Anyone interested in a very thorough writing on the British occupation of India should read "The Inglorious Empire" by Shashi Tharoor. It is a very well researched work!
> Eminent Scottish historian William Dalrymple criticised the book, saying it "was written in 12 days, involved no personal archive research and contains some serious factual errors" however he maintained that the book was, nevertheless, "persuasive".[8]
> In a review published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, economic historian, Tirthankar Roy, a faculty at the London School of Economics criticized the book. He noted that "Tharoor makes his case with passion and plain good writing. The facts cited in the book are beyond dispute. The story is meant to be blood-curdling and the colourful language — including liberal use of “depredation,” “loot,” “rapaciousness,” “vicious,” “brutality,” “plunder” and “extraction” — produces that effect. Like a religious text, it tells a straight and narrow story with the zeal of a holy warrior. Yet none of these qualities makes the interpretation wrong, however. Few professional historians think that the British Empire ruled India with India’s best interests in mind.
> Another review of Inglorious Empire, published in the Literary Review, by historian John Keay, whose many writings on India include India: A History, applauds Tharoor for "tackling an impossibly contentious subject". However, he deplores the fact that "his moral venom sometimes clouds his own judgement" and notes that many of Tharoor's statistics are very seriously out of date, many coming from the polemics contained in the American Will Durant's Story of Civilisation written in the 1930s, which itself drew on the even earlier work of the crusading American missionary Jabej T. Sutherland, author of India in Bondage.[9]
> A more detailed criticism of Tharoor's book and his use of statistics was set out by the writer of South Asian history Charles Allen in a lecture entitled Quis custodiet ipsos custodes: who owns Indian history? delivered to the Royal Society for Asian Affairs in London on 25 April 2018. A revised version was published in Asian Affairs under the revised title Who Owns India's History? A Critique of Shashi Tharoor's Inglorious Empire.
Have you yourself read the book? The book provides massive list of references from all over the world used for researching the topic.
I will give you an example of how the UK manipulates the facts for consumption of its citizens. After Shashi Tharoor's Oxford Union speech went viral, the BBC published an article by a leading UK "historian". This guy claimed that he never "heard" of the UK damaging hands of Indian handloom weavers to destroy the Indian textile industry to promote it's own! This shows how the UK historians write history. I would urge citizens of UK to visit the former colonies of the UK and talk to the locals and get their facts. It is very well known both within the UK historian community and across the world that the UK history is whitewashed to hide lots of misdeeds of the past. Unfortunately that does not help the country to move forward as most of the country still thinks that they did good by occupying other countries.
Criticism by British people only adds credibility to that book. Even Tirthankar Roy - which seems to be of Indian descent is working for London School of Economics.
So these quotes don't convince me that this book was not "well researched".
I do take into account that Shashi Tharoor as I check on Wikipedia is a politician while born in UK he holds political positions in India - which convinces me that he has all the incentives to write book with "zeal of holy warrior".
Seems like adding link to Shashi wikipedia page and explaining who he is does much better job in showing that book might be more colorful than it should be.
Mr. Tharoor is a current Member of Parliament of India and previously India's Ambassador to the UN. He is a very eloquent speaker and writer.
Here's his famous short speech at the Oxford Union where he made a case for reparations from Britain for its excesses during its reign of the Indian subcontinent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7CW7S0zxv4
> In a review published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, economic historian, Tirthankar Roy, a faculty at the London School of Economics criticized the book. He noted that "Tharoor makes his case with passion and plain good writing. The facts cited in the book are beyond dispute. The story is meant to be blood-curdling and the colourful language — including liberal use of “depredation,” “loot,” “rapaciousness,” “vicious,” “brutality,” “plunder” and “extraction” — produces that effect. Like a religious text, it tells a straight and narrow story with the zeal of a holy warrior. Yet none of these qualities makes the interpretation wrong, however. Few professional historians think that the British Empire ruled India with India’s best interests in mind.
> Another review of Inglorious Empire, published in the Literary Review, by historian John Keay, whose many writings on India include India: A History, applauds Tharoor for "tackling an impossibly contentious subject". However, he deplores the fact that "his moral venom sometimes clouds his own judgement" and notes that many of Tharoor's statistics are very seriously out of date, many coming from the polemics contained in the American Will Durant's Story of Civilisation written in the 1930s, which itself drew on the even earlier work of the crusading American missionary Jabej T. Sutherland, author of India in Bondage.[9]
> A more detailed criticism of Tharoor's book and his use of statistics was set out by the writer of South Asian history Charles Allen in a lecture entitled Quis custodiet ipsos custodes: who owns Indian history? delivered to the Royal Society for Asian Affairs in London on 25 April 2018. A revised version was published in Asian Affairs under the revised title Who Owns India's History? A Critique of Shashi Tharoor's Inglorious Empire.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inglorious_Empire