The following day the teacher patiently told me that I had probably misread the note: the character had to be important in British history, not world history. For while Mayo, Naipaul, and to some extent Nirad Chaudhuri saw India as an unmitigated disaster redeemed by the benign, benevolent hand of British rule, Tharoor forcefully argues that colonial rule not only impoverished India, it also enfeebled it. It refutes British claims of superiority, questions the benefits of British rule, castigates governors and their subordinates for their profligacy, corruption and arrogance, exposes their corruption, and ridicules the conceit which has taken root in Britain—that the British rule was a divine dispensation which civilised the natives. Tharoor pierces this conceited bubble with vivid prose, telling not only what made the British empire, but how. He takes note of them, but his point is that the British empire was not the solution to the problem by any means, and in many instances, it made the problem worse.

Source: Mint November 29, 2016 09:24 UTC