IMAGE: After the Rising in 1857, two Indian rebels are hung by the British.

He traces the creation of the landless peasant and the increased dependence of a large segment of the population on agriculture for livelihood due to the destruction of artisans and manufacture and also largescale man-made famines under colonialism.

He points out that the public finance in pre-colonial India was based on taxing trade whereas the British themselves being traders made a drastic change and made agriculture and land revenue the focus (and even called their chief district level representative: Collector), thereby causing immense hardship to the peasantry. Some of the insights he provides are important for colonial studies. He tears them up one by one with profuse facts and anecdotal quotes from largely British and other Western sources. In fact the topics he chooses to argue include the whole gamut of issues which are normally quoted as 'gifts' of two centuries of British rule over India: Good governance, English sense of fairplay, Austinian judicial system, the Railways, social reform of Hindu society, Cricket, Tea and even the English language. He does not leave any leaf unturned in his endeavour including the tea leaves of Assam, Bengal and Ooty. IMAGE: A British saheb with his Indian servants.Īll his arguments and quotes seem to be in preparation of that assault. Many of our own parliamentarians are trained in the same tradition and argue brilliantly in Indian courts as well as in the Indian Parliament and we can see them hold forth brilliantly on the pro of a policy and equally brilliantly on the cons of it depending on whether they are in the Treasury benches or in the Opposition, inducing inevitable cynicism. It may seem anachronistic and even cruel for the victims of colonialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America that such thing can even be debated.īut anything can be debated in the public school debating clubs of the UK! In the English tradition all these schools prepare you for a legal or a parliamentary career where you could argue either way on any issue depending on the context.

Shashi Tharoor whose brilliance enchanted over 3 million people on YouTube with his debating skills at an Oxford Union debate continues in the same vein in his new book, An Era Of Darkness.Įssentially, the debate was about whether colonialism was good or bad. IMAGE: King-Emperor George V and Queen-Empress Mary, the only English monarchs to win the 'jewel in the crown', at the Coronation Park in Delhi in 1911.

An era of darkness