#tharoor

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #39 – Inglorious Empire: What the British Did To India by Shashi Tharoor

I honestly forget who first recommended this book to me – quite possible I just googled ‘good indian history books’ and found it that way? - but it’s been on my TBR list for functionally forever at this point. Which meant I went into it essentially blind, with no memory of what if any details I’d been given with the recommendation. Which meant I had a moderately disappointing reading experience just because I was hoping for a narrative history and not an explicit polemical/persuasive text. Still, taken on its own merits as one of those, it’s really quite a good one.

The book is an adaptation and expansion of a performance the author gave at an Oxford debate (arguing against the notion that the British Empire was a good thing) which was recorded and went viral enough to make it a commercially viable prospect. The origin story shines through in the form – aside from an introduction and conclusion, each chapter is a clear and specific argument against some specific justification offered for the British conquest and colonization of India, full to bursting with statistics and quotations buttressing every point.

I would very much like to say that most of it is devoted to stuff the average reader will know anyway (if illustrated with clear and affecting examples), but, going by the apparent public response to the original debate and some polling cited in the conclusion, apparently not! The YouGov polls about the English public’s knowledge and opinion of the Empire are bleak enough that yeah this probably is a direly needed work of public education, if mostly for people who will not at any point read it.

Still, the fact that the British Raj was explicitly and institutionally racist and reserved functionally all positions of real power and authority for white men shouldn’t be much of a surprise, nor the fact that the ‘rule of law’ was basically a sick joke as far as crimes across the colour line went, nor the fact that the extraction of wealth from India to make fortunes in Britain was the explicit goal of policy, nor the fact that resistance (especially resistance successful enough to spook the authorities) was responded to with utter and excessive brutality. All that is basically the meat of what having been a colony means.

That said, I was taken a bit aback by the sheer rapaciousness of early Company government – it’s one thing to hear about oppressive taxation, another to get quoted the census figures of how they were so extreme that enough peasants fleeing their land and homes to look for greener pastures to show up as overall population decline in the areas under HEIC control. Similarly, my understanding of how India was turned into a captive market for British goods was much more subtle and indirect than the outright smashing of looms and legal prohibition of any attempts to compete with British industries that were actually used.

Whereas I did know about the deadly famines that kept occurring throughout the Raj, but the sheer cartoonish malevolence of colonial authorities when faced with them always manages to shock me a bit. ‘Nature’s solution to overpopulation’ was a really horrifyingly opinion at the time.

The audience of the debate performance the book’s based on definitely shines through in the choice of sources – wherever possible, Tharoor quotes from or cites western (Anglo-American, generally) sources for his eye-witness accounts and always takes care to introduce and ground them in terms of western governments or academia. The quotes themselves are all helpful illustrations, though there’s probably slightly more than are really strictly necessary – I’m pretty sure by wordcount at least a chapter of the book was actually written by Will Durant.

I’m not sure if it’s because of the original format or just how Tharoor writes, but the book also just has a great love of adjectives. Seemingly every source referenced is ‘historic’ or ‘path-breaking’ unless it is merely ‘compendious’ or outright ‘invidious’. Not a bad thing, but once I noticed it I was totally unable to stop doing so.

The book is straightforward polemic and Tharoor makes no bones about his position, so I take his verging-on-idyllic descriptions of pre-colonial Indian governance (especially regarding land tenure and caste) and the probability that India would have unified into a modern nation state without colonialism a dose pour of salt. There’s a few other inaccuracies I noticed (referring to the East India Company’s theft of Chinese tea plans as the ‘birth of agricultural espionage), for example), but it was all in the realm of little asides or colourful anecdotes rather than anything load-bearing.

It is rather funny that the book repeatedly draws comparisons with French colonies to argue that India was worst off, on the grounds that Paris at least made gestures towards integrating Indochina or Algeria and their peoples into France (however inadequate and hypocritical those efforts were), whereas in India the maintenance of total domination and the clear policy that India and Indians were things to be exploited for the benefit of England never changed. Funny, because from the book of Vietnamese history I read a few months ago the perspective of nationalists in Indochina was quite the reverse, seeing the English as at least somewhat honest brokers who were willing to grant some level of (limited and inadequate) self-government, compared to the French. Grass is always greener, I guess.

Though that does get at Tharoor’s argument as to why the British were worse not just in degree but in kind to the Mughals and any other empire-builders from outside South Asia who had come before them. The Mughals became Indian, both in the simple material sense that all their taxes didn’t end up back in Samarkand and Indian merchants were intentionally ruined for the benefit of traditional central asia trade routes, and in the more cultural sense that the ruling class set down roots and intermarried with their subjects rather than establishing a cloistered ruling class. Instead, the Raj was more akin to Tamerlane’s sack of Delhi, extended across 200 years. (One gets the sense Tharoor thinks a permanent settler population moving into stolen palaces would have been preferable to the rotation of soldiers and officials arriving from the metropole for long enough to get rich before heading back to build mansions in the Home Counties.)

Also, speaking of Vietnamese history, I only have a sample size of two but it’s interesting how in both cases a class of liberal (in the western sense) intellectuals and bourgeois emerged who tried to take the colonial propaganda at its word and enter some sustainable partnership with the imperial power – and in both cases got at best ignored and at worst imprisoned, tortured and executed for their trouble.

Anyways, interesting read, if one that makes me want something more specific and rigorous about basically any specific section of it (though, not to jump up and yell ‘Canada Mentioned!’ but every time Trudeau was used as an example of a colonial power’s leader handling the apologizing and acknowledging stuff gracefully and well I had to really try not to laugh).

[hannibalismos-jaaneman]

the academic urge to study like a maniac.

[orangerosebush]

Kanishk Tharoor, Swimmer Among the Stars (from the short collection "Swimmer Among the Stars")

[anarchistin]

source

[dosa-sambhar]

Democracy's future is far from assured

“In society after society, illiberal values and politicians who embrace them are gaining ground. Numerous elected governments seem bent on undermining core tenets of the democratic project, from the freedom of the press to the independence of institutions such as the judiciary to the ability of opposition parties to fairly compete against the ruling establishment.

Ishaan Tharoor ( in The Washington Post)

[iherring]

The Odyssey of Benedict Arnold - Mir Jafar

Another history interlude featured in Benedict Arnold’s journey, this time he runs into the infamous Mir Jafar!

I ended up reading far beyond his point in history to get an idea of British Rule in India and was really taken in by a lot of the stories, especially Yasmin Khan's book! Looking to read their other works when time allows. I did my best to summarize and some of the sources are noted below (although not all dealt with Mir Jafar).

These are spread out over the course of Chapter V. Arnold is invited to a celebration of sorts before it is rudely interrupted by a gang of monstrous unicorns!

https://ko-fi.com/mongooseandson (For Reading Ahead + Support!)

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-odyssey-of-benedict-arnold/list?title_no=594697 (For General Comic Viewing + Subscribes!)

Notes:

Durant, Will. The Case for India. Simon & Schuster: New York, 1930.

Khan, Yasmin. India at War: The Subcontinent and the Second World War. Oxford University Press: New York, 2015.

Morton-Jack, George. Army of Empire: The Untold Story of the Indian Army in World War I. Basic Books: New York, 2018.

Tharoor, Shashi. Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India. Hurst & Co. Publishers: London, 2017.

[dykrophone]

why am I relating this hard to shashi tharoor I just keep screaming at the book wanting to shout YESYESYES or MEEEEEEEE this is a little bit concerning

[coming-of-age-witch]

girlll don't indulge in floccinaucinihilipilification , i have better prescribed medicine for you

[thewomboftheuniverse]

The sun never set on the British empire, an Indian nationalist later sardonically commented, because even God couldn’t trust the Englishman in the dark

Shashi Tharoor, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India

[shut-up-rabert]

Y’all remember when People started sending condolences to Shashi Tharoor’s office after Shashi Kapoor’s death😭?

[literary-illuminati]

Huh, plausible sounding theory I'd never heard before.

[poeticmusingsblog]

📚✨ Just picked up Shashi Tharoor’s “A Wonderland of Words”, and I’m absolutely thrilled! 🥳 This book promises a delightful exploration of language that’s sure to captivate and inspire. From Tharoor’s witty prose to his deep insights on words, I can’t wait to dive into this literary adventure. Stay tuned for my thoughts and reflections as I journey through this enchanting world of words! 🌟📖

[uniqueeval]

Delhi HC rejects plea to quash defamation charges against Tharoor’s “scorpion on shivling” remark about PM

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. | Photo Credit: The Hindu The Delhi High Court on Thursday (August 29, 2024) refused to quash the defamation proceedings against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on a complaint regarding his alleged “scorpion on shivling” remark, made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “No grounds are made for quashing the proceedings at this stage,” the court said, rejecting Mr…

[rightnewshindi]

दिल्ली हाई कोर्ट ने शशि थरूर के खिलाफ मानहानि का मुकदमा रद्द करने से किया इनकार, जानें क्या बोले जज

Delhi News: दिल्ली हाईकोर्ट ने प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी की तुलना शिवलिंग पर बैठे बिच्छू से करने के मामले में वरिष्ठ कांग्रेस नेता शशि थरूर के खिलाफ दायर आपराधिक मानहानि मामले को रद्द करने से इनकार कर दिया है। पूर्व केंद्रीय मंत्री ने निचली अदालत में उनके खिलाफ दायर मानहानि की कार्यवाही को रद्द करने की मांग करते हुए दिल्ली हाईकोर्ट में याचिका दायर की थी, जिसे जस्टिस अनूप कुमार मेंदीरत्ता ने खारिज…

[dosa-sambhar]

Shashi Tharoor describing the US elections -

the world’s richest and most advanced country must choose between a septuagenarian felon (who tried to orchestrate a revolt against the last election results) and an octogenarian whose incoherent debate performance has raised serious questions about his mental decline — a contest cruelly described as “dementia versus the demented” – is depressing enough.

[eveningkeralanews]

രാജീവ് ചന്ദ്രശേഖറിനെ��ിരെ ഉള്ളത് അടിസ്ഥാന രഹിതമായ ആരോപണം: ശശി തരൂരിന് തെരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പ് കമ്മീഷന്റെ താക്കീത്

തിരുവനന്തപുരം: തിരുവനന്തപുരത്തെ കോണ്‍ഗ്രസ് സ്ഥാനാര്‍ത്ഥി ശശി തരൂരിനെതിരെ തെരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പ് കമ്മീഷന്റെ താക്കീത്. എൻഡിഎ സ്ഥാനാർത്ഥി രാജീവ് ചന്ദ്രശേഖറിനെതിരെ അടിസ്ഥാനരഹിതമായ ആരോപണങ്ങൾ ഉന്നയിച്ചതിനെതിരെ ബിജെപി നല്‍കിയ പരാതിയിലാണ് നടപടി. ബിജെപി ലീഗൽ സെൽ കൺവീനർ ജെ. പത്മകുമാർ, തിരുവനന്തപുരം ജില്ല പ്രസിഡൻ്റ് വി.വി. രാജേഷ് എന്നിവരാണ് സ്റ്റേറ്റ് ചീഫ് ഇലക്ഷൻ കമ്മിഷണർക്ക് പരാതി നൽകിയത്. ഒരു മലയാളം വാര്‍ത്താ ചാനൽ…