Skip to main content

Reading notes : An Era of Darkness - The British Empire in India By Dr Shashi Tharoor

First and the foremost, I like several of my friends (with whom I had the chance to discuss this topic), always learned history at school with the sole purpose of scoring and getting a higher GPA. Having pursued an engineering degree,  subjects like History and Social sciences remained a mere collection of evanescing  reminiscences which were never solid enough to truly realize my home country’s history. When this author asked a British media news anchor this question, it came down as a slap on my face honestly “How will you appreciate where you are going, if you don’t know where you’ve come from?” Reading works like “Sapiens” by Prof. Yuval Noah Harari and this book are my efforts to fathom the evolution of my home land which is the most promising countries of 21st century, India. Out of 1.3 billion Indians, still about 6 million older adults have memories of the colonial Raj, the author claims.

I would suggest all those who are interested in truly realizing and knowing the history, to read this book. I think there is still value in reading this book for those of you who had special interest in history and learned it as part of school curriculum not just for the sake of scoring in history tests. The reason is extensive research based facts presented in this book and the vast area of topics covered in this book like Agriculture, arts, press, literature, education, industrialization, shipping etc etc.

What struck me the most from author's stirring oration at Oxford(which and the interest it elicited makes him write this book and made me read this one) and also enlisted in the book is the following. A retrospective vs current fact sheet in terms of Share of global GDP is the most revealing and irrefutable argument of the depredations of the British Raj and India's ability to recover and regain like the mythological Greek bird Phoenix.
  • 1 CE - 33% (India) vs UK, France and Germany(3%)
  • 1700 - 25% (India) vs UK, France and Germany(11%)

At colonial empire's hay days
  • 1870 - 12.5% (India) vs UK, France and Germany(22%)
  • 1913 - 9% (India) vs UK, France and Germany(22.5%)
  • 1950 - 4% (almost after British left India)

Per Statisticstimes.com, the latest figures are
  • 2016 - 2.99% (India) vs UK (3.52%)


In terms of GDP growth, this Economist article is more than an indication of what India means to the world in terms of development now and Britain is nowhere in this discussion.
https://www.economist.com/news/economic-and-financial-indicators/21654018-world-gdp

Each and every incident and the associated facts presented in the book were revealing to me and below are a short list only
  • -          India’s shipping capabilities
  • -          Colonial Raj’s role in allowing and encouraging Pakistan – India partition
  • -          Devastating famines that India suffered esp. the Bengal famine
  • -          Winston Churchill’s attitude and atrocities towards India (I have been a great admirer of Churchill and used to savor his speeches and been a regular subscriber to https://www.winstonchurchill.org/, now what remains is severe disrespect)
  • -          Fact that Travancore government first introduced free primary education (perhaps is this why Kerala one of the widely educated state and our Kanyakumari district is held high on literacy rates?)
  • -          “loot” is a Hindi word and here’s the Oxford Dictionary anglicized version
  • https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/loot


Being a Candian-Indian and being in Canada for the last decade, I shamefully failed to notice Canadian governments apology to Indians after 102 years of the Komagata Maru incident where Canada refused entry to the 300 wish-to-be immigrants. Followed by an informal apology in the year 2008 by the then PM Stephen Harper, in May 2016 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of commons to announce ““Mr. Speaker, today I rise in this House to offer an apology on behalf of the government of Canada, for our role in the Komagata Maru incident,” Trudeau said.  “But Canada’s government was, without question, responsible for the laws that prevented these passengers from immigrating peacefully and securely. For that, and for every regrettable consequence that followed, we are sorry.”
I can’t agree more, we need more than an apology from the current beneficiaries of the “the Great Colonial Loot”. I have now added this to my bucket list as exhibit of the mindset of reprisal “Owning a Jaguar” – a currently glowing symbol of how an Indian business conglomerate can salvage a British enterprise as an act of Salvage but not as an act of depredation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

நீந்திக் கிழித்தல்

  ஏன் எந்த விளையாட்டு உபகரணமும் என் கையாடலில் உடைந்து அல்லது கிழிந்து போகின்றன ?   1. சிறு வயதில் , சுசீந்திரம் கிராம பஞ்சாயத்து அலுவலக வளாகத்தில் கிரிக்கெட் bat உடைந்து போயிற்று 2. கிட்டத்தட்ட நாற்பதை நெருங்கும் வயதில் , கனடாவில் குடியேறிய பொழுதில் நண்பர் கார்த்தியுடன் ஆவேசமான டென்னிஸ் ஆட்டத்தில் ( ஒற்றயர் ஆட்டம் - எனக்கோ , நண்பருக்கோ விசேஷ டென்னிஸ்   பயிற்சி எதுவும் வாய்த்திருக்க வில்லை ) டென்னிஸ் Racquet - ஐ     உடைத்தாயிற்று 3. சில மாதங்களுக்கு முன்பு விலைகூடிய Badminton Racuqet ஒன்றை உடன் விளையாடும் நண்பரோடு விளைந்த எதிர்பாரா முட்டலில் (collission) உடைத்தாயிற்று 4. சில தினங்களுக்கு முன் Costa Rica- வின் Tamarindo   பசிபிக் கடற்கரையின் மிதமான அலைகளில் உருண்டு புரண்டு ஓடிக் களிக்கையில் ஏன் நீச்சல் கால் சட்டை கிழிந்து போயிற்று . பார்த்துக் கொண்டிருந்த   என் மனைவி ஏதோ Bollywood காதல் ஜோடிகளைக் கண்ணுற்ற வட இந்திய பத்திரிகையாளனை போல தாராளமாக படம் பிடித்து கொண்டாடினாள் . ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wings of Fire – Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s Autobiography - Reading notes

This is an Autobiography  by one of the India`s most celebrated scientists and leaders, who has a tremendous following across all different age groups especially India`s youngsters. It may lack the literary flamboyance   of   an eminent author; it may not meet the standards   that a literary critic would weigh in on , but it leaves you glued to the life   of  a boat owner’s son, his passion towards rocketry, science , his career struggle through the red-tape clad ladders   of   the Indian Bureaucracy which aligns itself with the journey   of   India's technology advancement and self-reliance in the field of Rocketry and nuclear defence capabilities. It draws you into an aura of amazement and wonder when you read through the indescribable sense   of   accomplishment at the peak period   of   Mr. Kalam’s life and sometime make you feel that they are your(reader’s) accomplishments and that`s the indisputable success fa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Recipe : Blackened Salmon Masala

Am a die hard fish lover, especially the Salmon. The most favorite Salmon recipe is the thick and spicy, coconut Gravy with cooked Salmon and sour and unripe mangoes. Another favorite is deep fried, spicy and oily marinated Salmon fry. But trust me, both of them are thoroughly unhealthy and cholesterol rich. The latter, deep fry one can be made using Olive oil but wouldn’t taste that great. In the light of my 2010 - theme of life – FFF (just not to let your imagination go elsewhere – Fit, Fitter, Fittest) , was looking for a heart-friendly, low calorie Salmon recipe that doesn’t take a lot of prep work or kitchen work and here is my kitchen discovery. Ingredients: · Oval shaped Salmon slices(with skin) – 3 · 1tbl spoon – red chili powder(roasted – if you find) · 1/2 tbl spoon – turmeric powder · 6 pinches of salt [will be really low in Sodium, you may want to add more] · ½ tbl spoon – Ginger / Garlic paste · ½ tbl spoo...
Post a Comment
Read more