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The Case For India - Will Durant (1930
From Australia
B. Racz
5.0 out of 5 stars The British Royal Family needs to be removed
Reviewed in Australia on 6 March 2023
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Written in 1930 and exposed the corruption in the British Empire, the Royal family, and the entire structure. The Bank of England are mass murderers and are today pushing for World War 3. This Book reveals it all.
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From other countries
Vedi
5.0 out of 5 stars Cogent ideas
Reviewed in the United States on 18 December 2019
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This is a must read for modern day Indians who are trying to understand how we got here, and what we need to do going forward. Durant is an original thinker, and has an exhaustive knowledge of history. His ability to put events in perspective is unmatched.
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Judith Prajapati
5.0 out of 5 stars Important book on the Raj in India.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 April 2019
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Appreciate accuracy of events described, fascinating.
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dinesh sharma
5.0 out of 5 stars British Jewel in the Crown
Reviewed in the United States on 3 April 2019
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Excellent short book about British Raj and why India was the “Jewel in the British Crown”
3 people found this helpful
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S. R. Nagaraj
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book, nevertheless a way it's printed.
Reviewed in India on 22 February 2018
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Horrible print, awful font,' i ' s without dots, no full stops. I ordered for the love of its contents, precious history unknown to most of us.
A wonderful job in fact by the publishers of bringing out such unknown facts of history - ought to be easy to read.
24 people found this helpful
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Dr Shailender Singh
5.0 out of 5 stars Salute to Will Durant
Reviewed in India on 16 April 2021
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Amazing writing, at least we had some understanding of our rich culture and history
One person found this helpful
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PULINC
3.0 out of 5 stars A Boldly Written Book very poorly produced!
Reviewed in India on 10 October 2018
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One cannot write admiringly enough about Durant's incisive observations of the Indian conditions under the British rule, but his present book is an example of how not to produce a brilliant book like this one: it's a nightmare even beginning to read the book, what with the scandalous letter type selected for the text, the effete worn-out letter casts being used, overall fuzzy printing work so that the reader has to devote himself more to learning the physical text that the printer has meant to print than what the author has to convey through the text
25 people found this helpful
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Community Reviews
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Ashish Iyer
812 reviews · 550 followers
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October 21, 2021
One of the most comprehensive and an unbiased account of British atrocity rule from the eyes of an American historian. The author Will Durant presents before us unflinching, unwavering and powerful account of the atrocities committed by British rule on Indian economy, politics and culture. In 1930, he published The Case for India while he was on a visit to India as part of collecting data for The Story of Civilization. He was so taken aback by the devastating poverty and starvation he saw and he took time off from his stated goal and instead concentrated on his polemic fiercely advocating Indian independence.
The author has split the task of narrating Indian story into 4 sections.
- The first introductory chapter is laden with accurate proofs and statistics on how British intelligently poverished the Indian subcontinent.
- A later chapter follows his views and positive opinions about M.K.Gandhi.
- Third chapter passionately pictures the revolutions of 1921 and 1930.
- While the last section of the book talks about arguments of British makes to stand his case.
- The fact that many Indian institutions were destroyed by the British and how they introduced their education system is well presented.
- The case of the famines that the British caused by diverting grain from India is well written.
- Industrial Revolution was built on Indian money, while destroying India's economy is again well explained.
- The Hindu-Muslim divide was created by the British, and India was messily carved into two nations (this happened 17 years after the book was written).
- The author has written from both perspective India and british.
I recently read somewhere that Britain ruled India for about 200 years, a period that was marred with extreme poverty and famine. India's wealth depleted in these two centuries. The scars of colonization remain despite Britain leaving India over 70 years ago. Between 1765 and 1938, the drain amounted to 9.2 trillion pounds($45 trillion).
Read the book once then you will understand why this book was banned by the british parliament. The Case For India has now provided India and the world a means to know the true Indian history. This kind of books should be added in schools and colleges. Highly recommended.
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Riku Sayuj
658 reviews · 7,268 followers
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August 15, 2017
Shashi Tharoor mentioning this raised my regard for Durant immediately:
In 1930, a young American historian and philosopher, Will Durant, stepped onto the shores of India for the first time. He had embarked on a journey around the world to write what became the magnificent eleven-volume The Story of Civilization. But he was, in his own words, so ‘filled with astonishment and indignation’ at what he saw and read of Britain’s ‘conscious and deliberate bleeding of India’ that he set aside his research into the past to write a passionate denunciation of this ‘greatest crime in all history’.
His short book, The Case for India, remains a classic, a profoundly empathetic work of compassion and outrage that tore apart the self-serving justifications of the British for their long and shameless record of rapacity in India.
As Durant wrote:
The British conquest of India was the invasion and destruction of a high civilization by a trading company [the British East India Company] utterly without scruple or principle, careless of art and greedy of gain, over-running with fire and sword a country temporarily disordered and helpless, bribing and murdering, annexing and stealing, and beginning that career of illegal and ‘legal’ plunder which has now [1930] gone on ruthlessly for one hundred and seventy-three years.
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Rsraob
55 reviews · 1 follower
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December 25, 2012
On reading this, I just realized as an Indian how ignorant I and all my generation has been. No history book prescribed by our school system covered the depth of plunder of India, distinguishing the plunder by the British and the plunder by previous conquerors. The reading itself is easy. The major point here is the author does not try to make his own calculations but tries to repeat what some conscious British have already published or printed.
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Thirumal Rao
5 reviews
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July 7, 2013
It is a wonderfully written argument by an American author who had seen India first hand and studied deeply about the country. The book provides a perspective on the state of India around 1930 (when the book was first published) and the prognosis suffered due to an extended subjection by foreign rule. The author has given some very interesting and informative information regarding the extent of brutality that was practiced by the British. I believe this book should be a part of curriculum in all schools at the collegiate level. I have not read a better document that is more comprehensive, cogent, objective argument in favour of India. I salute the courage of this author and his noble spirit to not just make a case, but publish a book that supports a country that was yet to be born and was almost 2 decades away from gaining Independence.
me
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Anusha Jayaram
170 reviews · 57 followers
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March 2, 2019
It takes a rare spirit who can stand by his / her own conscience in the face of prevailing norms and beliefs to the contrary. Will Durant is an example of just such a human being. Having originally come to India in connection with a very different study relating to the History of Civilizations, he ended up being so influenced by what he saw that he devoted his time to authoring this book.
He has painstakingly categorized and catalogued the effects of the British rule under relevant headings, such as Economic Destruction, Social Destruction, and so on. The brevity of each chapter belies the wealth of information packed into each passage. Durant manages to paint the big picture, tracing the cycle of exploitation in a simple manner, while citing other historians’ writings to bolster his case. He also exposes the racist underpinnings and ulterior motives behind writings such as ‘Mother India’ by Katherine Mayo, by providing context for the cherry-picked ‘facts’ of her narrative.
Durant has expended a lot of effort in quantifying each injustice perpetrated by the British on the Indian people. The result of this is that a reader is able to comprehend in a much more visual manner, the extent of brutality inflicted upon India by the British Raj.
I know that a reasonable portion of my school history curriculum did cover the British Raj in India and the atrocities that came with it. Although I was familiar with the overall gist of things, and how the British rule drained India of her wealth, I couldn’t quite grasp the magnitude of these atrocities. As a child, it’s not the simplest thing to make sense of tariffs, and how skewed tariffs can cripple an economy. The exorbitant salaries and pensions paid out to British officers (serving and retired respectively), which further bled the country were not even mentioned, although these constituted a significant and steady drain on the country.
The only complaint I have about this book is the undercurrent of the “North India is superior to the Southern part” assumption. This is evidenced by passing remarks, “the more important half of India”, “still higher culture” of North India, even while acknowledging that Angkor Wat was a Hindu architectural marvel exported from India, and that India was the world’s leader in ship-building - both these points obviously referring to South India, considering that peninsular India is the portion with the naval expertise responsible for expansion of kingdoms via sea.
Even people with the best of intentions do have their own unacknowledged biases. And to that extent is understandable that people are a product of their times. The (highly divisive and controversial) Aryan invasion theory no doubt caused a subconscious bias in the minds of many Western historians, leading them to believe in the innate ‘superiority’ of North India. One tends to overlook these relatively minor details though, given that the author spoke from a very genuine place, and with the intent of furthering the truth in the face of misinformation and blatant whitewashing of facts.
The presentation of Gandhi as a public figure is romanticized to a certain degree. Durant tries to justify his every action, by attributing noble intent behind even some of Gandhi’s foolish or deliberately ignorant stances. This though, is understandable in that he was the most “public” face of the Indian freedom struggle. There were many more freedom fighters in India, some of whom were likely more logical and less foolishly naïve than Gandhi.
However, Gandhi probably came across as the most accessible or relatable to the Western figures, who ended up documenting much of the history of the times. His willingness to repeatedly negotiate with the British (even when they had proved themselves untrustworthy of negotiations), his articulate English - a result of his British education, and the fact that his 'non-violent' resistance was likely to have resonated with dearly held Western Christian beliefs – all probably contributed to making him the most relatable among the public personalities in India at the time.
The latter part of the book also summarizes the case that the British officers made for their continued rule over India. Durant presents this argument in an uninterrupted passage, and follows it up with a point-by-point refutation of several claims and justifications.
The one thing that stands out very clearly is the British officers’ “rationale” for not allowing self-rule of India, is their blatant doublethink, fuelled by extreme cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy. Durant has done an admirable job exposing this hypocrisy.
The most pernicious and lasting effect of the British rule though, has been their stated policy of “Divide and Rule” – the effects of which we are still seeing in today’s post-partition India. As I’ve been making my way through this book, tensions in the subcontinent have been escalating once again. I will refrain from getting into the political commentary of the present day conflicts facing India, since that is not the subject of my review (though I naturally do have plenty of thoughts on it).
But it is with a sense of bitter irony that I acknowledge yet again how the British Raj was responsible for sowing the seeds of discord deep and wide throughout India for their own selfish and power-hungry motives, the effects of which the Indian subcontinent is still reeling from today.
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Jayesh Shah
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December 14, 2016
Will Durant wrote this book in 1930. It was three years after Katherine Mayo’s book, Mother India, was published. Mother India is not a balanced book. It sees only negative aspect of India and the Hindus. Durant calls it the unfairest book ever written.
Mr. Durant explains in his book that England has bled India year after year to the point of death. Before 1757 (when Britain started occupying India), there were no major famines in India. Since then, during almost 200 years of British rule, millions of people died every year from famine. Thousands of miles of railways could have helped in managing famines by transporting food, but it never happened. The railways were built only for British army and British trade. It was well-known that there was no shortage of food, but it was not distributed properly.
Britain waged 111 wars in India during the nineteenth century. These wars were waged to steal lands from the princely states. Riots between Hindus and Muslims were rare in Native States but were common in the British Provinces. British increased the rift between Hindus and Muslims.
Mr. Durant argues that the English are the best gentlemen on earth; the British are the worst of all imperialists. Not one Englishman was convicted of murder in India in 150 years in spite of many instances where they committed murders of their servants and other people of India. Court verdicts always favored Englishmen against Indians.
They argued that India needed British protection otherwise France, Spain or Portugal would attack and occupy India. Their protection basically meant keeping other poachers out of the field, allowing only them to rob India.
England argued that her industrial revolution was dependent on their rule over India. A sudden severance of this arrangement will be politically dangerous for India and economically ruinous for England. A German professor explained in 1911 that, “…If the Asiatics were to succeed in destroying English mastery there, then the position of the whole white race throughout the world would be fatally undermined.” India had become an economic necessity to British merchants. To justify India’s subjugation for that reason was like worrying about the inconvenience experienced by the robber at the cost of the victim’s rights. It is ironic that Kipling claimed the world is a white man’s burden! Arrogance should have limits.
Looking at the British treatment of India and her people, it is natural to have animosity toward them and a strong desire to avenge the injustices caused by them. Luckily, India and the Indian people have risen above it. They have not wasted time on insisting that Britain must pay for her sins against India. If India had gone that road, she would be like what Pakistan is today. The very existence of Pakistan depends on her hatred for India. In the last 70 years, India did not take the road but Pakistan did. The world can see the difference in the way these two countries function.
During British occupation it was frequently argued that Indians are not capable of ruling themselves. Last 70 years of independent India have proved them wrong.
Frequently, Britain is given credit for unifying India. History shows it is not true. Since the time of Buddha and even before him, Indian subcontinent was culturally and politically a single unit. The epics, Ramayana and Mahabharat, (even if they are considered fiction) show clearly that the characters in these epics roam freely throughout the land, marry women of different regions, and followed same religion. Authors would not have described the characters this way if India was not treated as one unit in those days.
Lastly, Indians were considered incompetent by Britain and other western countries. If the word competence is defined by what western countries are capable of then I am glad that India and Indians are incompetent. In its ten thousand years of history, India has never behaved like this with any nation. India has respected other nations and other religions, always. West has never been able to show that strength.
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Arun
20 reviews · 1 follower
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July 3, 2015
Every now and then, one comes across some people who try to say that the British rule was very helpful to India. This book dispels this view. Written in 1930, it presents a very good view of the British rule in India. The chapter dealing with Gandhi is good as one rarely comes across a realistic depiction of the failings of 'The Mahatma' in Indian books.
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Shivam Agarwal
25 reviews · 11 followers
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November 2, 2014
An excellent book whose narration was the most beautiful I have ever witnessed. Will Durant is undoubtedly epitome in telling a case with a fresh perspective and does not fear to do so. In this book he presented what changes India went through during British rule. He has put forward from a neutral mindset, that what effects were witnessed during that rule.
I have never read a conclusion so beautifully written and thought provoking. I would suggest at least every Indian to read the book to know from both points of view what happened to India and why?
What I liked the most in the book is it does not decide whether the British rule in India was good or bad. It presents the events as it happened. It is upto the reader to decide or choose not to decide the same.
Looking forward to read other books by Will Durant.
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Ashwin
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January 3, 2021
It is excellent that this important yet forgotten book has been brought back into print. But the quality of editing is extremely poor. I cannot escape the sense of anger against the British Empire that this book has given birth to with in me. To date, I had looked upon the freedom movement through the haze of romanticism, Will Durant has put the extent of British terrorism and greed into perspective. No Indian must forget the injustices he has suffered at the hands of the Raj and must forever be grateful to the men and women who shed their cynicism and gave us our freedom.
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Jeevan Basavaraju
53 reviews · 5 followers
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April 9, 2015
All Indian's should read this book to know truth about:
- How was India before British rule.
- How Britisher's treated Indians.
- How Britisher's looted Indians and killed Indian's body & mind.
- And many more details!
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Ajay
241 reviews · 3 followers
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May 22, 2019
Everyone should read this book. It was written before Independence of India. I so wish that Will Durant could have written many books on India. Not biased though. You can realised how damaged Britisher have done to us.
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Shahenshah
38 reviews · 12 followers
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July 10, 2013
I concede I am biased towards Will Durant; but that ought not to take away from the inscient and impavid candour of the Truth which lays bare naked the very edifice of Empire. The opaque and pernicious digressions of Empire's utility are brought to the Court of Reason and, dare I say, morality. For though the Peoples have discredited Empire, albeit historians of certain shades surreptitiously strive to concoct digestible raison d'êtres, our Generation should do well to read this 'Case'. Mr Durant spoke the Truth not in retrospective convenience; for then he was conveniently dead. He spoke the Truth at the height of the British Empire. They banned his book throughout the Empire, which comprehended a quarter of the Globe. They pursued the American publishers, and so to-day we have but a few copies left.
Though, for I quote Churchill, 'a lie gets half-way around the world before the Truth has time to put its pants on', I pray you chance with the clumsy hare. [Ergo, read it.]
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Ishani
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September 10, 2019
Well it was very hard to not break down and still digest the figures put down in this book !
To start with, the book is actually written in the form of an argument as if put forward for India in a court. It doesn’t mention any events which are otherwise unknown to us.
Partition of Bengal, Jalliwanwala Bagh massacre, the treatment of Indians by British etc. are all too well known to everyone of us. But events and their description do not win a case and here in comes this book. It doesn’t describe but mentions in money the drainage which was done to India. It argues and pulls off the mask from Britain on each of their points they made defending their position in India and maligning India as a deprived and unorganized state.
It is well researched and documented in sections with numbers and figures hard to beat and contradict. It’s not an essay sympathizing with us without any evidence. It can actually be used to argue our case !
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Lata
663 reviews · 145 followers
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September 2, 2022
I bought this book after reading Shashi Tharoor's "Inglorious Empire". Shashi Tharoor might have been biased against the British, he himself says “India is my country, and in that sense my outrage is personal.”
So here we have an unbiased view by an American who had no relationship at all with India. This was written much before the Indian independence, so it is even more horrifying because most of them were current events then. He doesn't pull out statistics out of thin air, he provides citations for every data presented.
The brutality against the non-violent satyagrahis was blood curdling. I can only say hats off to these brave people who never showed anger and were completely restrained even when under torture.
It is appalling that the British looted India off her riches, then have the audacity to claim responsibility for empowering/ civilizing India.
One quote sums it all - ...to this ruining of the land with taxation, this ruining of industry with tariffs, and this ruining of commerce with foreign control, add the drainage of millions of dollars from India year after year- and the attempt to explain India's poverty as the result of her superstitions becomes a dastardly deception practiced upon a world too busy to be well informed.
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Vishal Kale
166 reviews · 12 followers
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March 28, 2017
The book describes in graphic detail the atrocities of the so-called "civilized" Britishers (refer definition below!!!!!) in the chapter "The rape of a continent". The difference is that he has quoted numbers and figures; unassailable facts and laws that graphically illustrate the systematic destruction of all kinds of local enterprise. For example, produce was taxed at 50%; the documented fact that tax rates rates were the highest in India across the world; Sample this:
"The fundamental principle of the british has been to make the whole indian nation subservient... they have been taxed to the utmost limit; the indians have been denied every honor, dignity or office".... F J Shore testifying to the house of commons in 1857
"Under their dependence on the british - Oudh and Karnatic, 2 of the noblest provinces in India, were plunged into a state of wretchedness with which no part of the Earth has anything to compare" - Lt Col Brigs, 1830
"The Governments' assessment does not even leave enough food for the cultivator to feed his family" - Sir William Hunter, 1875
"The Rajahs had taxed the people much less severely than the british.... "
"The national debt of India rose from $35,000,000 in 1792 to $3,500,000,000 in 1929. These figures tell the tale"
The book is littered with such graphic details - all taken from western, and primarily british sources. It examines how the economic fabric of the country was destroyed, how for example its textile trade was wrecked; its impact on the prosperity of the nation. It also examines the specious claims of education improvement - there were more schools in India before the advent of the civilized british; how the number of schools diminished and were discouraged; It looks at the now-famous example of the british gift of railways - in the USA, railways were used largely for goods transport, whereas in India their function was for the imperial class travels; It examines how every activity of the british - right down to the bullets used to suppress revolts were exacted from Indians;
It looks at the wages paid to Indians; It details tariffs of 80% on Indian products as opposed to zero tariffs on british imports; "The result was that Manchester and Paisley flourished and Indian industries declined. India was transformed into a purely agricultural country, and her mineral wealth was not explored; artisans etc were forced to live off the land; no competition was to be allowed to English industries- Kohn".
Read More : https://reflectionsvvk.blogspot.in/20...
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Sriram Venugopal
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March 10, 2020
Its a book which summarizes India's rich vedic past, its science, mathematics, medicine, religion, philosophy, literature, art, architecture, etc. It touches upon how the muslim invaders destroyed most of that. But the following are the negatives I found which was intolerable as it is repeated throughout the book
- Anti Brahminism throughout the book. Author seems to be holding Brahmins responsible for all the ills that face India. He might have learnt about India from the Caldwells and GU Popes (all Christian missionaries)
- Aryan Invasion theory peddled. This lie has been proven wrong many times but this book was written long back
- It is very apparent that the author has a hate for Hinduism. He speaks about the Hinduism very disparagingly. The author seems to be a Christian bigot and that bias is very apparent when you read the book
- Author conveniently white washes the atrocities of the British and invokes Darwinism to justify the British invasion and destruction of India (victory of strong over weak). Author talks about the poverty of India but hides the fact that India controlled 25% of GDP before British came and 4% of GDP when they left India.
I started reading the book on strong recommendations to read about India's past glory but there are many other books that we can read to learn the same. Unless somebody desparately wants to learn India's glory from a westerner, I recommend to skip this book.
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Aparna Dubey
53 reviews · 5 followers
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March 6, 2017
Written in 1930, this is a brief yet poignant and masterful narrative of the British rule in India by the renowned American historian and Pulitzer Prize winner, Will Durant. A rich and objective perspective on the life, times and opinions of varied stakeholders of British ruled India. There are little factoids embedded in the book; which I was not aware of, despite being an avid reader; and born and studied in India. The book is unique, in that it gives a perspective of what the Britishers thought of India; and their contributions to India; with a counter perspective on the same from the Indian freedom fighters. His perspective of Mahatma Gandhi's belief, contribution and opinion of 'Free India' is also quite unique and objective.
An extract from his book's foreword on why the historian, hitherto known for his books on study of global civilizations and philosophy authors a book on India - ' I began to feel that I had come upon the greatest crime in all history...For I know of nothing in the world that I would rather do today than to be of help to India'.
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Kabir
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July 27, 2020
After reading this book, I cannot grapple with how an American observer could simply compile facts into a 150-page book written in 1930, and still make it so heart-wrenching and eye-opening. Even having studied Indian history in the classroom, The Case for India made me realize that I knew close to nothing about the multifaceted humiliation, persecution and destruction that the British waged upon India. Be it in the form of actively trying to create religious and casteist divisions or the systematic disintegration of Indian industry or the repeated disallowance of more qualified Indians into positions of power that were then occupied by under qualified Englishmen or the vetoing of proposals passed by provincial legislatures to introduce universal primary education or... the list goes on. This book is a must-read for anyone who identifies as an Indian, but even more so for those who don't. It is a basic prerequisite for anyone interested in learning about the British Raj.
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Harshavardhan Ganesan
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August 22, 2017
Indian History has too often been swept under the strokes of uncontrolled nationalism, painting normal men as Mahatmas and questionable policy makers as pandits. However, in this book, written in 1930, Will Durant provides a rivetting history of India which tells us exactly what we want to know. How is the Independence Movement going? And how did we get here? More importantly, WHY is it happening in the first place. Why are the English gentlemen, the British boors? The book makes a case for India and HOW! Even to those of us who knew about Indian History, it is very different reading about how events were percieved as they happened as opposed to later, after being eroded by time.
A must read.
P.S- General Dyer was the biggest asshole that ever lived.If you thought he was bad before, read the book.
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Pooja Sanghvi
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December 18, 2019
A book by an American historian on Indian freedom struggle in 1930 was interesting in so many ways.
1. It is based on notes that were gathered 17 years before independence and presented a case on whether it was time for India to be granted home rule.
2. The Indian society as pictured in 20th century was a study in contrast to what we are today.
3. Comparison of governance then & today would make excellent debate.
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Madhurya Yadunath
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January 18, 2019
Reading about the British exploitation of India from a contemporary of that era is enlightening. Coming from an American, we can be rest assured that it is as impartial as it can get. British, worse than a vulture fed on a living civilization. Figures and numbers of the British loot of India will shock anyone. A long chapter is written on Gandhi, giving a glimpse of his life, philosophy, writings. Gandhi has done more damage to India than help. Will Durant's book is a valuable account and record of the British exploitation of India. A must read.
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Suhas S
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October 15, 2015
One of the most detailed accounts of British India by a foreign author, untouched by the arrogance of racism. Will Durant gives a thorough exposition of the loot of our country and the designs to have her enslaved by the British for very many centuries. No doubt this was banned by the British Parliament, for it would bring an Englishman, proud of his country's authority, face to face with the evil that it has bred all along.
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अजित रंगदळ
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January 3, 2013
I want this book.
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Mitesh Patel
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June 18, 2013
Must read for anyone that doesn't know the British's effect on our country.
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Arjun
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February 1, 2020
A must read . A primer to get a context on Modern India through the history of our struggle for freedom and autonomy.
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Guruprasad
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May 9, 2019
must read book for Indian history buffs
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Rajiv Chopra
608 reviews · 13 followers
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June 28, 2018
On many levels, this is an excellent book. The first, is that it is a rare book where a Western author has presented the case for India so very compellingly.
The fact that many Indian institutions were destroyed by the British (including the education system) is well presented. The case of the famines that the British caused by diverting grain from India is again documented. The fact that the Industrial Revolution was built on Indian money, while destroying India's economy is again well argued.
He writes well, and has attempted to see the argument from both, the British, and the Indian perspective. Sadly, the British perspective only serves to present them in a more unfavourable light.
The Hindu-Muslim divide was created by the British, and India was messily carved into two nations (this happened 17 years after the book was written)
A book well worth the read
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Sonal Panse
34 books · 60 followers
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January 5, 2018
"Certainly it was a remarkable, if not a magnanimous achievement, to steal in forty years a quarter of a million square miles, and make the victims pay every penny of the expense."
"What nobility can there be in a civilization that moves so naturally to murder and suicide, to diplomatic lies and invented atrocities, to universal conscription and a prostituted press, to gigantic national debts, and another war as soon as a new generation of simpletons grows up to believe new lies, not remembering the old."
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Prabhu
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February 1, 2019
Will Durant's neutral work on the condition of India under British rule is a brilliant piece of work (Brilliantly written with ample soul but not without ample research).
Overall, Will Durant..blends the economic, political and the moral situation of the British-India relationship into a carefully woven narrative wrought with examples, quotes, analogies and snippets from history!
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Gursimran
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September 7, 2018
A good read to know how imperialism dismantled India & its economy
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Prasad Krovvidi
14 reviews
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December 21, 2018
Outstanding book by an outstanding author. Will Durant wrote at a time when it was not fashionable to defend the east.
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Yayati Ashvapati
28 reviews
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September 2, 2022
The author Will Durant is aware of prejudices ingrained in hearts and composure of men. However, his painstaking devotion to impartiality and just mention of facts, anecdotes and statistical records are commendable.
India was not independent the time this book was written. In fact, it was pre-WW2 era. However, all the events, their underlying causes and leaders as well as the motivations, goals dreamt of and what actually were the ends are still relevant and accurate in discourse of:
1. Modern Indian Nationalism
2. The affairs of the British Raj
3. Social-Political-Economic Weltanschauung
4. Relationship between the Master (England) and the Slave (India)
Recommended for the readers who are less of jingoists and more of skeptics, for they will find more of antithetical points to the popular thought of their populace's consciousness. The goal is not to point out at certain ethnicities, races, religions, sexes or castes but to learn about the schools of thoughts and conducts and how they shape the shared future of the Commonwealth in particular and Mankind at large.
NOTE: The word "Hindu" has been frequently used to denote whole of the Indian race in general talking points. "Hindu" as a particular religion/sect is considered only when communal/martial distinctions are acknowledged in the conversation wrt., Moslems, Sikhs, Christians and so on.
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Conrad Barwa
145 reviews · 128 followers
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June 9, 2019
Much neglected polemic against British rule in India by the famous philosopher and historian.
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biography
british-colonialism
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Kranthi Reddy
27 reviews · 36 followers
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May 14, 2020
A riveting read for every Indian and English person. This book is a must read before any other history book for Indians to know the truth about British rule in India and many facts that are intentionally hidden from a large majority of the population. Using this book together with Our oriental Heritage (Chapters on India), the entire school history can be done away with. The history books in Indian schools were adulterated to cater to some political advantages of a few groups. While reading, I felt angry at the monstrous atrocities carried out in the name of colonialism and found it no less atrocious than the genocide of the jews by Nazi Germany. The systematic loot has deprived India of not only the riches but the very soul and life force from a country of ~320 million humans from which it is still being haunted. Another point of disappointment is the ignorance of the real history based on facts and evidence to a vast majority of Indians who pass through schooling feeling no pride in their land or cultural history. Though colonial rule ended in 1947, we are living in a world of economic slavery which are just continued due to the riches amassed by colonial powers from Asian and African countries. Read it and share with the young minds to instill some pride into their rich economic cultural heritage as great as if not greater than most of the western countries. The book reasons and tries to find the basis for the lot of social and religious issues facing the Indian society then in 1930 and to a large extent now.
history
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Fakhry Harraz
35 reviews
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April 21, 2022
Despite the fact that I just used this book as a reference. But, as I read it, I've realised that Will Durrant's views on British colonisation in India were not prejudiced at all. I mean, unlike other historians, his ideas are not corrupted by Eurocentric perspective. In his explanation, the depth of sympathy that he expresses towards the Indians is quite impressive for me, as if he were genuinely opposed to the British(maybe considering the fact that he is an American). Also, there isn't a lot of jargon, which makes it easy for me to understand what is really going on in this book. although I have not yet finished reading this pieces, However, I strongly recommend you to go through this comprehensive collection of Durrant's views on the event.
phenomenal!
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Jason C.
19 reviews · 1 follower
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March 13, 2022
India, once a 1930s poverty stricken and oppressed country, jumps today to and takes on as a top 10 economically, socially, spiritually and phylosophically dynamic nation. Just off the bat - how long has India and have Indians come is truly remarkable! This was written when ahimsa and freedom movements were at a rise. A book shedding light on 150 years of Indian screams by an American writer half way across the globe. Complete chaos, despair and socio-economic desecration by the British for the British.
Will Durant on Gandhi: "He admired the British form of government, and wished that British practice would conform with English theory; he marveled that a people so dedicated to liberty should be capable of enslaving such a nation (/nations)" - he was aware of "divide and rule" theory and tried his best to counter it... as much as any revolutionary at the time.
Will Durant etches: “India was the motherland of our race and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages. India was the mother of our philosophy, of much of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in Christianity... of self-government and democracy. In many ways, Mother India is the mother of us all.”
Notably, Gandhi was aware of the consequences of his actions for/towards freedom movements. This, while the followers were angry at times, led him to asks to ask for "highest possible punishment" rather than what was intended by the (british) court system. Gandhi moved with the people and therefore gained momentum by living amongst and moving the them.
We have heard numerous books, spiritual, religious or otherwise mention "overcome evil with good". However, it is one of the most difficult statements to practice. Do we/can we as human beings, even today, run our lives to such decree? Are we following the karmic notion of 1:1 or do we stand on doing good through any means necessary? Exsolving yourself of all worldly pleasures and do what is good? How, is the thought provoking question herein, do we walk the path of enlightenment as Gods' books so heavily write? Lay another cheek when one is hit? She, India, attained freedom herein - through ahimsa. How hard must that have been is detailed....
From England's POV: "There are a thousand capitalists waiting to exploited India unhindered when it is "free"". How true are these words today? Is the question everyone should ask themselves.
This book narrates where her, India's, staggering $400 Billion USD wealth went and highlights the need for her glorious past to the world. Flabberghasted by the figure alone!
Lala Lajpat Rai: "India holds in her hands the remedy for this universal misfortune, for she is the keystone of the arch of imperialism Once she is free, the whole edifice will collapse. The best guarantee for the freedom of Asia and the peace of the world is a free, self governing India".
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Garima
7 reviews · 10 followers
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April 1, 2020
To correctly understand the present, we need to delve into the past. This applies to nations as well as individuals. I have always felt intrigued by the part of Indian history which was never published, something not written through the lens of the British. And as I read that history, I cannot but wonder what India could have been, had it protected itself from the Britishers.
I found myself led to this book by its reference in Mr. Shashi Tharoor’s book, “An Era of Darkness, the British Empire in India”. Will Durant summarizes precisely the condition of India through two hundred years of British rule. How they trampled trade, changed the demographics of the country, taxed it to fill their own pockets to the point of obscenity.
What is truly depressing is that some of the ills begotten by the British continue after almost 73 years of independence. India is still an agro based economy, with more people depending on agriculture for livelihood that it can support. India is still fighting with communal issues, the seeds of which were sown by the British under their policy of Divide and Rule. Till date, the vote banks are sought on the basis of caste or religion. One can clearly see its roots in the British system of legislation wherein Hindus could elect only a Hindu leader, similar with Muslims, Christians, Parsis etc.
It is sad to see us continuing with some ills which the British introduced. So, for the sole reason of knowing our correct history, I recommend this small book to every Indian.
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Bhisham
12 reviews · 8 followers
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April 13, 2020
I have prepared for civil services exam in India for 3-4 years and have gone through multiple books over the subject of Indian freedom struggle and the period of 1800-1950s in general.
This book has been a different and refreshing experience for me as the writer has written it in contemporary times (during the freedom struggle). The realisation of the fact that the readers are the kinds of Gandhi and Tagore, gives me a thrill unexplainable. Besides, the interviews of these respected Indian leaders have the common theme of content and happiness of a western genius catching the right perspective & plight of Indians.
The events have a microscopic view focusing more over the details of the incidents(as maybe would emerge in newspapers of the time, if they were allowed of course), the feelings of the people rather than the macroscopic and iconic social/political implications of the events. The harrowing accounts of civil disobedience movement(1930s) in particular was distressing.
Finally, as a balanced writing, the case for England also is briefly (albeit comprehensively) put forward. This was followed by swift counterpoints killing the case for England.
The facts of British exploitation of India and the mechanisms of that are condensed and understood now. But to see these evolving and to relate to these along with the real events and feelings of actual people(both known and unknowns) was thrilling.
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Adarsh Agarwal
20 reviews
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November 5, 2018
Stumbled upon this book by chance and it turned out to be good in a sense that it made me introspect into our own independence movement. This book captures in short detail about Gandhi and his method on achieving Independence through non-violence and development of India through development of village economy. As an American, writer does question this method in era when other countries where fighting violently to get their freedom and moving towards industrial expansion, Gandhi is suggesting to move towards the traditional village economy. But it also made me think that it was our Non-violence principle and acceptance of diversity that saved the country from breaking into 500 minor countries lest India would have been another Europe. to comment upon Industrial expansion, its quite true that India being 90% rural at time of independence, thrust should have been given to development of village economy that we realised it late after 4 decades when we see now numerous schemes for development of Rural areas. Therefore, to a point this book did made me think that our own independence movement did prove out to the world about effectiveness of moral principles.
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The Case for India
Will Durant
Strand Book Stall, Mumbai
This limited edition is published by
Strand Book Stall, December 2007
