An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India Review ‘[Tharoor] has produced a bestseller that will re-ignite thinking and debate and open the eyes of the younger generation in India and hopefully in Britain on this “era of darkness’…Tharoor’s new contribution is that he even takes apart the commonly accepted argument…that the British Empire left quite a bit of good in India…’ —Business Standard  ‘By rewriting the history of the British Raj as it really was, Tharoor has lifted a great load from millions of still-colonised minds in this country; while simultaneously providing an opportunity to the heirs of carpetbaggers and adventurers of the Raj to atone and apologize.’ —Education World ‘Tharoor’s arguments have smashed to smithereens the claim that the British prepared India for a system of parliamentary democracy and laid the foundation for the rule of law…we all should be grateful to Tharoor for writing a book of enduring value, and it will be desirable to see it translated into different Indian languages as it is of interest to the public at large.’ —Frontline ‘Shashi Tharoor’s latest, An Era of Darkness, is one breathless read…Until [this book] came along, there was no single work that clearly and unambiguously catalogued all the harm done to India under British rule.’ —Business Line ‘The book serves to correct many misconceptions about one of the most contested periods of Indian history’. —Deccan Chronicle ‘Tharoor reveals with acuity, impeccable research, and trademark wit, just how disastrous British rule was for India’ —The Sunday Guardian ‘The reality is, as Tharoor points out, that “we were one of the richest countries in the world when the British came in but when they left us, we were one of the poorest.”’ —Mail Today ‘Gifted writing, masses of dexterously marshaled information, pithily summarized ideas and a sharp debating style, which fences more with the sword than with the shield, make for riveting reading. Professors writing on colonial exploitation have suffered from the sadness of their subject. Tharoor makes it fun. By far the liveliest recent exposition of the traditional Indian nationalist viewpoint, his book can be recommended unhesitatingly…’ —India Today In An Era of Darkness, consummate debater and author Shashi Tharoor recreates the British Raj with all its horrors and also elucidates the awe-inspiring struggle of India's freedom fighters. He gives us a valuable insight on how dark forces operate and on who are harbingers of hope—it's a valuable lesson at a time when thugs are masquerading as our saviours…at a time when debate has been reduced to a cacophony of slogans and insults by bhakts, Tharoor's writing, with its expansive case studies and citations and sustained argument, all augmented by his felicity of language, may just come as an eye-opener to us all. —Huffington Post ‘Tharoor’s thrusts are painful, and his approach is that of a shrewd debater—which Tharoor excels at—attacking each proclaimed virtue from all fronts, leaving the supporter of the empire defenceless. He shows—with facts and statistics—how post-independence India has made rapid strides in economic and social development, which were simply impossible during the colonial era, and without stressing on the point too loudly, reminds the reader how much more India could have achieved had it been able to modernize without colonial subjugation’ —LiveMint About the Author Shashi Tharoor is the bestselling author of fifteen previous books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a noted critic and columnist. His books include the path-breaking satire The Great Indian Novel (1989), the classic India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), and most recently, India Shastra: Reflections on the Nation in Our Time (2015). He was a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. He is a two-time member of the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram and chairs Parliament’s External Affairs Committee. He has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was honoured as New Age Politician of the Year (2010) by NDTV. He was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India’s highest honour for overseas Indians.