enlightened British treated the Irish.) During Indian famines, it became illegal to lower food prices, illegal to offer charity, and taxes were raised even higher. For relief, the British created workhouses that paid less than the slave labor at Buchenwald. Women sold their children for a single meal. Farmers sold their cattle (from 5 million annually to 115 million), destroying their ability to be self-sufficient. So while there was never a shortage of food in India, Indians couldn’t afford it and died by the millions. Much like the nonsense we hear now, the British claimed the market had to be free to find its own level, with no help of any kind to anyone. Except of course, that Britain stacked the deck on behalf of its businesses, especially the East India Company. Because India was not taken over by the British government; it was taken over by a public company. Members of Parliament and Lords were prominent stockholders, and the government gave the company the right to govern, the soldiers to back it up, and the tariffs to ensure success.

This is the same gang that leveled Indian forests to grow poppies, then went to war to force the Chinese to import the resulting opium and cocaine. Twice. The British government itself ran 7000 cocaine shops in India.

Tharoor tells the story patiently, calmly and almost dispassionately, in classic Indian demeanor. The book is thoroughly documented and recounts the litany of horrors as if it were simple history. But it isn’t of course. As Tharoor himself points out, there are still millions of Indians who lived it, and the country has yet to fully recover and take its former position in the ranks of the greatest. Inglorious Empire puts the British in their place as horrific managers, greedy, prejudiced and bloodthirsty as any in history. And that makes this an important book.

David Wineberg