Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor

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href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/back-issue/451">451</a> » John Keay </div> <div id="breadcrumb-r"> « <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/shock-and-awe" rel="prev" title="Shock and Awe">previous</a> |  <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/all-touchy-feely" rel="next" title="All Touchy-Feely">next</a> » </div> </nav>  <div id="meta-column"> <div id="issue"> <div id="issue-cover"> <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/back-issue/451" title="See articles in Issue 451"> <figure> <img id="_bookimage" itemprop="image" src="https://literaryreview.co.uk/wp-content/lr-files/2017/03/Issue-451-Mar-2017-200x266.png" width="200" height="266" /> </figure> <h2><meta id="_publishdate" content ="2017-03-01" itemprop="datePublished">Mar 2017</h2>  </a> </div> </div> <div class="article-categories"> <a href="#" class="sidebar-header box"> <h3>Categories</h3> <span class="morelink read-more">more</span> </a> <p><a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/subject/british-empire" rel="tag">British Empire</a>, <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/subject/history" rel="tag">History</a>, <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/subject/india-the-subcontinent" rel="tag">India & the Subcontinent</a></p> </div> <section id="article-author"> <header> <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/contributors/john-keay"> <span class="boldtitle">Read more by</span> <h1>John Keay</h1> </a> </header> <article class="article-author-excerpt"> <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/krishna-goes-to-sea" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Krishna Goes to Sea"> <hgroup> <h1>Krishna Goes to Sea</h1> </hgroup> </a> </article> <article class="article-author-excerpt"> <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/democracy-derailed" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Democracy Derailed"> <hgroup> <h1>Democracy Derailed</h1> </hgroup> </a> </article> <article class="article-author-excerpt"> <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/selkies-trows-calvinists" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Selkies, Trows & 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itemtype="http://schema.org/Review" itemscope itemref="_bookimage _publishdate _articlereview" class="post-9992 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-9925 tag-british-empire tag-history tag-india-the-subcontinent content_section_tx-history author_tx-shashi-tharoor contributor_tx-john-keay"> <div class="box"> <aside class="social-sharing-vertical"> <ul class="box"> <li class="facebook-share box"><div class="facebook-container"><div class="fb-like" data-href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/bristling-with-raj" data-width="80px" data-layout="button" data-action="recommend" data-show-faces="false" data-share="false"></div></div></li> <li class="twitter-share box"><div class="twitter-container"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://literaryreview.co.uk/bristling-with-raj" data-via="Lit_Review" data-count="none" data-dnt="true">Tweet</a></div></li> <script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>  <li class="share-this-share box"> <div class="sharethis-container"> <div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"> <a class="addthis_button_compact"></a> </div> </div> </li> <li class="print-this box"><div class="printthis-container"><a class="box" href="javascript:window.print()"><span class="print-this-icon">i</span><span> Print This</span></a></div></li> </ul> </aside> <header> <h1 itemprop="author" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" class="boldtitle highlight-text">John Keay</h1> <h4>Bristling with Raj</h4> <div itemtype="http://schema.org/Book" itemscope itemprop="itemReviewed"> <h3 itemprop="name">Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India</h3> <h2>By <span itemprop="author" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">Shashi Tharoor</span></h2> <h5><span itemprop="publisher" itemtype="http://schema.org/organization"> Hurst & Co 295pp £20</span> </h5> </div>  </header> </div>     <span class="logged-in-header-space"> </span>   <div> <div class="article-preview" itemprop="reviewBody" id="_articlereview"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I</span><span class="s1">n 2015 Shashi Tharoor, once a rising star in the UN and now a prominent member of the Indian parliament, accepted an invitation to speak in support of an Oxford Union motion declaring that Britain ‘owes reparations to her former colonies’. He was heading for the Hay Festival anyway, he says, and ‘thought it might be pleasant to stop in Oxford on the way’. He stopped, he spoke and the motion was carried. ‘Pleased enough’, he left without giving the matter further thought. Six weeks later the Union posted a video of his polemic on their website. Tharoor, no novice in the art of attracting online attention, tweeted a link to it, other websites picked it up, and within hours it had garnered over three million ‘likes’. When India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, added his applause, Tharoor’s speech became headline news.</span></p> <p class="p1"> <p class="p3"><span class="s1">He claims to have been surprised: ‘I honestly did not think I had said anything terribly new.’ His assault on the iniquities of British colonialism had simply rehearsed ‘the fundamental, foundational arguments that justified the Indian struggle for freedom’. He had imagined every educated Indian was familiar with</p> <div class="fade-out"></div> </div> <p class="subscribe-for-more"><a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/subscribe">Subscribe</a> or <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/wp-login.php?itsec-hb-token=sign-in">Sign In</a> to read the full article</p> </div> <aside class="article-subscription-advert"> <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/subscribe"> <h2 class="boldtitle">For People Who Devour Books</h2> <p>Only a selection of our reviews and articles are free. 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Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor - review by John Keay