Raj af Lawrence James (Bog)

Forfatter: Lawrence James
Sprog: Engelsk
Antal sider: 768
Forlag: Macmillan
Udgivelsesår: 2000
From the critically acclaimed author of "The Rise and Fall of the British Empire" comes an unapologetic revisionist history of British rule in India. James recounts the twists and turns of imperialism and independence with a wealth of new material. 8-page photo insert.
Titel: Raj

Sammendrag: In less than one hundred years, the British made themselves the masters of India. They ruled for another hundred, leaving behind the independent nations of India and Pakistan, when they finally withdrew in 1947. Both nations would owe much to the British Raj: the introduction of railways, roads, canals, schools, universities, hospitals, universal language, and common law, and the creation of national identity.

None of this, however, was planned. After a series of emergencies in the eighteenth century transformed a business partnership with the East India Company into the most formidable war machine in Asia, conquest gathered its own momentum. Fortunes grew, and in consequence, Britons grew troubled by the despotism that had been created in their name. The result was the formation of a government that balanced firmness with benevolence and had as its goal the advancement of India.

But the Raj, outwardly so monolithic and magnificent, always rested precariously on the goodwill of the Indian. In this remarkable exploration of British rule in India, Lawrence James chronicles the astonishing heroism that created it, the mixture of compromise and repression that characterized it, and the twists and turns of the independence struggle that ended it.
Type: Paperback