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matt_thac 's review for:
Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
by Shashi Tharoor
I'm going to hold my hands up and start this review with a sentence that borders dangerously close to "I can't be racist some of my best friends are black." I vehemently believe that the colonial period for the UK and other European nations are stains on our histories and the legacy of colonialism continues to do damage, although I'd argue less so some of the former colonies as they shake off the challenges left and (return?) to their former greatness while the UK and Europe struggle to find their place in a 21st century rapidly realigning to other poles of power.
Tharoor captures the truly evil nature of empire explaining in sometimes almost lurid detail how the sun may have never set, but the blood never really dried.
Where I differ from the author is in believing that the India (and Pakistan) we know today would look like they do today or better. I think that the true banality of the evil behind colonialism was in making all of us believe that how the world looks today is the only game in town. As Tharoor shows, different political and educational systems existed in pre-colonial India that were either deliberately extinguished or left to wither on the vine, and ethnic cleavages exacerbated under a divide and conquer approach. It's the robbing of this diversity in how the world thinks which makes the whole exercise of colonialism wrong and shows clearly just why the empire was so violent. Nobody lets their entire way of thinking and beliefs slip away quietly.
Tharoor captures the truly evil nature of empire explaining in sometimes almost lurid detail how the sun may have never set, but the blood never really dried.
Where I differ from the author is in believing that the India (and Pakistan) we know today would look like they do today or better. I think that the true banality of the evil behind colonialism was in making all of us believe that how the world looks today is the only game in town. As Tharoor shows, different political and educational systems existed in pre-colonial India that were either deliberately extinguished or left to wither on the vine, and ethnic cleavages exacerbated under a divide and conquer approach. It's the robbing of this diversity in how the world thinks which makes the whole exercise of colonialism wrong and shows clearly just why the empire was so violent. Nobody lets their entire way of thinking and beliefs slip away quietly.