Unemployment, famine, poor sanitary conditions, lack of access to education and healthcare, cast-based oppression, religious violence, gender-based violence and myriad other issues are all a part of the legacy of colonialism. For them, colonialism lives on in the many cycles of oppression that were either created, perpetuated, or intensified by British colonialism. What does it mean to understand the materiality of colonialism? Consider the families across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, that have suffered since the British rule. What this means is that he treats colonialism as a moral phenomenon of the past, one that existed in a vacuum, rather than as a phenomenon with an ongoing material impact on the lives of people.

In making this demand, I believe that Tharoor makes a fundamental error: he separates the legacy of colonialism from its very materiality. During the debate, having skillfully dismantled the claims of his opponents, Tharoor demands a single symbolic rupee from the British as reparations for colonialism. This issue comes up most clearly in his famous Oxford Union debate. While I agree that colonialism was undoubtedly bad for India, I believe that Tharoor profoundly misunderstands the nature and legacy of colonialism. As such, Tharoor’s basic historical premise about the nature of colonialism isn’t particularly controversial or unique.Īn Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India, Aleph Book Company, 2016 It should be made clear, however, that there aren’t many historians who agree with Biggar and Ferguson – or even take their arguments seriously. His book might be understood as a response to the work of scholars such as Nigel Biggar – whose controversial project on the ethics of empire has recently been a point of contention within Oxford University – and Niall Ferguson – who famously feuded with Pankaj Mishra in the London Review of Books over his book Civilization: The West and The Rest. Although Tharoor definitely isn’t the first to do it, he takes the time to dispel a more colonialist view of history, for which he is due some credit.

To be fair to Tharoor, however, I must begin my critique by acknowledging that he did more than simply point out that colonialism is bad he went through the trouble of researching and writing a book on the many ways in which the British exploited India ( An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India).

An Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor