Book Review : An Era of Darkness : The British Empire in India by Shashi Tharoor (Rating ****)

The book is written explicitly to inform us about the evil effects of British raj on Indian economy and culture. A lot of things written in the book are already known to us as we have studied them in our history textbooks. But Shashi gives us its more in-depth account. He have done nice research on the subject and information is very correct and supported with various references. The story starts with the visit of Europeans in the 15^th century attracted by spice trade with India. When they found that Indian political system is at weakest and it is easy to conquer them and take complete possession of the spice trade to their benefit, they just easily overran the subcontinent and the British raj began.

Shashi Tharoor is a congress MP in India and his writing is always have a congress lens when he view any matter of Indian politics and history. He always tries to distance himself from Hindu origin of country and gives Muslims period equal credit for its development in past. He only blames British for its devastation. I personally feel it is Indians who are more responsible to the situation as they easily allowed themselves to be conquered and ruled by handful of foreign people for such a long period.

Not only British but all foreign invaders of India both central Asian and Europeans severely damaged Indian culture and economy for thousands of years. The fact that British pushed us to come together and unite is not entirely incorrect. During the British rule the torture of foreign rule reached its maxima and people awakened and struggled to throw it out. We must also thank the two great wars which crippled all European nations and loosened their grip on their colonies.

It should be not forgotten that Indians are also gravely responsible to allow these handful foreigners to rule them. They were passive and ignorant about changing rulers all through the history. If India had united during the last Hindu ruler Harshavardhan then no one would have dared to attack India. It is divided India with smaller kingdoms fighting each other that facilitated the foreigners to take opportunity and capture the country and destroy our age old culture and riches.

The book though is written with great care and detail by Shashi Tharoor. It is little biased towards congress ideology and fails to calculate bad impacts of Muslim rule on India a thousand years preceding British which have already crippled India so much that it was very easy for British to confiscate it from its Muslim rulers. The book is based on a speech given by Shashi Tharoor in the British parliament where he have condemned Britain for atrocities they committed in India during 200 years of British rule in India and wanted new generation British citizens to acknowledge it and not just consider it as their adventurous past.