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University Grants Commission, New Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X

Persuasion, Oppression and Resistance under British Rule in Shashi Tharoor’s an Era of Darkness: The British Empire in Nasreen Ghani Research Scholar, School of Arts and Humanities, REVA University Bangalore India Premalatha S. Guide, School of arts and Humanities, REVA University Bangalore India Abstract Shashi Tharoor’s speech of 25 minutes in his distinct eloquent baritone, with more than a few punches of irony, at Oxford Union in England on 24th July 2015 The speech was published in print in October 2016 with the title ‘An Era of Darkness’ which is mainly devoted to debunking the myth of the gifts of British rule including democracy, geographical and political unity. we needed a book that tells us about the actual scale of atrocities perpetrated by the British and the modus operandi they used. The book so aptly titled ‘An Era of Darkness’ goes deeper to vividly document the blinding darkness during the British rule in India and certainly this book is an eye opener to the last generation of Indians and also the present generation. In this book, Shashi Tharoor expands his theme of the greedy racist British mercilessly exploiting India, impoverishing its people, stealing its riches, destroying its social fabric and leaving it with a bankrupt economy, maladapted democracy and perplexed modernity. Even the so called gifts of colonialism like the English language and the railway network being only very mixed blessings. He provides an authoritative account of three phases of the Raj in India, from plunder to capitalist exploitation to financial . Shashi Tharoor reminds the world through ‘An Era of Darkness’ the fact that we share with Britain a history of being oppressed for centuries, of bloody massacres, mass arrests, suppression of democratic rights and the supplanting of our own culture to serve the British interests. Thus, Shashi Tharoor very appreciably lifted the veil off the rose-tinted view of the Empire that distance and time may have accorded it in the past 70 years, especially to the present generation of Indians and the world in general. Key Words: persuasion, Oppression, resistance, Era of darkness

INTRODUCTION our daily lives we are stuck not by the ease of producing attitude change but by the Persuasion is an important aspect of rarity of it” (p.121) communication, it is very prominent in day to day life. Persuasion happens when people Resistance is a reaction against change. It are forced to change their attitudes, opinions becomes evident in the presence of some or behavior as Miller (1965) explains, “In for change. Resistance to

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (28) Author: Nasreen Ghani & Premalatha S. University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X persuasion is familiar to anyone who has him that masses can participate and this offered advice or counseling. Resistance is belief took the resistance a long way. the tug of war with persuasion, just as it People suffered a lot during the colonial takes two opposing teams for a tug of war period. Some people revolted angrily and competition, resistance and persuasion are some of them revolted silently. Siraj-ud- opposing yet integral parts of a persuasive Daulah revolted against Britishers in the reaction. in 1757, then the Battle of Indians resisted British rule Buxar, 1764 took place. Followed by Revolt of Vellore and many more. These all came British came to India as traders, gradually under extremists. they got a strong foot hold on Indian soil and there came about domination which Whereas, moderates way of resisting was gradually made them rulers for more than silent. They boycott the foreign goods and two centuries. When British atrocities and organized movements like Swadeshi harassment multiplied to a very great extent, movement, Civil Disobedience Movement, Indians started to resist British rule. etc. to resist the injustice. News papers, Literature, Radical Initially there was no resistance when they ways, Gandhian methods were different were just traders. It was through a very long modes of resistance. process that trading turned to ruling. When actual ruling was happening, effects were When British banned publication in Indian being felt almost all over India, there were languages, large scale resistance was some sporadic incidents of resistance across experienced. Dadabhai Naoroji’s drain of India. From that initial resistance wealth theory opened the eyes of many to came, we shouldn't forget that even a sepoy realise what was actually done to India. has his own cultural, religious feelings and Attacking British officials, Satyagraha, non deep down he is a common Indian. so he cooperation, civil disobedience movements was well aware of the plight of common proved to be very powerful resistance, once man under British rule .However masses it started it only kept growing as many were largely out of any kind of resistance. Indians supported these groups, but whatever movement or any individual English education actually helped Indians in caused threat to British rule or caused an developing awareness at a much broader uprising, those individuals/freedom fighters level. Educated were able to were killed or hanged after being kept in jail look at the contrast between western ideas of for a few days. liberalism and the reality in India. Many first generation leaders actually came from Britishers continued to rule using the divide educated middle class. But mass resistance and rule policy to keep Indians quarrelling came into picture only with the arrival endlessly and the large scale conflicts of Gandhi. His experience in South Africa between Hindus and Muslims only began against racial discrimination already taught under the colonial rule and was instigated by the British.

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (29) Author: Nasreen Ghani & Premalatha S. University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X Persuasion in various ways was experienced political power and began poking on Indians which is clearly explained by their nose into every affair of every Shashi Tharoor in almost all his works kingdom in the country always especially in ‘An Era of Darkness’. Shashi taking the most opportunistic side. Tharoor’s speech in his eloquent baritone In 1757, Robert Clive defeated the with more than a few punches of irony, at ruling Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula of th oxford Union in England on 24 July 2015 at Plassey through a on the topic,”Britain owes reparations to her combination of superior artillery and former colonies”, where he launched into a even more superior art of deception nationalist roar against the former colonial and subterfuge. A few years later, masters and tore the British rule to tatters in the young and weakened Mughal the assembly of representatives of the emperor, Shah Alam II, was cheated commonwealth nations. into issuing an edict that replaced Tharoor writes, “India’s flourishing his own revenue officials with the democracy of seven decades is no tribute to Company’s representatives. British rule. It is a bit rich for the British to Over the next hundred years, the suppress, exploit, imprison, torture and Company with the support maim people for 200 years and then of the British government, spread its celebrate the fact that they are a democracy military and political control over at the end of it.” most of India, coercing one by one Shashi Tharoor reminds the world through the numerous tiny kingdoms of the ‘An Era of Darkness’ the fact that we share country using a combination of with Britain a history of being oppressed for extortion, treachery and utter fraud centuries of bloody massacres, mass arrests, backed by violence and superior suppression of democratic rights and the force. This state of affairs continued supplanting of our own culture to serve the until 1857, when large numbers of British interests. Company’s Indian soldiers Thus, Shashi Tharoor very appreciably lifted spearheaded the first major rebellion the veil off the rose-tinted view of the against colonial rule, which came to Empire that distance and time may have be famously called as the First War accorded it in the past 70 years, especially to of Indian Independence. However, the present generation of Indians and the the rebellion was quashed ruthlessly world in general. and the British Crown took over In 1600, the direct power and ruled the country began trading with India mainly in supposedly more benevolently. silk, spices and other profitable The Indian independence struggle was a Indian commodities. Within a prolonged, non-violent and mass-based century and a half, the Company had movement that included almost all the become a major economic and different sections of society at that time. It

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (30) Author: Nasreen Ghani & Premalatha S. University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X also underwent a process of continuous decades. The Indian soldiers in air force, ideological evolution and an emotional navy and army were also turning out to be revolution. The basic ideology of the rebellious, dangerous and difficult to trust. movement was anti-colonial, but it was The best example is that of the INA, but the supported by a vision of independent INA cannot be considered as an example of capitalist economic development combined the Indian soldier rebelling against the with a secular, democratic, republican and British. Most of them were already civil-libertarian political structure. prisoners of wars and had the choice of either joining the Japanese in the war or After the 1930s, the movement took on a remaining prisoners of wars. The Indian strong socialist orientation, due to the National Army was first formed in 1942 increasing influence of left-wing elements in consisting of Indian prisoners of wars of the the as well as the rise British- captured by Japan in and growth of the . the Malayan campaign and at Singapore. All these movements were originated The INA actually formed a year after the basically as a result of unrest and anger of Indian soldiers already fighting for the common people against the British rule and Japanese army in eastern Asia. However, its meaningless and persuading policies INA was disbanded after strong differences including compulsory usage of foreign surfaced between the INA and the Japanese goods, heavy taxation right from making of military over its role in Japan's war in Asia. salt to irrigation of land. In 1946, the Great Subhash Chandra Bose's INA was formed in Naval Revolt almost snatched the liberation 1943. Most of its soldiers at that time were for India from the hands of the British exempted from being tried as traitors by the ruling. The movement also served to British government since it was believed promote solidarity among the masses that they did not have much of a choice overridden by communal, caste and gender other than joining the INA. divisions. However, India had to pay too dear a price on the eve of her Independence The British never really expected the Indian when the country was absurdly divided into soldiers to rebel against the colonial rule to three pieces between two parties viz., the cause them to distrust the Indian forces. It Muslims and Hindus. The partition based was the rebellion of the sailors of the Indian independence of India and Pakistan saw Navy in 1946 which scared the British over a million people massacred of both Empire out of its wits. The specter of a Hindus and Muslims in the largest and nationwide civil war began to haunt the deadliest population exchange in history and empire, moreover the costs of overcoming it the termination of democratic revolution. was way far too high. The last straw on the back of the camel that made the British The British government had already come to decide to leave India was that the Indian conclusion that it was not practical to Navy and the rebelled continue holding on to India anymore. against the British government in 1946. The Moreover, India had ceased to generate any British tried to quell this mutiny with iron profit for the British government for many

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (31) Author: Nasreen Ghani & Premalatha S. University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X fists but the massive public support the Minister of England, , rebels got in and literally hated the Indians. While the people completely demoralized them. It took the in Bengal were dying due to , the use of extreme fire power by the British from the area was being exported to feed the ships to bring down the rebellion. The British soldiers fighting the World War in Rebellion showed that the British could no Europe. Then, 2,065,554 Indian soldiers more take for granted the support of the were raised for the World War II, and Indian military. They then quickly decided 149,225 Indian soldiers died between 1939 to get out of India and pre-poned their and 1945 in wars outside India. departure by one whole year reckless of the Almost 30 million Indians died in dilemma it caused India. British-induced during their However, in fact, the British had left India rule. The worst however was the only on a temporary plan. They left their Bengal famine of 1943. Churchill missionaries and institutions behind them in also refused to allow free relief the strong belief that their sudden departure shipments of food from the United would invariably worsen the side-effects of States, Australia and Canada into partition and that sooner or later they would Bengal on the grounds that the food return and rule again when the Indian was needed more elsewhere and leaders cannot handle the impossible task of because the Japanese Navy was ruling the country. Another crucial reason patrolling the and for their unceremonious exit was that they ordered the diversion of food from could not afford the salaries of their starving Indians to already well- employees in India post World War II. supplied British soldiers and The British doctored the narrative of their stockpiles in Britain and elsewhere rule in India in their favor making in Europe including Greece and themselves appear like saviors. However, it Yugoslavia. When asked about the comes like a rude shock when Tharoor states famine, he wrote asking “Why the fact that from 1793 to 1900, about 5 Gandhi hadn't died if there was million people died world over in all the really a ?” His wars combined, but in the short span of 10 disgusting show of enmity towards years between 1891 and 1900, about 19 Indians and Gandhi in particular million people died in India due to famines becomes clear when he suggested alone. The famines were the biggest that the Mahatma should be “…. colonial holocausts and the most brutal case bound hand and foot at the gates of of inhumanity in modern times. Delhi, and let the viceroy sit on the Shashi Tharoor opines that the regular back of a giant elephant and trample famines of Bengal were the result of him into the dirt”. reckless planning, stale Malthusian ideas Tharoor's book serves another useful and highly racist leaders. The Prime purpose. It defeats the false narrative that

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (32) Author: Nasreen Ghani & Premalatha S. University Grants Commission, New Delhi Recognized Journal No. 41311 ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X Muslim rulers were necessarily tyrants. some sort of game of comparing misdeeds in Tharoor tells us while they have been different eras; each period must be judged outsiders, they did not drain the wealth of in itself and for its own successes and the country to any other foreign nation. He transgressions.” makes a case that it was under the Muslim CONCLUSION: rulers that India's share grew up to become more than a quarter of the world's trade. It However, it was only a physical is a thought-provoking counter to the independence of a doomed civilization. The polarizing and often repeated argument that ideological, sociological, political, Muslims destroyed India. economical, geographical and mental scars remain and it seems will forever. It would Brilliantly narrated and passionately argued, not be an exaggeration to say that even after An Era of Darkness will serve to correct 70 years of independence, still many misconceptions about one of the most reeling under the after effects of the colonial contested periods of Indian history as after rule and there seems to be no solution or end all part of being colonized is the to the innumerable problems sowed by the of the mind. Tharoor's writing, Britishers on the Indian soil. It seems to be with its expansive case studies and citations a deep contamination that has polluted the and sustained argument, all augmented by purity and chastity of the Indian psyche. It his felicity of language, may just come as an is this disturbed consciousness and scars of eye-opener to us all. Tharoor says that the past memories expressed so artfully, misdeeds of the colonizers in the past can cogently and convincingly by Shashi never be forgotten or taken lightly by the Tharoor that we find in An Era of Darkness, colonized and there is no justification that which instantly and instinctively found a merits this discussion. As he so clearly says kindred echo in the collective mass of the “History, in any case, cannot be reduced to Indians worldwide. References: Naoroji, Dadabhai. 1901. Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. S. Sonnenschein. Tharoor, S., 2017: Inglorious empire – What the British did to India. London: Hurst (first published by Aleph Books, New Delhi in 2016 under the title “An era of darkness: the British empire in India”).

Volume VII Issue V: May 2019 (33) Author: Nasreen Ghani & Premalatha S.