Shashi Tharoor: History Of An Inglorious Empire

“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, how will you appreciate where you’re going ?” This was a question raised by the former UN diplomat Mr. Shashi Tharoor while speaking to the Channel 4 News.

British Empire’s dark period of rule not only in India but also all over the world financed Britain’s rise as a super power. He spoke to host Jon Snow of Channel 4 News, “Britain financed its industrial revolution and its prosperity from the depredations of empire. Britain came to one of the richest countries in the world (India) in the early 18th century and reduced it, after 200 years of plunder, to one of the poorest.”

“As I have often argued, you do not need to seek revenge upon history. History is its own revenge,” writes Tharoor. He called it a great historical amnesia.

He concluded, “If you don’t know where you’ve come from, how will you appreciate where you’re going ?”

He also gave a fitting reply to the anchor, when he asked Tharoor, whether India will hold it against Britain as they are in need of India’s trade. Tharoor replied, “Not at all. I don’t really think, this is about today’s relations. which are between two equal sovereign countries. I mean we are an economy as big as yours now. We don’t need to have a chip on our shoulders, when dealing with you.”

Shashi Tharoor recently published a book called “Inglorious Empire”, which is based on the subject of atrocities and crime committed by the British Empire to fund themselves.

This is not the first time that Tharoor has raised this question. Recently he also delivered a speech on whether India owes reparations from Britain to its former colonies at the Oxford Union debate. The speech was also praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at that time. (See the video below).