Tharoor in his book divides the history of British Occupation in eight distinct chapters, keeping its reader rooted to the dominant theme of Colonialism and their harsh tyranny throughout their rule. With much of the attention devoted on as how the British ransacked and looted India before consuming it’s all sort of resources available, the offered figures and timelines in the very beginning of the book gives the readers a brief overview on how British during their rule in India was concerned only with their progression, fortune, and supremacy.

Hence, the book undeniably provides its readers with a deeper awareness and separates the ills of the British Empire from diverse outlooks. Tharoor in his book charts the annihilation of pre-colonial systems of government by the British and their abundant records and the statistics that address the need to balance British imperial nostalgia with post-colonial obligations and compulsions. This two hundred thirteen-page long book attempts on demolishing some of the obstinate myths about “Britain’s allegedly civilizing mission in India”. The thorough records of the history that center diverse sources into a rational analysis of colonialism in the milieu of India, Inglorious Empire, voices the factual story of the British in India, from the influx of the East India Company in 1757 A.D to the end of the Raj. “Inglorious Empire: What British did to India” is aacute account of 200 years of British rule in India and British imperialism.

Following his intense Oxford Union Debate back in summer of 2015, on whether Britain should pay reparations to its former colonies, which concluded on his favor arguing that Britain should, Inglorious Empire is the substantive version of that speech and Tharoor’s attempt on expanding the arguments that he made at Oxford. Initially published under the title “ The Era of Darkness: the British Empire in India” in 2016 by Aleph book company New Delhi, India, the book name “Inglorious Empire”: What British did to India has been directed for the British Market. Published in 2017 by Hurst and Co, London Inglorious Empire is his seventeenth contribution encompassing eight different chapters, each placed alongside his insightful review on various aspects of colonialism in India. Best known for his book The Great Indian Novel, Tharoor has bagged several literary awards which include Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and several other prestigious titles. Inglorious Empire: What British did to India is a sharp and fast-paced book written by an Indian politician, a former senior United Nations official and renowned novelist Shashi Tharoor. Shashi Tharoor (2017), Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, London: Hurst and Co

Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor