THAROOR'S AN ERA OF DARKNESS: THE SAGA OF SUFFERING OF COLONIZED INDIA
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Alochana Chakra Journal ISSN NO:2231-3990
THAROOR’S AN ERA OF DARKNESS:
THE SAGA OF SUFFERING OF COLONIZED INDIA
Bhupesh Gupta1, Prof.Dr. Ami Upadhyay2
1. Research scholar (Ph.D.), Dr.BabasahebAmbedkar Open University, Ahmedabad.
2. Vice Chancellor & Director, School of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Dr.BabasahebAmbedkar Open University, Ahmedabad.
ABSTRACT:
The present research paper aims to explore all the arguments, Dr.ShashiTharoor has
made in his non-fiction An Era of Darkness – The British Empire in India(SahityaAkademi
Award 2019) which proves that for the nation, the British rule was an era of darkness. Here,
an attempt has been made to describe the destruction and ill treatment through which the
British Indians passed during almost two centuries of colonial rule. The task has been taken
to summarise that the British ruined the prosperity, collected enormous wealth, and departed
India in awful condition. So, in a way, this non-fiction can be described as the saga that
depicts the suffering of Indian masses throughout colonization.
KEY WORDS:
Colonization, Indian masses, Non-Fiction, saga, suffering,the British rule.
RESEARCH PAPER:
ShashiTharoorin this non-fiction work of literature made all the arguments from the
point of view of the colonized and tried to challenge the concept of colonialism and
orientalism.It is quite sorrowful that after the colonizers leave, the colonized are not actually
free from its influences and their suffering never ends. In this respect, while writing a chapter
on GayatriSpivak‘s Theory of Subalternity, Mr.SijoVerghese C.says, ―The outcome of
colonialism is that the ‗West‘ still occupies the position of an ideal state in the mind of the
colonized people. Not only the lands but their minds were also being colonized.‖ (121)
Tharoorbegins arguing that, he does not find anything that can be proved restorative
throughout the British rule of India. The country had to undergo extreme humiliation and
unremitting violence that was never practiced previously. During this period, India witnessed
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a number of man-made famines, ill treatment, misuse of power, bureaucratic corruption,
racial prejudices, wars, expatriation of Indians to foreign lands and economic manipulation
on an exceptional level. Even the British themselves accepts the fact that their rule in India
could not be justified. Sebin Justine, a research scholar of Mahatma Gandhi University, in his
scholarly article, writes, ―The text is produced in the background of the massive oppression
and exploitation of the colonial masters that lasted for more than two centuries. The book is
written in the context of the colonial darkness where our blood was not valued at all, where
innumerable Indians perished like worms, where our forefathers toiled and moiled in the
cotton and opium fields like Black American slaves.‖(347)
Tharoor, contrary to historical books, has taken acute evidences from reliable sources
and accuses the British for everything which was not good in India.On popular web-
portalResearch Gate, a reviewer says, ―In a no-holds barred manner, Tharoor accuses the
British for everything which was (and in some cases still is) bad within India – from caste to
sectarian conflicts to inefficient institutions. What British brought with them was ruinous for
India (which includes present day Pakistan and Bangladesh).‖ He is also of the opinion that
they introduced many good things such as English language but within they had no intention
of the welfare of Indians.Madhusoodan Pillai cites from Bill Ashcroft et al who have quoted
Macaulay‘s argument, ―We must at present do our best to form a class who may be
interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indians in
blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and intellect.‖(23) Thus the
British rule was ruthless, damaging, prejudiced, and extremely unfair.
The British colonialism is to be studied in its relation with ‗capitalism‘ and
‗imperialism‘ as commercial interest was at its centre. It led to the exploitation of the natural
resources of the colonies. Madhusoodan Pillai cites from John McLeod‘s book, Beginning
Post Colonialism: ―Colonialism was a lucrative commercial operation, bringing wealth and
riches to Western nations through the economic exploitation of others. It was pursued for
economic profit, reward and riches. Hence, colonialism and capitalism share a mutually
supportive relationship with each other.‖(21)The same is done byThe East India Company - a
profit-driven initiative set up in the year 1600. It did everything to block India‘s industrial
development. A world region that had been known for manufacturing textiles, steel and ships
was basically reduced to a raw-material producing colony under British rule and its share in
exporting manufacturing goods declined from twenty seven percent to mere two percent
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when they left. Talking about the handloom cloths made in India, Tharoor notes, India
exported them to all over the world until the East India Company took power. The British
were ruthless enough to cut the thumbs of Indian weavers weaving handloom items. As this
was not enough, they imposed tariffs and duties up to seventy to eighty percent. So cloth
made in India was higher in cost and could not compete with the clothes coming from Britain
and master weavers in India became beggars.
Revenue collection system is held responsible by Tharoorfor destruction of its
agriculture. British revenue collectors ruled with a rulebook, where there was no space for
negotiation or understanding local problems like droughts, crop failure and so on. This
revenue was directed to the British government in London instead of using in public service.
Those who fail to pay tax lost their lands and so in the history of India, the British created
peasants without lands. From 1765 to 1815, the British pulled out from India nearly
18,000,000 each year. Robert Clive himself took home 2,34,000 pounds on his first return to
England and 4,00,000 pounds 2 years later and this is only from his Indian exploits. Thomas
Pitt, the then Governor of Madras shifted the 400 carat gem to Britain which was thought to
be the finest jewel in the world.
The long saga of suppression by British is presented by Tharoor, where they very
smartly destructed and weakened political institutions by hook or crook, by offering bribes
and building up pressure. They weekend village communities and in place of establishing
self-government from the village level, they setup a central legislative councils whose
members were unfamiliar to the Indian social structures, which caused damage. The divide
and rule was one of the most political principles of the British from the very beginning.
Dr.DushyantNimawattalking about Edward Said‘s views on Orientalism in his book
Contemporary Critics and Critical Theories says, ―Edward Said argues that the Europeans
divided the world in to the East and West….They made the distinction from their own point
of view, dividing in to us and them.‖ (189)The British have approved this theory to conquer
all the small states of India with the help of neighbouring Indian state. In this way they had
acquired India from almost all small states. They had different policies for Indian kings. They
have started giving importance to the Indian rulers as per their relation and cooperation
received from the particular King.
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Tharoor in this book also talks about the discrimination prevails in Indian Civil
Service with vivid and minute details. The Indians were kept out from every position, respect,
reputation or office that could be recognized by the lowest Englishman. Jawaharlal Nehru
also commented once saying, ―the Indian Civil Service was neither Indian, nor civil, nor a
service.‖(60) So, the fate of Indians was decided by Britishers only and in this process no
Indians were allowed. There is a long sad journey of a few selected Indians who served in the
service. How they were ill-treated by Britishers and how they felt at the time of facing ugly
level of racism. This racism made a huge impact on the minds of a few Indian servicemen in
imperial service. Tharoor has mentioned the true picture of the suffering saga of Indians
about the court structure and the penal code in respect of the judicial system. In spite of law
and order in India, justice was far blind especially when the matter is between an Indian and
an Englishman.
He has also talked about so many cases where justice was injustice in real sense and
how Indians suffered in British judiciary system. It was created by foreign race and imposed
by them on Indians who had never been consulted in its creation nor in its implementation.
For them, it was simply a tool of their control. All the rules were in favours of white people
which made them rulers and they were easily accepted by Indians as their masters. Talking
about racism,Dr.DushyantNimawatsays, ―Europeans claimed that they were a superior race to
the people of the East. Thus they justified colonization and colonialism. They claimed that
the aim of colonization was to civilize the uncivilized people of the East.‖(189)Racial
discrimination was almost legal in British rule. Tharoor also states, ―Justice, in British India,
was far from blind: it was highly attentive to the skin colour of the defendant. . . . The death
of an Indian at British hands was always an accident, and that of a Briton because of an
Indian‘s actions always a capital crime.‖(106-7)
Tharoor has given beautiful picture of how Indians were staying together before
British Rule. There was no strong caste system and much more difference in social conduct.
In different parts of the country, there were also no boundary lines among Hindus, Sikhs and
Jains. Many of social and cultural practices in respect of food habits, marriage, celebration of
festivals and worshiping among Hindus and Muslims in different parts of the country were
similar. It was difficult and challenging for British to divide them. But census in India
practiced by British Government made it clear for them to understand the caste and religious
differences and their shares in total population in India. This categorical division based on
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Indian census, they understood the new policy of divide and rule based on caste system. Even
in later part of nineteenth century, they were mastered this practice and divided Hindu and
Muslims on religious bases. Tharoor believes that caste and communal clashes were not so
harmful before the British came. Not only this, the British gave birth to the conflicts within
the two ideologies of Muslim community itself, conflicts between Shia and Sunni.
ShashiTharoor rejects the notion that the British ruled with generosity and wisdom
and for the well-being of Indians. To criticize this version of ‗the enlightened despotism‘, he
talks about various famines and says that more than three crore people throughout India
unnecessarily died of starvation during the Raj. He also brings in to our focus solid research
done by the scholar and Nobel Laureate AmartyaSen who established the fact that famines
are always avoidable as they result not from unavailability of food but because lack of access
to food. The British government was ruthless enough to export Indian manufacturing grain to
global markets including London in famines also. The citizens of London were living on
India‘s bread while Indians were dying of famines. To describe the horrified situation of the
peasants, Tharoor quotes in his book one first-hand witness, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald
Osborne, who has written movingly of the horror in 1877, ―Scores of corpses were tumbled
into old wells, because the deaths were too numerous for the miserable relatives to perform
the usual funeral rites. Mothers sold their children for a single scanty meal. Husbands flung
their wives into ponds, to escape the torment of seeing them perish by the lingering agonies
of hunger.‖(183-4)The author also brings in to our focus the forced migration.People were
compelled to migrate abroad through British ships.The tragedy was there was no hope for
them to return to India or contact to families they had left behind at home.
The author also noted that, in all over India, there were communal schools which were
run by the village communities at that time when the British came to India. The East India
Company used muscle and money power to destroy these communal schools, and took no
care to replace them. Britain‘s education policy damaged extensive Indian traditional
methods of education, guru-shishaparampara. Tharoor as a true Indian feels proud to note
that between the eighth and the twelfth century CE there were a number of premier
educational institutions, five of which were Vikramashila, Nalanda, SomapuraMahavihara,
Odantapuri, and Jaggadala. Not only this, the British rule, Tharoor believes, is strongly
responsible for forgetting oral education that has always enjoyed an honoured place in Indian
culture. British perspective also infused the study of other subjects taught to Indians through
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English—notably history. They also moved away from the teaching of religious and
mythological texts, including India‘s timeless epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, which
at the very least could have occupied the place in Indian schoolrooms that the Iliad and
Odyssey did in British ones. So if Independent India could not carry on the tradition of
teaching secular classics, the British are only responsible.
Conclusion:
Hence, in this non-fiction, ShashiTharoor has given first-hand accounts of the extreme
tyranny suffered by the colonized Indians throughout two hundred years. The author himself
tells in the preface, ―This book is not about British colonialism as a whole but simply about
India‘s experience of it.‖(PrefaceXIX) Very carefully, he highlights the brutal policies
designed by the British for profit making starting with the looting of India‘s prosperity , the
systematic destruction of our political structures and education system, divide and rule as
policy leading ultimately to partition, man-made famines, caste division and many more.
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Gani, Mohd Tahir. https://www.researchgate.net. 23 April 2018. 27 March 2020.
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Justine, Sebin. "Shashi Tharoor's An Era of Darkness: The British Empire: Text and Context."
International Journal of English Language, Literature in Humanities, Vol.7, Issue 4 (April
2019): 345-356. ISSN- 2321-7065.
Madhusoodan Pillai, K P. V S Naipaul and the Post Colonial Context. Mahatma Gandhi University,
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