"Cravenness, cupidity, opportunism and lack of organised resistance on the part of the vanquished" supported Britain's venal ambitions. British dominion was maintained "with unshakeable self-confidence, buttressed by protocol, alcohol and a lot of gall". "Loot" was a Hindustani word, which the British "took into their dictionaries as well as their habits". British "motives and methods were, on the whole, much more reprehensible than those they had overthrown". In Tharoor's version of history, "a land of artisans, traders, warriors and merchants, functioning in thriving and complex commercial networks", was cruelly and callously destroyed. Inglorious Empire is at once a moral indictment and a moralistic polemic, both intended to expose the "totally amoral, rapacious imperial machine" the British devised to plunder India. In this picture taken on August 15, 1947, crowds of Indian revellers begin to gather in Delhi to celebrate independence from Britain.
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