A
review of the book
“An
Era of Darkness”
The British were not only successful in
colonizing the Indians' territory but are equally successful in colonizing the
minds of Indians. It’s pretty sure that the British had almost immortalized the
ruthless politics (they’ve played) and engrossed by projecting themselves as a Messiah
of the poor. WHITE MAN'S BURDEN is an
opulent term they had used to hide their obscurity. Tharoor's An Era of Darkness brings into
light, the mighty darkness of the
colonization.
The book starts with
the explanation of Durant’s Outrage i.e., his account on colonization and continues
without slackening his pace throughout the eight chapters. Immortalized British
accounts of political chicanery, perfidy and cupidity are blatantly and
successfully exposed by the author interpreting in his own way and buttressing
it with facts, figures and historical accounts. The whole spooky and gloomy
scenario of British colonization is been explained with dominant emotion and
outrageous enthusiasm.
Let me summarize the Important aspects which the author has highlighted in brief including my interpretation and review in it
“The India that the British East
India Company conquered was no primitive or barren land but the ‘glittering
jewel’ of the medieval world.”
Tharoor
in his book makes the British responsible for the transition of a lucrative,
opulent, emblematic and ‘glittering jewel
of the medieval world’ into a feeble and unstable country. The author
explains in deep how a significant economy has 23% of share in the world economy during 1700 had fallen down drastically to 3% by 1940’s. Tharoor
inveighs and embarks that this drastic fall of the economy is due to their
(colonial) pillage and avarice, the jewel is enfeebled.
“We literally paid for our own
oppression”.
The
author is not only outrageous of the indignation suffered but also feels
extremely sorry for our ancestors that we’ve literally paid for our own
oppression (innocence). He suffocates the book with ample facts and figures to
suggest this point. He goes on saying that the British civil servants who had
worked in India bought rough boroughs in England and even our income (which
they had exploited from us) had pulled Scotland out of poverty and made it
prosperous. Though the point seems convincing, there are several arguments
against it. But the author is quite successful in curtailing the other side of
the coin.
“London was eating India’s bread
while Indians were dying...”
The
author states that as many as 74,187
Indian soldiers died during World War I and a comparable number were wounded.
In addition to the human loss both by famine and war, it was estimated that
India’s contribution in cash and kind (for the world war) estimated as £146.2 million worth some £50 billion
in today’s money. The author in this context makes (proposes) a strong
statement (proposition) that India owes
reparations from the British. He discusses the exploitation in several
forms in a convincing way to drive the point home.
“Hypocrisy wad added to brutality
while robbery went on.”
As
the world shouts that democracy, parliamentary system, rule of law and English
language were the strong weapons provided to India by the colonial masters but
for Tharoor, it’s a great hoax perpetrated ever. He blows the pro-British
historians that one who had looted has no right to talk on donations or
contributions.
He says that the
British far from introducing Democracy to a country mired in despotism and
tyranny, as many liked to pretend, it denied political freedom to a land that
had enjoyed it under monarchs. The author steeps into hypocrisy that being an
MP he goes on to deliver statements against the parliamentary system. Though it
seemed rational it has raised several questions regarding the authenticity of
the author to develop such a bold statement.
“They were dragged out naked and
exposed to the public view and scourged before all the people... they put the
nipples of women into sharp edges of split bamboos and torn out from their
bodies.”
The
excruciating detail of subjugation of Indian women and soldiers is explicitly
explained by the author examining the accounts of the British in great detail.
My feeling after reading about the subjugation was a mix of anguish, grief and
astonishment. Especially the horrible detail of the subjugation of the Bengali
women filled my heart with inconsolable
sorrow and made me mourn for their sacrifice for my present pleasant life.
“Radcliffe drew up his map in 40
days, dividing the provinces, districts, villages, homes, and hearts.”
There
has been great blame on India that it had been colonized for centuries because
of the lack of unity among Indians. Tharoor argues that the British far from
promoting Indian political unity, the British forces identified, accentuated and
legitimized such divisions. The highest avarice of colonial “Divide et empera” was brought to light
during the discourse on the partition. Tharoor clearly explains how the British
had instigated the Muslim leaders passively to divide Akhund Bharat. He says that the British had played with the
feelings of Indians that their serious concern of the problem of partition (is
exposed) is solved by assigning the task of dividing the two nations to Sir. Radcliffe
who had at no time been to India and knew nothing about its history.
“Colonialism itself was a cultural
project of control.’’
British
had defined to their own satisfaction what they constructed as Indian rules and
customs, and then the Indians had to conform to these constructions. The
British had forced several traditions on Indian through incompatible with
Indian culture. Every Indian school child must lament the influence of dress
code on Indians. Especially the tie is a permanent noose around the neck of
millions of school children in India’s sweltering heat, even today.
The OXFORD speech of
Tharoor had gone viral and acted and provided an impetus to produce this book.
The book is a diatribe on British colonialism which in turn attacks the
pro-British historians and even an eye-opener to the people of India.
The book is the
assimilation of huge sources of history, facts, figures, and research. Author
is successful in fulfilling his task. The whole book is woven with the fine
threads of English language. The author explains the horrors in horror. He doesn’t
discount any argument against British rule. He not only exposes the hard facts
of colonialism with outrage but has also mixes humour in it which creates a
great emotion to the reader. However, there are some arguments by pro-British historians that the history has been misinterpreted in this book by the author.
It’s
paradoxical that Tharoor exposes the painful colonization in the colonial
language (English) but there are also
several comments that the language is quite complex and couldn’t be understood by a
man with mediocre knowledge in English. However, if read the reader will be exposed to
a new kind of arguments on colonialism. A person who has no knowledge on history of India especially the Medieval and the Indian national movement can find hard to understand in which context the author may be speaking. So, I suggest the readers of the book to get a rough sketch of Indian history from the medieval times to understand the book better. At last I would like to say the book is innovative in exploring the hard facts of colonialism like many other Tharoor’s works.
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Reviewed by
Pity Parker.J.
My thoughts in form of a picture
NOSTALGIA...
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Reviewing the book in the meeting  |
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