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newamsterdame 's review for:
Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
by Shashi Tharoor
challenging
informative
Persuasively written and narrated, the book does provide a systematic take down of most pro-colonial arguments. Tharoor’s voice is scathing and ironic, and makes for an active and enjoyable read.
However, all of his appeals to factuality are undermined by his utter disdain for even the idea of Pakistan, and his claims about religious ethnic cleansing and fervent militarism in that country while saying nothing of India’s similar history and present. Would it not make his case stronger to acknowledge to the point of view of Muslims who saw a separate state as their safest option, and yet still show how divisive and damaging Britain’s rule was to India’s different religious communities? Does Muhammad Ali Jinnah have to have been selfish or stupid or both to show how badly Partition was executed? Demonstrating that pre-colonial India was far more cosmopolitan and tolerant than post-colonial India doesn’t negate the lived reality of minorities living in those less tolerant eras. And to say nothing of the Hindu majority’s own flaws in navigating this divide is willfully ignorant.
This, plus a twenty-minute tangent extolling Mahatma Gandhi’s virtues while ignoring any facts that might tarnish his image as India’s great hero, really tanked Tharoor’s credibility in the latter third of the book. He’s a smart man making good, well-founded arguments. But his refusal to even acknowledge his heavy nationalist bent to the detriment of his factual contentions is a glaring weakness of this book.
However, all of his appeals to factuality are undermined by his utter disdain for even the idea of Pakistan, and his claims about religious ethnic cleansing and fervent militarism in that country while saying nothing of India’s similar history and present. Would it not make his case stronger to acknowledge to the point of view of Muslims who saw a separate state as their safest option, and yet still show how divisive and damaging Britain’s rule was to India’s different religious communities? Does Muhammad Ali Jinnah have to have been selfish or stupid or both to show how badly Partition was executed? Demonstrating that pre-colonial India was far more cosmopolitan and tolerant than post-colonial India doesn’t negate the lived reality of minorities living in those less tolerant eras. And to say nothing of the Hindu majority’s own flaws in navigating this divide is willfully ignorant.
This, plus a twenty-minute tangent extolling Mahatma Gandhi’s virtues while ignoring any facts that might tarnish his image as India’s great hero, really tanked Tharoor’s credibility in the latter third of the book. He’s a smart man making good, well-founded arguments. But his refusal to even acknowledge his heavy nationalist bent to the detriment of his factual contentions is a glaring weakness of this book.