In this bold and incisive reassessment of colonialism, Tharoor exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain’s stained Indian legacy. He goes on to show how Britain’s Industrial Revolution was founded on India’s deindustrialization, and the destruction of its textile industry. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation.īritish 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. The Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation. Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, first published in India as An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India, is a work of non-fiction by Shashi Tharoor, an Indian politician and diplomat, on the effects of British colonial rule on India. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold.

By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. In the eighteenth century, Indias share of the world economy was as large as Europes.

In the eighteenth century, India’s share of the world economy was as large as Europe’s. Inglorious Empire tells the real story of the British in India and reveals how Britain’s rise was built upon its plunder of India.

An inglorious empire