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  • Inglorious Empire

  • What the British Did to India
  • Written by: Shashi Tharoor
  • Narrated by: Shashi Tharoor
  • Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,149 ratings)

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Inglorious Empire

Written by: Shashi Tharoor
Narrated by: Shashi Tharoor
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Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Inglorious Empire written and read by Shashi Tharoor.

In the eighteenth century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. The Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation.

British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial 'gift' - from the railways to the rule of law - was designed in Britain's interests alone. He goes on to show how Britain's Industrial Revolution was founded on India's deindustrialisation, and the destruction of its textile industry.

In this bold and incisive reassessment of colonialism, Tharoor exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain's stained Indian legacy.

©2018 Shashi Tharoor (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

Tharoor convincingly demolishes some of the more persistent myths about Britain's supposedly civilising mission in India ... [he] charts the destruction of pre-colonial systems of government by the British and their ubiquitous ledgers and rule books ... The statistics are worth repeating. (Victor Mallet)
Remarkable ... The book is savagely critical of 200 years of the British in India. It makes very uncomfortable reading for Brits (Matt Ridley)
Tharoor's impassioned polemic slices straight to the heart of the darkness that drives all empires. Forceful, persuasive and blunt, he demolishes Raj nostalgia, laying bare the grim, and high, cost of the British Empire for its former subjects. An essential read (Niljana Roy)

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The Lion Who Wrote...

There's an African proverb that goes: "Until lions tell their own stories, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter."

It took a while, but India finally has her lion in Dr. Tharoor. With fangs of unassailable logic and claws of incontrovertible proof, he eviscerates the British claim that colonialism was a good thing for India.

Tharoor's masterstroke is relying primary on the written testimonies of Britain's own citizens—whether that of officers callously describing their own atrocities, or that of the few conscience-stricken Britishers horrified at incredible tyranny and racism they were witnessing. The accounts of Indian and American observers are there too, whenever needed.

Everything good that modern British revisionists claim that India owes to the Raj—railways, banking, press and even democracy—is shown to be introduced exclusively to serve British interests. Indians were denied even the smallest modicum of gain through these ostensibly progressive measures (the only arguable exception being the press, though that too wasn't as rosy as revisionists would have you believe). On the contrary, these measures were used as tools to compound their exploitation.

Not to mention the bad stuff India owes to the Raj—plunder of resources, systematic dismantling of Indian industries, cultural destruction and the introduction of communal divide, to mention a few.

Many western reviewers have hailed Tharoor's exposure of the colonial project's "long and shameless record of rapacity" as being a much-needed reality-check in a time where more than half of Britain (according to a 2014 poll) is living under the delusion that the British Empire was a good thing and are yearning for it: a phenomenon termed "post-colonial melancholia". Various publications highlighted the need to teach "unromanticized colonial history" in British schools.

What baffles me is the response of some Indian reviewers, who have somehow found the failings of the modern Indian government worthy of being compared to the avaricious exploits of the Raj. For instance, yes, India still has famines. But unlike the colonial government, Indian government is not creating famines by actively taking away food produced by farmers and selling it abroad. Neither have they outlawed philanthropic attempts to donate funds to the needy, again unlike the colonial government. Anybody who, after reading the book, still believes the two are comparable, is either being willingly dense or trying to push a political agenda. It's bad enough that the history taught in Indian schools severely undermines the magnitude of racism, hate, intolerance and cruelty meted out to the average Indian during the Raj. We don't need historians who set the record straight being attacked by petty Anglophiles or pseudo-intellectual contrarians.

One last thing. The reason I took away one star from the overall rating is not that anything is wrong with this audiobook. After all, Tharoor's boundless vocabulary and perfect diction could give the Queen of England a run for her money. It's because I believe this book should be re-read and memorized by every nationalist worth his salt; and while the audiobook is a worthy companion piece for this purpose, the hardback would be the better way to consume it.

Speaking of consumption, Bacon once wrote that "some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Well, you need to masticate the chapters of this book and chymify them until these facts are assimilated in the very blood of your veins. Jai Hind.

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109 people found this helpful

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Must be taught in Indian & British schools

A fantastic book, well argued. Building on Tharoor's famous Oxford Union debate, it comes not a moment too soon

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A must read for every Indian citizen

Great story telling by Mr. Shashi Tharoor. Whether you are a Congress supporter or not this unbiased rendition of the Indian history under British rule is a must listen. You never learn this stuff in school but should!

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7 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

What a man

Narrator being Tharur can not be faulted. In fact he should be congratulated for having mastered a wide variety of skills of being an exceptional writer, a fine orator like the Roman Consul Mark Antony, a patriot of the first order and a writer beyond comparison
Rating excellent

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enlightening

the details of colonial Indian history which we never learned in school. Worth knowing.

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Well compiled book and excellently narrated.

Excellent narration by Shashi Tharoor himself. No other narrator would have done justice. Well compiled book.

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Awesome!!!

was glued yto the book. very elusid and informative. nicely narrated also by Mr Tharoor himself.

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A beautiful book, recited by a beautiful voice

Dr. Tharoor reminds us of our roots and also reminds us to forgive but never to forget. This book is a must read/listen for Indians as well as the Britishers

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Great work

This is for everyone leaving in Common wealth country. They should know how The Great Britain became great.

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How does one rate a non fiction book?


I enjoyed listening to this one, because - Tharoor's impeccable enunciation and soothing voice..

The book is informative and is supported by numbers and facts that are irrefutable. Tharoor has mostly managed to present these facts and numbers as a not unbiased but believable argument about the destruction that British imperialism wrought on India... He does have some positive bias towards Gandhi and Nehru, and I'd take that with a punch of salt...

Overall a very interesting listen, about a subject not discussed enough by the common Indian person (who is mostly blindsided by religion).

What is sublimely insinuated in this book, is that even after shaking off the yoke of British rule, we have made very little progress (in certain aspects) as a country, and for that we only have ourselves, our politicians, and the country's predominantly right wing religious obsession to blame...

I would also strongly recommend this book to every British person.

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