No era is more pertinent to understanding how present-day India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh evolved than the nearly 200 years of British rule. This colonial
period was a time of deep change and transformation—for India and for the
world. These 24 engrossing lectures offer you new perspectives on the history
of European imperialism, on world economic history, on the features of British
colonialism, and on the rich cultures of the Indian subcontinent. Over the
course of this remarkable saga you’ll explore: - how the English East India
Company, a commercial trading entity, established a presence in India and took
the reins of power in one of the strangest political transformations in world
history; - how the monumental Mughal Empire, builders of the Taj Mahal and
longstanding Muslim rulers in India, gradually came apart in the face of
British conquest; - how Britain extended its rule across the subcontinent,
built a huge economic machine in India, and ultimately exacted a heavy price
from the Indian people; and - how India finally achieved independence in 1947,
through one of humanity’s most noteworthy examples of resourceful and
philosophically sophisticated leadership. You’ll trace the economic motives
that brought the British and other Westerners to India, like how the emergence
of the English as a stereotypically tea-drinking society was directly related
to the Indian colonial economy. You will also take stock of the incredibly
lavish lifestyles of India’s maharajahs, and how the British leveraged
alliances with them. And you’ll grasp the fundamental moral contradiction of
the Raj, the conflict between Britain’s economic interests and the human needs
of the empire’s Indian subjects, and more. In A History of British India,
you’ll relive a crucial era in international relations, one with deep and
lasting implications for our contemporary world.