Inglorious empire - Shashi Tharoor

The Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller on India's experience of British colonialism, by
the internationally-acclaimed author and diplomat Shashi Tharoor

'Tharoor's impassioned polemic slices straight to
the heart of the darkness that drives all empires ... laying bare the grim, and high,
cost of the British Empire for its former subjects. An essential
read' Financial Times

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.