Book Review: An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India by Sashi Tharoor

An Era of Darkness is about the atrocities against women, ship building in India, role of Scots in India, three big darbars in India, Indian Civil Service, racism. exploitation, Indian parliament and justice in India. It also covers the Criminal Tribes legislation of 1911, colonialism, caste, British, Shi-Sunni divide in Lucknow, Nehru and Edwina, transporting Indian convicts from India, studying English literature in India, English language and its legacy, cricket and coloniality,7000 opium shops in India and the Kohinoor Diamond.

Shashi Tharoor presents interesting facts and arguments in this book. I mention some of them in this review. The author says that the Pitt family produced two Prime Minsters (p. 16). In the late 1920s, 7500 Englishmen were receiving 20 million pounds in pension from India annually(p. 24). Tharoor also agues that 'ironically, Lord Lytton's only qualification for the job of viceroy was that, as Robert Bulwer-Lytton, he was Queen Victoria's favorite poet (p. 182). Allan Octavian Hume was a Scotsman who founded the Indian National Congress (p. 81).

The atrocity and brutality of the British has clearly been exposed by Tharoor. 3289 Indian soldiers went missing in World War I, when 700,000 Indian soldiers fought against the Ottoman Empire (p. 87-88). Jamsetji Tata built Taj Mahal Hotel because he was expelled from Watson's Hotel in Bombay (p. 110). During the Orissa Famine of 1866 while a million and a half million people starved to death, the British exported 200 million pounds of rice to Britain (p. 179). Tharoor believes that Sir Syed Ahmed Khan's son was a judge, who died at 53, because he was not treated well by the British (p.72). 

The 'unfree migrants' of India were carried on British ships. which was an estimated 5300, 000 people (p. 193). Sixteen sons of Bahadur Shah Zafar were tried and hanged by the British (p. 196). Shashi Tharoor argues that the British rule in India was despotic because of the famine, forced migration and brutality (p. 204). Timber was exported to Britain for the construction of houses (p. 240). In 1886, only 86 Indians out of 1015 Engineers in PWD (p. 212). The arrival of the first electricity supplies started in India in the 1890s (p. 255). 

Tharoor says that 'Indians themselves did not drink the tea they produced. It was only during the Great Depression of the 1930s- when demand in Britain dropped and British traders had to unload their stocks- that they thought of selling their produce to the Indians the had ignored for a century' (p. 240). 

This book is a must read for the people of India and Pakistan as the author raises many interesting questions. Anyone interested in reading about the colonial rule of the brutal British rule in India, should definitely read this book.

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Book Review: The Little Book of Big History: The Story of Life, the Universe and Everything by Ian Crofton and Jeremy Black

This little book by Crofton and Black gives us a better understanding of the story of humanity and how modern humans fit into the universe. It starts with the Big Bang Theory. Further it discusses how stars and planets are formed and how our planet earth sustains life. Stories from a range of disciplines (which include cosmology, biology, archaeology and anthropology) are covered in this book. It is divided into six parts. One, setting the scene, two animal planet, three humans start to dominate, four civilization, five the rise of the west and six the modern world.

I mention some of the interesting points I found out in this book. Modern humans emerged 200, 000 years ago (p. 33). Males dominated hunts of Chimps (p. 47). On page 54 there is an interesting story of an African grey parrot. About 7500 years ago a mutation arose in cattle herders living in Central and South-Eastern Europe which stopped lactose intolerance in adults. Drinking milk became a widespread new cultural practice that conferred a competitive advantage. The lactose-tolerant gene spread successfully and is now found in many cultures of the world (p. 56). The authors state that languages may have emerged independently in a number of different places (p. 69).

With the coming of agriculture people started living in permanent settlements (p. 77). Wild horses were relatively small, but with selective breeding things changed (p. 84). Through the Silk roads the Chinese paper, printing, gunpowder and magnetic compass reached the West (p. 102). Wheat was used as a currency by the ancient Egyptians. The authors write that writing rose in early urban societies which were more stratified than in pre-urban times. They argue that the ruling elite needed it as a means to keep control over masses of commodities and numerous subjects (p. 116). 

Ancestors of Anglo-Saxons migrated from Scandinavia and Northern Germany(p. 125). The book discusses Sumerians, Babylonians and Egyptians. In Britain, not until the Crown Act of 2013 could a Roman Catholic take the throne (p. 154). Words such as Algebra and Alcohol are derived from Arabic (p. 156). Because of small pox and measles almost 90 percent of the native population of America died (p. 160). The last blasphemy case in Britain was in 1697.

In the last chapter, the authors mention that human species have existed for only a tiny fraction of the life of our solar system. They are of the view that there comes a point where humans have no choice but to accept that we humans will never know the full story of the universe in which we live (p. 255). The other themes discusses in the book include technology, printing, economic debates, expansion and imperialism. There is also mention of some books by the authors. I look forward to read them. 

 

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