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. The Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation. An essential read’ Financial TimesIn the eighteenth century, India’s share of the world economy was as large as Europe’s.īy 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Finally, we could work on our tribal chants and songs at the cricket, not conceding ground to England with the lamentable "oi, oi, oi" but composing some spirited insult in verse, or even an antipodean version of Jerusalem.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.
We could begin to schedule five Test series against teams other than England India would draw bigger crowds and provide a better contest. Smashing those statues seems a step too far they could merely be reduced to human scale, standing and walking among us as Bob Menzies and John Curtin already do in Canberra. Statues of British monarchs and worthies could be removed from their plinths.The name of our greatest state could be brought up to date by removing a laughably inaccurate and inappropriate reference to, of all dreary places, South Wales.We could begin eating Christmas dinner in the more congenial temperatures of mid-year.The ludicrous anachronism, "royal", could be removed as a prefix from golf clubs and automobile clubs alike.The British coat of arms could be prised off the front of Old Parliament House.
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