India Conquered

India Conquered: Britain's Raj and the Chaos of Empire is a 2016 book by British historian Jon E. Wilson, Professor of Modern History at King's College, London.[1]

India Conquered: Britain's Raj and the Chaos of Empire
First edition
AuthorJon E. Wilson
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SubjectBritish Raj
PublishedLondon
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Publication date
2016
Pages576
ISBN978-1-4711-0126-7
954.03

Background and synopsis

India Conquered is a comprehensive history of British colonial rule in India. The book aims to lay bare that "beneath the veneer of pomp and splendour, British rule in India was anxious, fragile and fostered chaos." It demonstrates that while British colonial rulers projected themselves as heroes and nation-builders, the reality for those under occupation was "a precarious regime that provided Indian society with no leadership, and which oscillated between paranoid paralysis and occasional moments of extreme violence."[2] The book explores infrastructure programmes built by British authorities, such as the Indian railways, and reveals that the railways were constructed late by global standards and in the face of "colonial indifference" - with an insistence that construction follow British military priorities rather than local economic priorities. By the time the British left India just 12% of the population was literate.

India Conquered is critical of the "Great Delusion" that British rule was a coherent and powerful force for good in India, noting the chaotic violence of authorities and the remarkable lack of development in India during the Raj. But it also challenges the assumption, made by many on the left, that the British regime was an efficient structure of extraction and exploitation, arguing instead that the Raj's power was piecemeal and unsystematic. [3][4][5]

Reception

India Conquered was praised in the Financial Times as a "virtuoso takedown of cherished shibboleths of Raj mythology." The reviewer wrote that the book exposed "an arrogant, racist and disdainful attitude towards Indians, and also a belief that British power in India had to be absolute."[6]

In The Financial Express India Conquered is described as an "extensively researched" work which "proves how the British rule was not beneficial for India and how the British never assimilated themselves with the society, systems and culture of this country."[7]

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References
  1. "King's College London - Dr Jon Wilson". www.kcl.ac.uk.
  2. "India Conquered | Book by Jon Wilson | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster UK". simonandschuster.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  3. "A Grand Delusion? - History Today". www.historytoday.com.
  4. "The job of a historian is to be diagnostic".
  5. Wilson, Jon (7 September 2016). "Viewpoint: The myth of 'strong' British rule in India" – via www.bbc.com.
  6. "Subscribe to read". Financial Times.
  7. "Book review: India conquered: Britain's Raj and the chaos of Empire by Jon Wilson; world India have been as smart saws lek rule?". 9 October 2016.
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