The British Loot
Book Review
Book: An
Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India
Author: Shashi
Tharoor
Language:
English
Binding:
Hardcover
Publisher:
ALEPH
Genre:
History and Politics
ISBN:
9789383064656, 938306465X
Edition: 1,
2016
Pages: 360
daanishnabi@gmail.com
Indians, described as “nigger” by Lord Curzon, has emerged
as one of the intellectual breeds of the modern times. One among millions of these
“niggers” is the astute Congressman – Shashi Tharoor. He is among India’s
finest politicians, authors, and intellectuals. In 2015, Tharoor delivered a speech
at Oxford Union titled does ‘Does Britain
owe reparations to India?’ His speech went viral on social media networking
site and within no time Tharoor was forced to transform his speech into the book
by his friend and publisher David Davidar. The book is titled “An Era of
Darkness: The British Empire In India”.
The book is a masterpiece on the British loot in India and
has been meticulously researched, exploring how British decimated India
brick-by-brick socially, economically, politically and religiously. It has been
written in the backdrop of the un-divided India when only few thousand colonisers
were successful in ruling over swathes of land with millions of inhabitants by
simply dividing the various sects, ideologies and religious groups.
The loot
Hindustan (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) was a thriving
economic hub of the world before the British colonised the subcontinent. Shashi
Tharoor says so thriving was Hindustan, that it contributed 23 percent to world
economy at the beginning of the 18th century. The author writes that
under Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1700 AD, India contributed to 27 percent to
world economy after Aurangzeb’s treasury raked in 100 million British pounds
sterling in tax revenues alone.
The author has talked in detail about the events of ‘Battle
of Plessey’ in 1757 and how the British transferred 2.5 million British pounds
sterling of Nawab’s treasury to East India Company’s coffers in England as
spoils of war.
Not only the hard cash, the author writes, even raw material
was systematically destroyed by the British so that Indians get completely
dependent on the British goods. Tharoor writes that the value of Bengal’s
textile export alone was around 16 million rupees annually in 1750s and when
the British colonised Hindustan they deliberately destroyed India’s textile manufacturing
and exports.
Likewise, the destruction and loot of cotton, silk and the
ship building industry is very well detailed in the book laced with figures. The
author writes that the Indian ship building industry which was thriving before
the advent of British was deliberately exploited and by 1850 the industry was
virtually extinct.
One of the astronomical figures the author has quoted in the
book is about the hard cash and raw material. Tharoor writes that each year
between 1765 and 1815, the British approximately looted 18, 000,000 British
pounds sterling from India. Taking the figures further, the author says the
British loot by 1901 had reached to its pinnacle with a loot of 4,187,922,732 British
pounds sterling – what Tharoor described as “economic drain” of India.
Fortunes of Lord
Clive
The loot of Lord Clive, one of the first Britishers directly
involved in plunder of Hindustan, has been described in the book. A detailed
account is provided about how Lord Clive made fortune. The author writes that
after Lord Clive returned home for the first time after the Battle of Plessey
he took 234,000 British pounds sterling from Indian exploits which is 23
million British pounds sterling in today’s money. Tharoor says that it made
Clive one of the richest men in Europe during that era.
Repressive revenue
system
The author talks about the introduction of Permanent
Settlement of land revenue in 1793 as part of the Zamindari System which proved
repressive for the Indian economy. The author says the Permanent Settlement
systematically destroyed the Indian agriculture. The book talks in detail how
these repressive revenue systems led to migration of many of Indian peasants from
their native place. Tharoor says the tax cruelty on masses was awful and it
depleted India of its own resources and made the people vulnerable to famine,
poverty and sufferings.
The author’s punch line - “We literally paid for our own
oppression” – needs to be mentioned here as the author writes that by the end
of 19th century India was Britain’s biggest sources of revenue.
Gandhi and World War
I
Tharoor has described Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as “Saint
and a Strategist”. Gandhi, writes Tharoor, supported the Britain’s war efforts
in World War I, thinking that the British would grant self-rule to India after
the war ends. However, Gandhi was disappointed as the British did not keep
their promise even after India contributed far more than other colonised
nations in terms of men animals, rations supplies and money.
The book sheds light on the forgotten war heroes of World
War I. As many as 74, 187 Indian soldiers died during the war. The author
writes the Indian soldiers were dispatched oversees either to protect or expand
the British Empire. The Indian soldiers were deployed to China, Ethiopia, Malaya,
Burma, East Africa, Somaliland, South Africa and Tibet. Tharoor says there was
also disparity in ranks, pay, promotion, pension amenities, and ration between the
European and Indian soldiers.
Press in India
A detailed account about the genesis of printing press and
newspapers has also been sketched in the book. The first British printing press
was established in Bombay in 1644. However, only books and pamphlets were
published at the printing press. He writes that it was only in 1780 that first
newspaper ‘Bengal Gazette’ was published in India.
Talking about the censorship of newspapers in India, Tharoor
writes, it was Lord Wellesley who introduced the censorship of the Press Act in
1799 – out of fear of French which could have used it to disadvantage of the East
India Company. Providing details of many other newspapers, the author writes
that majority of the newspaper were catering to the readership of small
European communities. He says only few newspapers were serving the nationalist
interests and were pro-Congress.
Tharoor has given credit to the British for establishing the
first newspaper in India. He says the newspapers were unknown to the Indians
before the colonial rule. By 1875, it was estimated that there were 475
newspapers in India.
Press and Kashmir
Writing about the freedom of press in India, author writes,
it was due to freedom of press that the people of Jammu Kashmir were able to
choose the dominions at the end time of partition. Sharing an anecdote, the
author writes, in 1891, a journalist from Amrita Bazar Patrika was able to read
a letter torn-up from the dustbin of the then Viceroy Lord Lansdowne. The plan
to annex the State of Jammu Kashmir was scribbled on the letter. Next day,
Amrita Bazar Patrika, published the letter on the front page prompting the
Maharaja of Kashmir to use good offices in London from taking such a step.
Tharoor writes that had such an expose not taken place,
Kashmir would not have remained a princely state free to choose the country at
time of partition and would have been a province of British India and “subject
to British pen during the partition.”
The injustice system
Among the many ills of the colonialism was the justice
system in India. The author says there were “two justice systems” one for the
natives and other for the whites.
Quoiting number of such examples, the author writes how white
were simply let go for worse crimes and the natives given rigorous imprisonment
for petty crimes by the colonial masters. He says many Indians suffered from
enlarged spleens due to certain diseases. He writes when a British master
kicked an Indian servant in the stomach, the natives enlarged spleen would
rupture causing immediate death.
The author writes the “jurisprudential question” was did the
fatal kick amount to murder or criminal misconduct? He says in London it was
handled as ‘causing murder’ while in India it would be only charged as ‘causing
hurt’. This practise, says Tharoor, caused death to thousands of the natives.
Taking a reader further, the author writes how Lord Curzon
who had no love for the Indians also denounced the injustice prevalent in India.
The scale of injustice prevalent in India can be gauged from the sympathetic
statement of Curzon.
Divide and rule
To strengthen its foothold in India, the author writes the
British adopted the old mantra of Romans of divide and rule. He writes that
Lord Elphinstone, the Governor of Bombay, advised London that the old Roam
maxim (divide and rule) “should be our fundamental point” to rule the Indians.
Sharing an interesting anecdote the author also writes how
Governor General Warren Hastings hired Pandits to ‘Ordinations of the Pandits’.
He writes it resulted in an ‘Anglo-Brahminical’ text that violated the actual
practise of Hinduism in both letter and spirit. The author says it also served
to magnify the problem of caste hierarchy in present day India.
The author writes that while conducting census in India it
differed significantly from the conduct of the census conducted in Britain. The
census in India was led by British anthropologists seeking to anatomize Indian
society. Tharoor says that the census led to an identity creation of different groups
and sects in Indian society.
Religious divide
About the religion, the author writes that the British only
interfered when they felt necessary. Religion became a useful tool of divide
and rule. Quoting Peter Gottschalk,the author writes religion became a
‘deliberate tool’. Providing many examples of religious bonhomie between Hindus
and Muslims, Tharoor writes the acrimony between Hindus and Muslims only began
under the colonial rule.
The author writes that it was British who instigated a Dacca
Muslim noble man to start a rival party (only of Muslims) to Congress which sowed
the seeds for the disintegration of the India. Tharoor says that the British did
not help Muslim League out of love but only to keep the Indians divided. The
book also briefly talks about how the British created the tensions between
Shias and Sunnis which never existed before under Shia Nawab, especially in
Lucknow.
Famine deaths
Author writes that the last large scale famine that took
place in India was under British rule. Calling the deaths a British colonial holocaust,
the author provides a staggering figure saying 30 to 35 million Indians died of
starvation during the British rule. He says these deaths were the result of the
policies of the British regime.
The author says there were around 15 famines in India under British
rule; out of which 11 were major famines in which millions of Indians died.
During the great famine of Orissa in 1866, instead of providing rations to the
famine stricken people the British exported 200 million tonnes of rice to Britain.
The author also touched the topic of diseases that spread
due to these famines. He also says that there were no great hospitals established
by the Raj anywhere in the country during their tenure.
1857 mutiny
A chilling account of the Mutiny of 1857 is given in the
book. Tharoor writes that people were murdered in droves across the length and
breadth of Hindustan even when hundreds surrendered before the colonial forces.
The colonial forces also reduced the once bustling city of New Delhi to rubble
to collectively punish the mutineers. The sons of last Mughal Emperor Bahadur
Shah Zafar were also brutally murdered even after surrendering peacefully.
Indian railways
Tharoor has called the Indian Railways a big “British Colonial
Scam”. He says that the railway was built only for the benefits of the British
and they used the railways to plunder Hindustan of its raw material. He argues
that the railway were intended only to transport resources, coal, iron ore, and
to the “ports of the British to ship home to use in their factories”. He says
the railways also witnessed discriminatory hiring policies as no Indian was
employed in the railways. From directors of Railway Bord to ticket-collectors
all were white-men laments Tharoor.
Additional topics
Author has also discussed in detail the impact of
colonialism and the subsequent decimation of the education system what Tharoor
has called as – “Dismantling of traditional education”. The book gives detailed
account of the genesis of tea and cricket in colonial India. It also talks in
detail about the impeachment process of Lord Hastings and how he was acquitted.
It also talks about the brutal taxation and how thousands died during famines
as they could afford to buy food grains. It talks about the Indian Imperial
Civil Service, discrimination of Indians in imperial services, birth of Indian
National Congress (INC), Indian convicts and the forced migration of countless
Indians to the other colonial states.
Tail Piece
The book is a must read for the contemporary generation as
to know how the seeds of acrimony were sown in Hindustan on the basis of
religion. As the book suggests that whether it was a Hindu king or Muslims
emperor, they took care of the other community. Barring few kings or emperors,
the people of Hindustan were non-communal, happy and wealthy at the same time. It
was only when the British colonised the subcontinent things started to go
downwards in this part of the world. The need is to go back to our roots and
look at a roadmap which will be a win-win situation for all the ideologies of
the subcontinent.
