The British not only raised tariffs on Indian cloth but literally chopped off the thumbs of weavers as a means of destroying the Indian textile industry. Tharoor identified the timing of Britain’s arrival in India as crucial to the successful establishment of the Raj and then went on to elucidate the early phase of economic exploitation. The point of departure for this lecture was the beginnings of British colonialism in the South Asian subcontinent. This lecture was an accompaniment to Tharoor’s new book Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India (2017), which is based on his speech at an Oxford Union debate titled ‘Britain Owes Reparations to Her Former Colonies’ that went viral in 2015. By drawing upon a wealth of evocative examples and shocking statistical evidence, within thirty minutes, Tharoor had successfully destroyed the myth of Britain’s gifts to India. Shashi Tharoor, delivered a forceful and poignant speech at McEwan Hall in which he made plain the exploitative, oppressive and violent nature of British colonial rule in India.
On Monday 2 October 2017, as part of the University of Edinburgh’s World India Day celebrations, acclaimed author, Member of the Indian Parliament and former UN Under-Secretary-General, Dr.
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