Author: Denis Judd
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 234
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195670647
Description
How did a few thousand people from a small, windswept island in the northern seas end up ruling a far distant subcontinent with a population of millions? Denis Judd tells the fascinating story of the remarkable British impact upon India, capturing the essence of what the Raj really meant both for the British and their Indian subjects.
All aspects of this long and controversial relationship are discussed: the first tentative contacts between East and West, the foundation of the East India Company in 1600, the Victorian Raj in all its pomp and splendour, Gandhi's revolutionary tactics to overthrow the Raj and restore India to the Indians, and Lord Mountbatten's swift surgery of Partition in 194, creating the independent Commonwealth States of India and Pakistan.
British rule in India seemed highly unlikely when the British experience with Indian began in earnest over four hundred years ago, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. For many years the English interlopers and traders who made contact with the country were viewed by Indians as little more than pirates and potentially troublesome, conquering barbarians. After a series of titanic struggles against the French and various local rulers during the eighteenth century, Britain gained mastery of the subcontinent. This period, and the century and a half that followed, saw two powerful cultures locked in an often bloody battle over political control, land, trade, and a way of life.
Against this epic backdrop, and using many revealing contemporary accounts, Denis Judd writes vividly, exploring the consequences of British rule for both rulers and ruled. Based on extensive research, and illustrated with black and white photographs, the Lion and the Tiger provides an engaging account of a key moment in British Imperial history. It will appeal to students and scholars of Indian and British history, and the general reader interested in the British Raj.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
An excellent introduction to the rise and fall of the British Raj, accurate, succinct and engaging.
-Stanley Wolpert, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles
Judd has total command of his material, with interesting stories to tell at every turn. His account is filled with quotations and anecdotes that vividly capture the spirit of the times, British rule in India is astonishingly complex and one of the truly great stories of world history.
-Foreign Affairs
Denis Judd is a prolific writer and no stranger to the Colonial Period, His work is entertaining.
-Richard Norton, Professor, Naval War College, Rhode Island
Judicious, vigorous and highly readable.
-New Statesman
Intelligent and insightful.
-Mail on Sunday
Informative, He has interesting points to make about modern Commonwealth relationship.
-Times Literary Supplement
Contents
LIST OF PLATES
To fly to India for gold: Early Contacts, 1583-1615
Infamous for their honest endeavours: Laying Foundations, 1615-1708
Conquest and Corruption: The Struggle for Supremacy, 1708-1815
The great ends we have in view: The East India Company as Paramount Power, 1815-1857
The devil's wind: The Great Indian Uprising, or Mutiny of 1857-1858
Lords of All they Surveyed? The Raj at its Zenith, 1858-1905
The Beginning of the End? Reform and Conflict, 1905-1919
Gandhi and the Fightback of Indian Nationalism, 1919-1939
Engine of War or the Enemy Within?
India, 1939-1945
Tryst with Destiny: Freedom and Partition, 1945-1947
Epilogue
Chronology
Sources for Quotations
Bibliography
Index