Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
By Shashi Tharoor (2017)
Origins and Context: The book originated from a viral speech Tharoor delivered at the Oxford Union in May 2015, supporting the motion "Britain Owes Reparations to Her Former Colonies." The speech, which has accumulated nearly 8 million views on YouTube, argued that while financial reparations would be impossible to calculate, a simple moral acknowledgment—a genuine "sorry"—was what Britain truly owed India . The overwhelming response to this speech led Tharoor to expand his arguments into this comprehensive book.
Central Thesis:
Tharoor's fundamental argument is that British colonial rule in India was not a benevolent civilizing mission but a systematic project of economic exploitation and political subjugation that devastated India's economy, society, and political development over two centuries. He systematically dismantles the common apologia that Britain left behind valuable "gifts" of modernization.
Chapter 1: "The Looting of India":
Tharoor presents devastating economic statistics: India's share of world GDP fell from 27% in 1700 to just 3% by 1947, while Britain's share rose from 3% to a peak of 9% in 1870 . He revives the "drain theory" first articulated by Parsi scholar Dadabhai Naoroji in the 19th century—the concept that India was governed purely for Britain's benefit, with wealth systematically extracted to finance Britain's industrial revolution.
Key mechanisms of exploitation included:
- Direct plunder by East India Company officials like Robert Clive
- Unequal trade policies that destroyed Indian industries
- Excessive taxation that funded British military and administrative costs
- "Home charges"—annual payments from India to Britain for services like interest on public debt and salaries of British officers
Tharoor highlights how Britain deliberately destroyed India's world-leading textile and shipbuilding industries while building up its own manufacturing capabilities .
Chapter 2: "The Myth of Political Unity":
Tharoor challenges the notion that Britain "unified" India. He argues that India possessed an inherent "impulsion for unity" throughout its history, citing the unifications achieved by Emperor Ashoka (268–232 BC) and Aurangzeb (1658–1707 AD). He suggests that without British intervention, an Indian ruler likely would have accomplished what the British did in consolidating rule over the subcontinent .
He quotes Jawaharlal Nehru's famous description of the Indian Civil Service as "neither Indian, nor civil, nor a service"—a system designed to impose British control rather than serve Indian interests .
Chapter 3: "Divide et Impera" (Divide and Rule):
This chapter examines how the British deliberately fostered and exacerbated Hindu-Muslim tensions that had previously been relatively indistinct. Tharoor documents how:
- Large-scale Hindu-Muslim conflicts only began under colonial rule
- Muslims constituted 50% of the British Indian Army during WWI despite being only 20% of the population—deliberately done to counter Hindu nationalist agitation
- The British incubated the Sunni-Shia divide in India as early as 1856
Tharoor argues these policies ultimately led to the bloodshed and massacres of Partition in 1947 .
Chapter 4: "The Remaining Case for Empire":
Tharoor systematically debunks each claimed "gift" of British rule:
Railways: Described as "a big colonial scam"—built at 5% guaranteed return for British investors, paid for by Indian taxpayers, and designed primarily to transport extracted resources to ports for shipment to Britain. They were not built for Indian benefit .
Education: Displaced existing indigenous educational systems. The British dismissed pre-colonial Indian texts—the Mahabharata and Ramayana were dismissed as "fables," while Indian students were taught the Iliad and Odyssey instead . History was reconstructed in a European style that diminished Indian achievements.
English Language: Not a "gift" but a tool of colonial administration. Its current status as a global language owes more to American globalization than British imperialism .
Rule of Law & Democracy: The parliamentary system was "from the start unsuited to Indian conditions" and is responsible for many of India's post-independence political problems .
Free Press: Tightly controlled and violently managed. Native language papers were aggressively shut down at the slightest hint of dissent .
Tea: The only exception Tharoor acknowledges—though he notes tea cultivation involved mass deforestation, wildlife decimation, and displacement of indigenous peoples. The tea was never meant for Indians; they performed the backbreaking labor in appalling conditions to produce it for export. Tea only became available to Indians during the Great Depression of 1930 when export markets collapsed .
Cricket: Tharoor wryly suggests "cricket is really an Indian game accidentally discovered by the British" .
Chapter 5: "The Economics of Exploitation":
Tharoor examines the recurrent famines under British rule as evidence of imperial indifference. He describes the administration's "Catch-22" strategy: famines were used to demonstrate Indians' inability to self-govern, while the British simultaneously failed to provide adequate relief or acknowledge responsibility for mass starvation .
He critiques the Malthusian ideology that influenced British famine policy—the belief that famine was nature's way of correcting overpopulation. Viceroy Lord Lytton's response to the 1876-1878 famine (which killed 5 million) is particularly criticized, though some historians dispute Tharoor's characterization of Lytton as entirely indifferent .
Chapter 6-7: Counter-Arguments and Contemporary Relevance:
Tharoor directly confronts Niall Ferguson's defense of empire and Lawrence James's interpretation of British policy as successful application of Western reason and education. He argues that colonialism remains relevant to understanding contemporary global problems .
He concludes by discussing reparations and atonement—returning stolen antiquities, acknowledging historical crimes, and recognizing Gandhi's non-violent resistance as "the ultimate tribute to the British Raj" .
Critical Reception and Controversies:
The book has generated significant scholarly debate:
Support: Praised as an "important and timely book" that sets out the "2-century atrocity that was British subjugation of India" with "passion and plain good writing" .
Criticisms:
- Some economic historians, like Tirthankar Roy, challenge the "drain theory," arguing that GDP statistics don't prove India became poorer—only that the West industrialized faster
- Critics note Tharoor's one-sided portrayal of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the creation of Pakistan, which reflects an Indian nationalist perspective
- Some argue Tharoor underestimates British cultural impact and overstates the inevitability of Indian unification without British intervention
- The book has been called "polemical" and "iconoclast-lite"—powerful but perhaps not radical enough in its critique
Key Quotes and Impact
> "India was treated as a cash cow"
> "The British state in India was a totally amoral, rapacious imperialist machine bent on the subjugation of Indians for the purpose of profit"
> "Atonement was the point—a simple sorry would do"
Tharoor's work has contributed significantly to post-colonial discourse, particularly as India's economy has grown to surpass Britain's GDP—creating what some see as historical irony and economic justice .
Conclusion
"Inglorious Empire" serves as a powerful corrective to nostalgic narratives of the British Raj. Whether one fully accepts Tharoor's economic arguments or not, the book successfully demonstrates that British colonialism was fundamentally extractive rather than benevolent, and that the "gifts" of empire were primarily instruments of control designed to serve British interests. It remains essential reading for understanding how colonialism shaped modern India and why historical accountability matters in contemporary international relations.
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