Shashi Tharoor speaks on the destruction of Indian textiles, extraction, taxes and the drain of resources during the British Raj and substantiates that the benefits of colonisation were not intentional. By Saritha Saraswathy Balan
Shashi Tharoor in An Era of Darkness tries to disprove the claim of the British that they recreated Indian unity and asserts that the benefits of the foreign rule were not intentional. His core point is that the British Raj deprived of Indians’ self-respect.
“The British destroyed India’s traditional industries like the textiles, ship building and steel and a large number of weavers were thrown out of work. India, which was strong in steel wood, was pushed out of the business. Indian steel wood was so famous that even the Arabs took it”, said Tharoor in a conservation with veteran journalist Karan Thapar after the launch of the book at The Taj Mahal Hotel on Friday. Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari launched the book.
Tharoor, a parliamentarian from Kerala, in the book, portraits the ill-effects of the British rule, how it made India an outlet of goods for Britain and how the country could evolve to parliamentary democracy even in the absence of the colonial rule. So why he wrote that construction of railway lines in the country by the British was a scamIJ “The concept was to extract the resources of India’s hither lands. Indian railways became a profitable investment for the British as the returns were assured and constructing railway lines for the country was viewed as a private profit making option rather than something done for public interest,” says Tharoor. He adds, “From the ticket collectors to station masters white Europeans were employed in the railways.”
On asked about his claim that the initiatives by the British led to poverty in India, he said that poverty in India was a direct result of the British rule. “The colonial rule created poverty .The land owners in the country were finally reduced to tenants. Tax on agricultural production in India was maximum 15 per cent of the value of the crop. But after the British began to rule, they raised the taxes to minimum 45 per cent of the crop value and there was no consideration for victims of famine or drought. By the end of 1947, 90 per cent of the population fell under below poverty line,” substantiates Tharoor, former minister of state for External Affairs and Human Resource Development.
On asked is there any exact figure on how much the British extracted wealth Tharoor said that it could be four billion which is a whopping amount now. So what was the impact of British rule on Indian economyIJ “India was Britain’s main source of revenue. British civil servants were highly paid and Indians paid for them,” he said. The book also says that the number of Indians died of famine in India during the British Raj could be compared with the death toll of the worst human atrocities. Tharoor said that when people died of famine the British hold the view that the land didn’t have the capacity to bear them. “The British even acted against the officials who were soft to famine victims”.
The politicians and scholars of the country were silent when the British used to talk about the lootingIJ “No they never did it in public, but in their private correspondence only,” Tharoor said. But the colonisation of India was better than the experience of Spain or Dutch as noted out by manyIJ “The benefits of British rule were not intentional. They have even made a law which was tougher to enforce in England. Their initiatives were not aimed at benefiting India,” he said.
But we can credit the parliamentary democracy of India to the British rule, there was no colonisation in China, Thailand and Nepal and they are not democraticIJ “Monarchy existed in Japan. But the country evolved to democracy after it was bombed. The counter arguments suggesting that the British rule was beneficial are speculative only. They are just offering alternatives. The British was reluctant to give us substantive democracy which they enjoyed back at home. What if the British didn’t teach us English languageIJ “The British taught English to a minority only to use them as translators”, he said.The book was launched by The Taj Mahal Hotel in association with Aleph Book Company.