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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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Raj: The Making and
Unmaking of British India This is the brilliantly told story of one of the wonders of
the modern world - how in less than a hundred years the British made themselves
masters of India. They ruled it for another hundred, departing in 1947, leaving
behind the independent states of India and Pakistan. British rule taught Indians
to see themselves as Indians and its benefits included railways, hospitals, law
and a universal language. But the Raj, outwardly so monolithic and magnificent,
was always precarious. Its masters knew that it rested ultimately on the
goodwill of Indians. James has produced a definitive account of the British
Empire's greatest achievement without succumbing to the political correctness
that clouds our ability to analyse and conclude based solely on the facts and
the views of the time. The book traces the path from the initial feudal
oligarchies with whom other nations and peoples had traded for centuries to the
creation of the jewel of the world's largest empire to the today's position as
the largest democracy in the world.
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