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Inglorious Empire Shashi Tharoor served for twenty-nine years at the UN, culminating as Under- Secretary General. He is a Congress MP in India, the author of fourteen previous books and has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Tharoor has a PhD from the Fletcher School and was named by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1998 as a Global Leader of Tomorrow. For my sons, Ishaan and Kanishk, whose love of history equals, and knowledge of it exceeds, my own Scribe Publications 18–20 Edward St, Brunswick, Victoria 3056, Australia 2 John St, Clerkenwell, London, WC1N 2ES, United Kingdom First Published under the title An Era of Darkness: the British Empire in India by Aleph Book Company, New Delhi, India in 2016 Published by arrangement with C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 41 Great Russell Street, London Published by Scribe 2017 Copyright © Shashi Tharoor 2016 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publishers of this book. The moral right of the author has been asserted. 9781925322576 (Australian edition) 9781925548518 (e-book) A CiP entry for this title is available from the National Library of Australia. scribepublications.com.au scribepublications.co.uk But ’tis strange. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths… William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, scene iii Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; And universal darkness buries all. Alexander Pope, The Dunciad We live in the flicker—may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness India—a hundred Indias—whispered outside beneath the indifferent moon, but for the time India seemed one and their own, and they regained their departed greatness by hearing its departure lamented… E. M. Forster, A Passage to India CONTENTS Chronology Acknowledgements Preface 1. The Looting of India 2. Did the British Give India Political Unity? 3. Democracy, the Press, the Parliamentary System and the Rule of Law 4. Divide Et Impera 5. The Myth of Enlightened Despotism 6. The Remaining Case for Empire 7. The (Im)Balance Sheet: A Coda 8. The Messy Afterlife of Colonialism Notes and References Bibliography CHRONOLOGY British Royal Charter forms the East India Company, beginning the 1600 process that will lead to the subjugation of India under British rule. British East India Company sets up a factory in Masulipatnam and a 1613– trading post at Surat under William Hawkins. Sir Thomas Roe presents 14 his credentials as ambassador of King James I to the Mughal Emperor Jehangir. 1615– Mughals grant Britain the right to trade and establish factories. 18 India, under Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, accounts for 27 per cent of 1700 the world economy.