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A History of British India cover art

A History of British India

By: The Great Courses, Hayden J. Bellenoit
Narrated by: Hayden J. Bellenoit
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Summary

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
  • 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2017 The Great Courses (P)2017 The Teaching Company, LLC

What listeners say about A History of British India

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interesting history, but Hayden be less smug

I have listened to all 12 hours of this audio book. It's an interesting period of history, and I imagine that Hayden B has covered all the major points - the East India company, the mutiny, the raj, Gandhi & the emergence of Congress, Jinnah, partition.

But his manner grates: history is a matter of facts, and it is possible for a history to sit there in judgement of those facts, knowing that they can sound wise after the event. Take partition - it's fine to say it had bad direct results. But what alternatives where there? Hayden himself admits that what Jinnah wanted and what Gandhi and Nehru wanted were not compatible. It's fine to say that neither side wanted partition, but the problem of Indian nationalism is that in giving power to the people, minority communities such as Muslims feared a tyranny of the majority. Gandi's movement opened a can of worms. There is no easy answer! So just tell us what happened.

More broadly, Hayden seems to think he can sneer at anything done by the British. But why? Was it a bad thing to build railways or to stop Sati? Of course not. Does he demonstrate that British India was clearly worse than Mughal India or post 1947 India? Not really. They are just different periods. For large sections of the course Hayden seems to be railing against modernisation and the Industrial Revolution. Though he does so exclusively from the point of view of an Indian nationalist, when in fact artisans in the UK also lost their jobs. Factory work isn't as much fun as making your own cloth, but that's the price of modernity. Hayden B doesn't need to give us his sneering opinion, just tell us what happened! We can make our own minds up.

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12 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

Patchy history of British India

Having travelled throughout the Indian subcontinent on several occasions and having read many histories of India I was interested to listen to this course from Great Courses on the History of British India. The most telling aspect of this book is around 12 hours in when the author says "as I often say to my students in the US naval academy". I found myself raising an eyebrow at Mr Bellenoit on more than a few occasions and there were a few eye rolling moments too. The problem here is that the author seems to have too many pre-conceived ideas about these deeply complex lands that result in some of the language he uses to come over as being personal opinion rather than historical fact. There are too many sentences that go along the lines of "what the British failed to understand...." and "British naivety regarding the situation resulted in.....". I am not, by any means, a supporter of many of the actions that the British took during their 200 years plus that they administered and then ruled the subcontinent but I would suggest there are many aspect that the author does not fully understand possibly due to his own prejudes, and failed to explore in this text eg the parallels between the British class system and the Indian caste system; or the positive aspects to the British administration such as the building of the Indian railways and the unification of the country and transformation from independent monarchic states to a unified democracy. The author seems to be on more familiar ground during the last quarter of this book when he retells the story of the demise of the Raj and Britain quitting India in 1947.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent. Well balanced and informative.

good overview of a complex phase of history. deals with the nuances of colonialism well

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5 people found this helpful

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New insights

I really enjoyed listening to this lecture series. I have learnt many new things. It has great breath but I wish it had slightly more depth. I felt many of the lectures ended suddenly without exploring the topic further with more depth with more stories and examples.

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3 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars

Decent but biased

A generally factual account of the British in India filtered through a politically biased perspective that fails to understand, or even discuss moral relativism.

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2 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars

Dry and frankly uninteresting

For an American Philosophy professor teaching at the Naval Academy the author certainly implies a disliking of the British and is very critical and showing a bias about the actions of the British overseas during a time of European Imperialism. Unlike other history books I have heard, this is far too dry and frankly uninteresting as it is more a one sided anti British viewpoint rather than an unbiased history book, critical of the English arm of the East India Companies and forgetting that both the Dutch and French also exploited India and East Asia. This was so unappealing that within a chapter I had already forgotten much of what was said. Unlike Vincent Ebrahim’s My Indian Odyssey which has drawn me back a number of times to listen to his book, with 8 hours left and already so fed up of the smug, haughty voice I would happily confine this to The Black Hole of dungeon in Fort William, Calcutta.

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2 people found this helpful

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  • 09-04-20

waited over 40years to read this!

All the basics detailed here. State sponsored and corporate theft, (the mode and method of extraction and machinery required) on a monumental scale that led to Britain's wealth and India's placebin the world today!

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Not a well informed or balanced history

It is difficult to seriously consider the author an expert when he confuses Arthur Wellesley , the later Duke of Wellington , with his brother Richard Wellesley the Governor General of India although both were in India at the same time. It can only be compared to a medieval historian confusing Richard 1 with his brother John of Magna Carta fame. Such a historian would never be heard of again but the author survives to claim that the newly elected liberal government under Gladstone had recalled Curzon from India in 1905. This would have come as a pleasant surprise to Gladstone but a bit of a shock to Curzon as Gladstone had been dead for 7 years. He highlights British reprisals following the Great Rebellion which is reasonable but skirts round atrocities perpetrated on British and other nationalities civilians notably Kanpur, Jhansi, Delhi. A little like trying to discuss the recent “ war on terror “ without mentioning 9/11 and this sums up the book there is no balance because the author does not seek balance.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent set of lectures.

This set of lectures was a great introduction to the British Raj. Highly recommended to all students of the British Empire.

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1 person found this helpful

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An insight into a fascinating history

A clear and easy to follow course on an important history. The lecturer recapped at the end of each lecture also which I found most helpful.

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