Indian History

“An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India” 

By Sushi Tharoor


Chronology of events:

1615-18: Mughals grant Britian the right to trade and establish factories

1700: India, under the Mughal Empire account for 27% of the world economy 

1739: Sacking of Delhi by Persian Nadir Shah and the loot of its treasures

1751: Robert Clive siezes Arcot (Modern day Tamil Nadu) as French and British fight 

for South India

1757: British under Clive defeat Nawab Siraj-und-Daula to become rulers of Bengal - 

richest province of India

1767: First Anglo-Mysore war begins where Hyder Ali of Mysore defeat the East India 

Company, The Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad

1772: British establish their capital in Calcutta 

1784: India Act passed to bring the East India Company under Parliament’s control 

1803: Second Anglo-Maratha War where British now capture Delhi and control large 

parts of India

1835: English is made the official government and court langauge

1839: British preacher Willian Howitt attacks British rule in India

1857: Sepoy Mutiny - First major Indian revolt - Ends with the fall of Delhi and Lucknow

1858: India completes first 200 miles of railway track

1860: Indian indentured servancts from Madras and Calcutta brought to in South Africa to work sugar plantations 

1866: At least 1.5mm Indians die in the Orissa Famine 

1896: Nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak initiates Ganesha Visarjan and Shivji 

festivals to fan Indian nationalism. He is the first to demand “purna swaraj” or 

complete independence from the British

1900: India’s tea exports to Britian reach E137mm

1914: Indian troops rushed to France to fight in WW1

1915: Mahatma Gandhi returns to India from South Africa 

1917: Last Indian indentured servants are brought to British colonies 

1918: WW1 Ends

1919: Jallianwala Bagh massacre - General Dyer orders Gurkha troops to shoot unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, killing at least 379 people. This convinces 

Ghandi India needs full independence 

1939: WW2- British viceroy declaration of war by India 

1947: Independence on 08/15


Preface


India should be content with a symbolic reparation 

I felt that atonement was the point - a simple “sorry” would do as well


Arguing that the indian governments performance after the independence indicates that there is no evidence that any reparations paid to India would be spent well or would reach the intended beneficiaries – as if incompetence after independence justifies famines before it


History, in any case can not be reduced to some sort of game of comparing misdeeds in different eras; each period must be judged in itself and for its own success and transgressions.


Historian John Keay - “The conduct of states, ass of individuals, can only be assessed by the standards of their age, not by today’s litigious criteria.


The British public is woefully ignorant of the realities of the British empire. 


Indian princes accepted a Faustian bargain to protect their wealth in exchange for their integrity 

Prince Ranjitsinhji, in the midst of crippling droughts, obliged the peasantry to contribute to British coffers during WW1 and burned a months worth of revenue on a viceroy visit as famine struck his people


I do not look to history to absolve my country of the need to do things right today. I seek to understand the wrongs of yesterday both to grasp what has brought us to our present reality and understand the past for itself. Not necessarily a guide but it does partly help explain the present.

 One cannot take revenge upon history; History is its own revenge.


I seek nothing from history - only an account of itself

Novelist Amitav Gosh “Sea of Poppies” - “When we kill people, we feel compelled to pretend that it is for some higher cause.”



Chapter 1


British economic historian Angus Maddison noted that at the beginning of the 18th century, India’s share of the world economy was 23% (as large as ALL of Europe put together)

By the time the British left, India was about 3%


Why? Because India was ruled for the benefit of Britain