The Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller on India's experience of British colonialism, by  the internationally-acclaimed author and diplomat Shashi Tharoor
'Tharoor's impassioned polemic slices straight to  the heart of the darkness that drives all empires ... laying bare the grim, and high,  cost of the British Empire for its former subjects. An essential  read' Financial Times
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. 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 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.



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