Vice President Hamid Ansari releases book titled An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India

An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India: Shashi Tharoor

M. Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India, on 5 November 2016 released the book titled An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India. The book is authored by Shashi Tharoor.

The book offers an insight on the ways in which the colonizers exploited India, ranging from the drain of national resources to Britain, the destruction of the Indian textile, steel-making and shipping industries, and the negative transformation of agriculture.

On the other hand, Tharoor offers the arguments of Western and Indian apologists for Empire on the supposed benefits of British rule, including democracy and political freedom, the rule of law, and the railways. He goes on to examine the few unarguable benefits, such as the English language, tea, and cricket, were never actually intended for the benefit of the colonized but introduced to serve the interests of the colonizers.

About Shashi Tharoor

• Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician and a former diplomat.

• He is currently serving as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha.

• He also currently serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.

• He was previously Minister of State in the Government of India for External Affairs from 2009 to 2010 and Human Resource Development from 2012 to 2014.

• Until 2007, he was a career official at the United Nations, rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information in 2001.

• After 29 years at the UN, he announced his departure after finishing second in the 2006 elections for the Secretary-General to Ban Ki-moon.

• He is also an acclaimed writer, having authored 15 bestselling works of fiction and non-fiction since 1981, all of which are centred on India and its history, culture, film, politics, society, foreign policy, and more.