British Rule

Hitan Mehta named CEO of King Charles founded British Asian Trust

A British Indian expert in the field of philanthropy and large-scale events was on Wednesday named as the chief executive of British Asian Trust, a charity founded by King Charles to tackle poverty, inequality and injustice in South Asia. Hitan Mehta, awarded an OBE in the King's 2023 New Year Honours List in recognition of his years of service to Britain's South Asian community, played a key role in establishing the British Asian Trust as its first-ever employee. Over the past 18 years, London-based Mehta has worked closely with King Charles III, who founded the charity as the Prince of Wales in 2007 and continues as its founding patron. It is an honour to step into this role at such a pivotal moment for the British Asian Trust. As we enter an important period of global and UK diaspora engagement, I am deeply grateful to our trustees, our royal founding patron, and our valued partners and supporters for their continued confidence in our mission," said Mehta, formerly the charity's

When Everyone Knows: Pinker unpacks the power of shared understanding

Dr Pinker introduces another important concept, conventions, in elaborating how common knowledge works

The Trial That Shook Britain: How a court-martial led to India's freedom

The tactical contradictions that doomed earlier revolutionary movements found their dramatic resolution in Bose's audacious gamble with the INA

Shattered Lands: Sam Dalrymple uncovers the subcontinent's dark realities

Sam Dalrymple's book contextualises the shared history of the subcontinent and reminds us of its many dark realities

Richest 10% got over half of what UK took from India during its rule: Study

The UK extracted USD 64.82 trillion from India over a century of colonialism between 1765 and 1900 and USD 33.8 trillion of this went to the richest 10 per cent -- enough money to carpet London in notes of 50 British pound almost four times over. This forms part of rights group Oxfam International's latest flagship global inequity report released every year on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The report, titled 'Takers, not Makers' and released here on Monday hours before the start of the annual meeting of the rich and powerful across the globe, cited several studies and research papers to claim that the modern multinational corporation is a creation of colonialism only. "Legacies of inequality and pathologies of plunder, pioneered during the time of historical colonialism, continue to shape modern lives. This has created a deeply unequal world, a world torn apart by division based on racism, a world that continues to systematically extract wealth from the

A tale of two Mohans: Missed opportunities in a meandering narrative

The back cover of The Other Mohan in Britain's Indian Ocean Empire calls it part travelogue, part family history, and scholarly. This reviewer disagrees

After 111 yrs, John Nicholson's statue stripped of national monument status

The statue is located near the Kashmiri Gate in Delhi, where Nicholson died during the 1857 rebellion

Birsa Munda's 150th anniversary: A life cut short but an immortal legacy

Birsa Munda's birth anniversary on November 15 is celebrated as 'Janjatiya Gaurav Divas' to celebrate his legacy and observe the role of the tribal population in preserving India's heritage

PM Modi's 'billionaire raj' more unequal than British Raj, says Congress

The Congress on Thursday latched on to a new rich list to attack the Centre, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "billionaire raj" is more unequal than even the British Raj and it is also the cornerstone of the government's economic policy-making. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a media report which cited the Hurun India Rich List to state that India created a new billionaire every five days throughout 2023. "India has had one billionaire for every five days in 2023, and the non-biological Prime Minister's closest friend is the foremost among them all," Ramesh said on X. "Modi's Billionaire Raj is more unequal than even the British Raj. But it is also the cornerstone of the government's economic policy-making," he alleged. This is why, at a time when countries across the world are coalescing around the idea of a global billionaire tax, the Indian government has been conspicuously silent and continues to remain blind to rapidly

Making sense of the British Raj and its long shadow in Amrit Kaal

This week in BS also looked at two books that deal with the post-Independence India and the Congress

Jallianwala Bagh massacre: What happened on the dark day 104 years ago

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was a tragic event that will live on in the history of British colonial rule in India

The last days of Mughal Delhi

The best sections in the book are those that deal with the revolt of 1857 in Delhi

British rule prevented Indians from learning about traditions: Rajnath

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said three centuries of British rule had prevented Indians from learning about their glorious traditions. "A strong awareness of the country's glorious past, its great cultural and spiritual legacy is a must for today's youth to build a strong India," he said addressing a convocation of the Swami Ram Himalayan University here. Singh said international acceptance of India's spiritual and intellectual supremacy in the past was spontaneous and cited Chinese scholars who acknowledged India's path breaking role in various realms of knowledge. Quoting one of the Chinese intellectuals he said, "India was China's teacher in quadratic equation, grammar and phonetics." Referring to a former Peking University vice chancellor who represented China subsequently at the United Nations, the defence minister said, "India has dominated China culturally for more than 2000 years without sending a single soldier." Also quoting French philosopher Voltaire,

Rajasthan: PM pays tributes to tribals killed by British in Mangarh in 1913

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday paid tributes to the tribals who were massacred by the British army in 1913 in Mangarh in Rajasthan. Modi during his visit to the Mangarh Dham in Banswara district was accompanied by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other leaders. The dham, a memorial for around 1,500 tribals massacred by the British army in 1913, is located in the district on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border, a region with a large tribal population. During his visit, the prime minister will also address a gathering of Bhil adivasis and members of other tribes of the region. The gathering of tribals and forest dwellers in 1913 in Mangarh against the British Raj was being led by social reformer Govind Guru.

Queen's reign saw ages of British rule leave Middle East with mixed legacy

The long reign of Queen Elizabeth II saw large swaths of the world cast off London's rule, but after her death a handful of British-installed monarchies still endure in the Middle East. They have survived decades of war and turmoil and are now seen as bastions of a certain kind of authoritarian stability. When popular uprisings erupted across the region a decade ago in what was known as the Arab Spring, sweeping away regimes with anti-colonial roots, hereditary rulers were largely unscathed. The days of imperial pomp and gunships may be over, but the region's emotional and financial ties to England run deep. Emirs, sultans and kings attend the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Gulf Arab sovereign wealth has helped reshaped London's skyline. As the son of a British mother, Jordan's King Abdullah II also has familial and cultural ties to Britain. Jordan's ruling Hashemites, who come from the Arabian Peninsula and claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad, launched the revolt agains

Memsahibs in the Raj

Ipshita Nath's book captures the hermetically sealed nature of the memsahibs' world from the country in which they lived

Many thought India will go to ruins if British left, but it flourished: PM

The people made efforts and proved that India has immense capacity to survive all odds even as "hundreds of years of slavery" had inflicted "deep wounds" on it, PM Modi added.

Imagining India in the world

The book does much to underline the fact that there is more to Indian thinking than what has been discussed in the popular writings

A superpower's long decline

Book review of THE AGE OF DECADENCE: A History of Britain, 1880 to 1914

A glorified rehash of the Raj

Book review of Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain