En Era of Darkness The British Empire in India

 Hello! 

 I am Nidhi Jethava and I am a student of English literature. It’s my first blog of semester three. We are dealing with term postcolonialism. Here, I am going to discuss some of the interesting topics of Shashi Tharoor. 

About Shashi Tharoor :- 

Shashi Tharoor (IPA: [ʃɐʃi t̪ɐɾuːr]; born 9 March 1956) is an Indian politician, writer and former international diplomat who has been serving as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He was formerly Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and contested for the post of Secretary-General in 2006.

He also serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology  and All India Professionals Congress. He formerly served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs (2014 to 2019). In 2019, Shashi Tharoor received the Sahitya Academy Award for his book An Era of Darkness in a non-fiction category in English language.

● His speeches videos are :- 

1. Speech at Oxford Union.

2. Looking back at the British Raj in India: The University of  Edinburgh.

3. Exclusive interview by Karan Thapar On His book  "An Era of Darkness."

4. About British Colonialism in India in His New Book ' An Era of Darkness'

In his speech ...

◆ He give two types of recently writing:- 

1. One is the contemporary scholarship on the field because he said he was not by professional historian that they had been doing...so, he had read Academic journals, books which shows the states of the thinking today by historian, sociologist and others of this issue.

2. Also read upon the lots of contemporary apologies for empire.

● Tharoor further adds that .... people like Lawrence James and more -  the bunch about the British writers who actually acquired a fair amount of visibility & even has a best sellers in which they had conducted self justifying, excersises, glorifying empire or of the very least portray through Rose Tincture recipe. 

   And in this book he wanted to be able to take their claims which had dangerously gone without reputation for some years and conform that had on which is Shashi Tharoor try to do in this book.

• Write on key arguments in Shashi Tharoor's book - An Era of Darkness.

Answer :- 

An Era of Darkness The British Empire in India is a very well-known book. It consists of the argument against British raj in India. As we know from school time we learnt that Britisher gave us so many good things, like post, railway, textile so many things. Shashi Throor describes unthinkable aspects. British colonies had exploded and those two eras were  dark ages for Indians. The book talks about these aspects. The book consists of post colonial theory as well. So let's discuss some of these aspects.

1. Self Exploration.

One of the interesting things postcolonial critics do is self Exploration. In the book An Era of Darkness he also talks about self exploration. According to Shashi Tharoor, British Raj was a disaster for India. India forgot that before British raj India known as ' sone ki chodiya'. This book represents a very beautiful argument about self Exploration.

2. Questioning.

One of the significant topics postcolonial criticism ponders is questioning. Shashi in his oxford union  speech mentioned this concept very well.

The proposition before this house is the principle of owing reparations, not the fine points of how much is owed, to whom it should be paid. The question is, is there a debt, does Britain owe reparations? As far as I am concerned, the ability to acknowledge your wrong that has been done, to simply say sorry will go a far far far longer way than some percentage of GDP in the form of aid. What is required it seems to me is accepting the principle that reparations are owed.[14]

— Shashi Tharoor

Write critique on both the films with reference to postcolonial insights.

Answer  :-

The black prince :- 

The Black Prince is a 2017 international historical drama film directed by Kavi Raz and featuring the acting debut of Satinder Sartaaj. It tells the story of Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire and the Punjab area, and his relationship with Queen Victoria.

The story of Dupeep Singh is very interesting. His mother constantly emphases on his kingdom which is in British Raj. It consists postcolonial discourse as well.

Victoria and Abdul. 

Victoria and Abdul is another film which discussed postcolonial and decolonization. Stephen Frears’ film is based on this true story. Or ‘mostly’, as the screen reads at the beginning of the movie. If the filmmaker was at the liberty to pick parts of the actual events, he should have limited himself to exploration of the unexpected friendship between the two protagonists. The problem arises when the film delves into the unacceptable aspect of this friendship, taking the story into dark alleyways of racism, post-colonial guilt and exoticism of the Orient.

Thank you