Tag: Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor and his Ideology on the British Rule in India

Shashi Tharoor is a writer and that too an extraordinary one. He is a legend and his pen has the power to change the world through his words. He writes others maybe imagine but can not put into appropriate words. He has many published works which are just perfect. One such work of his is the book named An Era of Darkness : The British Empire in India. This book was also published in United Kingdom under the name Inglorious Empire : What the British did to India. It was of course a best seller. This book basically depicts what is in Shashi Tharoor’s mind about the British rule in India. His ideology about the British Empire is written in this amazing work. Through this book he wants us to know about “the origins of the difficulties that confronted India.” , as stated by himself. In simple words, he wants us to understand about the evils of the British Rule in India and how it affected us. He strongly desires an apology from the British, same as whole of the country does. In his opinion, an apology would be most desirable, rather than compensation by cash or other valuables. This book also exposes the corruptions during that period along with questions their claim on superiority.

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He deeply explains the way how it all came to the establishment of British Empire and also about why it all happened. He puts light on the manipulations of the British on the people of our country. He has clearly stated in his book that “this book is an argument and not a story.” He argues that the ruling record of the Indian governments is far better than the British. He accepts the fact that the British has in fact paid the reparations in form of aids over the years, but he is adamant that they were not due to guilt. According to Tharoor, India suffered many problems and conflicts due to racism, wars, disputes for kingdoms and other several problems, under the British Rule. He also states in his book that “this just basic knowledge about the history of our country but is still unknown even to the educated Indians.” He stresses on his point of the reparations, by saying that day by day it is getting late to amend things but it’s certainly not that late. The damage is done but can still be somewhat repaired to some extent.

Tharoor has remarked that every single thing the British did and the rules they imposed on the citizens were for their own benefit and not ours. He is right of course in all his arguments. The correct word for the Rule of British in India has to be ‘rotten’. The British Rule and their Empire was rotten in terms of all the policies they put up to follow, all the standards as compared to ours. He has done an impeccable job on the book and made us realize what we had forgotten with time.

Shashi Tharoor and his ideology about the British rule in India.

Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician, a prolific writer, diplomat and an active member of Parliament from Kerala since 2009. He wrote several fictional as well as non-fictional books including “An era of darkness: the British Empire in India, “Inglorious empire: what British did to India” and many more.
His collective ideology is assembled in every of his article and book that oppose the controversial notion that the British Raj was beneficial to India, in the long run. The damage that the British government did to India is beyond the act of reparation, quoted by Tharoor in his interview.


Furthermore, the British bequest such a Railways, rule of law, parliamentary democracy, and all those extravagant commodities were not intended for the betterment of Indians. The only motive of establishing “The Railways” was to siphon off the Indian resources to the Britain treasury. British entered India as an East India Company to trade spices and deceptively captured 2/3 of India including Bengal. Several policies such as the Free Market policy, The Malthusian policy, Victorian fiscal prudence were made by the British that worsens the conditions of Indians in their motherland even more. Poor Indians were forced to live in miserable situations with no basic rights. Millions of Indians died due to starvation in the year 1891-1900 due to over-exploitation of agricultural produce and partly due to Free-market policy up to some extent. To be more accurate, the policies made by the British had the hidden agenda of corruption and injustice that damage the country and countrymen altogether. Under British Raj, the most thriving textile industry in India perished into the thin air. It was a common practice of East India Company to mutilate the skilled workers by chopping off their fingers so that they couldn’t weave anymore, thereby destroyed the largest part of the Indian economy.

The Bengal Famine of 1943 is another outrageous event that happened under the British raj that costs millions of lives. According to a recent study, the famine was not only caused by the drought but also by the complete failure of the policy of British India under the Ministry of Winston Churchill, who is remembered as the man who caused the Bengal famine.

Besides corruption, brutality and the horrendous massacre, “The Jalianwala Bagh”, is the heinous crime for which The Royal family owe an apology to every Indian or at least to the family undergone terrible damage under the British reign.


Tharoor has written a total of 15 books in his career, and thousands of articles in publications including the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Times of India and many more. His books are available in many languages across the globe such as French, Italian, Roman, Polish as well as Bengali and Malayalam. He is known for his humorous criticism of the inhuman system in a civilised manner.