Thinking Activity on Dr. Shashi Tharoor

Welcome Readers!

DR. SHASHI THAROOR

A diplomat, politician and an accomplished intellectual writer who writes faster than most of us read and the one among the twenty-three writers selected for the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, purely represents India and the varied history on various international platforms by authoring more than 15 books. Tharoor is also a globally recognized elocutionist, columnist, and human rights activist. His hold on articulation is always alluringly witty and convincingly true.

Here is the list of the authors to whom the Sahitya Akademi Award will be conferred. 

Source- Google Classroom Thinking Task (attached file)

This blog is an answer to a thinking task assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad Sir to watch interviews of Shashi Tharoor listed on Sir’s blog and to reflect our views on the same. Click here to navigate to Sir's blog on Shashi Tharoor and the Dark Era of Inglorious Empire. Moreover, the videos seem to shed light on Postcolonialism. So, first of all, to understand the term Postcolonialism, here are the images which may help to get an idea of the term -

Reference- Nayar, Pramod K. The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2015.

Postcolonialism is an umbrella term. To know more on Postcolonialism and its application on a particular text as well as in the political scenario of India, 

Click here

This video may help to understand the concept.

Disclaimer- This video is entirely based on my earlier perceptions of trying to look at the Nation from a narrative other than power. The reasons stated assertively are the assumptions and not the straight opinion. 

Well, after getting a clear picture of the term lets explore what Dr. Shashi Tharoor has to offer with his extraordinary articulation. 

1. Shashi Tharoor's Stirring Speech at Oxford Union

                    In this video Shashi Tharoor ironically speaks against the master narrative and provides a detailed note with figures and sums regarding how the Indian Economy was severely affected by the colonialism imposed by Britain. Shashi Tharoor challenges the prime narrative and sets a postmodern outlook in his arguments. He says that ‘India was governed for the benefit of Britain’. 

                           The most amazing thing is that Dr. Shashi Tharoor is delivering this speech at Oxford Union in front of white people against their narrative and they are appreciating! This indeed seems so wonderful to hear. As far as my opinion is concerned, I really appreciate the views of Dr. Tharoor, as genuinely it sounds so appealing to hear someone speaking for the minor or colonized people in front of the colonizers.

The arguments I admired the most are-

“Colonialists like Robert Clive brought their rotten boroughs in England on the proceeds of their loot in India while taking the Hindi word loot into their dictionary as well as their habits. And the British had the gall to call him Clive of India as if he belonged to the country, when all he really did was to ensure that much of the country belonged to him.

By the end of 19th century, the fact is that India was already Britain's biggest cash cow, the world's biggest purchaser of British goods and exports and the source for highly paid employment for British civil servants. We literally paid for our own oppression. And as has been pointed out, the worthy British Victorian families that made their money out of the slave economy, one fifth of the elites of the wealthy class in Britain in 19th century owed their money to transporting 3 million Africans across the waters. And in fact in 1833 when slavery was abolished and what happened was a compensation of 20 million pounds was paid not as reparations to those who had lost their lives or who had suffered or been oppressed by slavery but to those who had lost their property. ”

                      Shashi Tharoor in the above-mentioned paragraph says, ‘we literally paid for our own oppression’ which really reveals our own mentality that how we, Indians were so used to be in the colonized mindset that we didn’t even realize that we were under the control of Great Britain. By the time the Indians realized that they are colonized, almost all wealth and economy of India was in the hands of Britain. 

                        Dr. Tharoor further makes a quotable statement which sounds so well-

“No wonder that the sun never set on the British empire because even god couldn’t trust the English in the dark.”

                          A well said ironically appealing statement indeed! Thus the speech completely silenced the colonists. When Rajdeep Sardesai asks whether he would get a similar kind of response from the Indian audience, Tharoor, as an intellectual genuinely replies "Anything that is a critique of our own country will immediately polarise opinion" and this indeed is true. 

The next video is on a lecture delivered by Tharoor at The University of Edinburgh

2) Looking Back at the British Raj in India: The University of Edinburgh 

                                This video explores how British Raj has shaped the narrative with reference to Dr. Shashi Tharoor's work "An Era of Darkness". He makes a desperate narrative full of vibrancy and boldness reflection on history. His arguments in postcolonial contexts are noteworthy. He laid some of the basics about the British colonialism in India. Dr. Tharoor’s work majorly deals with the untold story of India to the world.

The Era of Darkness 

          'An Era of Darkness' is a non-fiction work of Dr. Shashi Tharoor which drastically changes the perception of colonized culture against the civilized colonizers. It also throws light on the adverse effects of the British on the Indian economy while colonialism was deeply rooted. narrative by illustrating all notable changes that occurred in the course of British rule with exact details. It develops a constructive narrative by illustrating all notable changes that occurred in the course of British rule with exact details.

                       Primary education of India’s history before Independence had made people believe that the British colonized and looted India but for the first time, Dr. Tharoor’s book plays a historical role by describing scientific study and arguments in episodes and chapters. Like every colonizer say that they colonized a country to make every native more civilized and in the name of development, in the name of civilization, the reality or the second narrative, if narrated, becomes totally different. The story within the story is revealed. The veil is dropped and the original face is displayed! Like in the name of mere progression, they oppressed the natives and ruled over them. This is a narrative that everyone knows. So what is that which makes this book so worthy and a must-read work?

                              Well, it’s the arguments that Dr. Tharoor puts it in his work which is noteworthy. Here is the picture of the index which may urge you to read the book. 

“My analysis of the iniquities of British colonialism was based on what I had read and studied since my childhood, and I thought the arguments I was making were so basic that they constituted what Americans would call ‘Indian Nationalism 101’—the fundamental, foundational arguments that justified the Indian struggle for freedom.

This book is also not about British colonialism as a whole, but simply about India’s experience of it.

Finally, this book makes an argument; it does not tell a story. Readers looking for a chronological narrative account of the rise and fall of the British empire in India will not find it here; the sequence of events is outlined only in the chronology preceding this Preface. The purpose of this volume is to examine the legacy of the Raj, to critically study the claims made for its alleged benefits, and to present the evidence and the arguments against it.”

                 So, from these lines of the Preface of the book, it can be clearly seen that this is not the story but it’s a reweaving of all the consequences of the British rule in India. Dr. Tharoor retells some incidents with evidence from history and organizes it into such a form that it becomes a critical and bitter account of the British rule. Dr. Tharoor considers British rule as   

In page 24, Dr. Tharoor writes-

“As I was typing this last sentence, somewhat hastily, my computer’s spellcheck offered ‘Brutish’ as an acceptable substitute for ‘British’ rule in India!”

                            Dr. Tharoor investigates examples from the history of Railway Development, University establishment, Nobel awards and development of industries, etc. tries to justify that India wasn’t progressing because of the British but the modernization took place because of the new awakening. 

References-

An Era of Darkness 
The Hindu Business Line
The Inglorious Empire
Shashi Tharoor wins Sahitya Akademi award-2019
The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary - Nair