The Lion and the Tiger: The Rise and Fall of the British Raj, 1600-1947

by Denis Judd

Overview

The British experience in India began in earnest over four hundred years ago, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. For many years the English interlopers and traders who made contact with the subcontinent were viewed by Indians as little more than pirates and potentially troublesome conquering barbarians. After a series of titanic struggles against the French and various local rulers during the eighteenth century, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars Britain had gained mastery of the subcontinent. This period, and the century and a half that followed, saw two powerful cultures locked in an often bloody battle over political control, land, trade, and a way of life.

Denis Judd tells the fascinating story of the remarkable British impact upon India. All aspects of this long and controversial relationship are discussed, such as the first tentative contacts between East and West, the foundation of the East India Company in 1600, the Victorian Raj in all its pomp and splendour, Gandhi's revolutionary tactics to overthrow the Raj and restore Indian to the Indians, and Lord Mountbatten's 'swift surgery of Partition' in 1947, creating the two independent Commonwealth states of India and Pakistan. Against this epic backdrop, and using many revealing contemporary accounts, Denis Judd explores the consequences of British rule for both rulers and ruled. Were the British intent on development or exploitation? Were they the "civilizing" force they claimed? What were Britain's greatest legacies: democracy and the rule of law, or cricket and an efficient railway system? Easy answers are avoided in this immensely readable, lively, and authoritative book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192805799
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/19/2010
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Denis Judd is Professor of British Imperial, Commonwealth, and Indian History, at the London Metropolitan University. He is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1865 to the Present (HarperCollins, 1996), which was second on the best selling London hardback list, and most recently, The Boer War (John Murray, 2002, paperback
2003). He has written radio documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, and has broadcast many times both as a presenter, consultant, and major interviewee for television and radio programmes: most recently for BBC TV Newsnight, BBC Radio 3 Nightwaves, Channel 4, ITV, South
African TV and for BBC Radio 4's Vestiges — the British Empire.

Table of Contents

1. 'To fly to India for gold': Early Contacts, 1583-1615
2. 'Infamous for their honest endeavours': Laying Foundations, 1615-1708
3. Conquest and Corruption: The Struggle for Supremacy, 1708-1815
4. 'The great ends we have in view': The East India Company as Paramount Power, 1815-1857
5. 'The devil's wind': The Great Indian Uprising, or Mutiny of 1857-1858
6. Lords of All They Surveyed? The Raj at its Zenith, 1858-1905
7. The Beginning of the End? Reform and Conflict, 1905-1919
8. Gandhi and the Fightback of Indian Nationalism, 1919-1939
9. 'Engine of War' or the Enemy Within? India, 1939-1945
10. 'Tryst with Destiny': Freedom and Partition, 1945-1947
Epilogue
Chronology
Sources for Quotations
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This concise, elegantly written history of the British experience in India holds interest for both experts and general readers. Judd has total command of his material, with interesting stories to tell at every turn. His account is filled with quotations and anecdotes that vividly capture the spirit of the times. The early British competition with the French, the Portuguese, and the Dutch is covered without the usual confusion over a series of oddly named wars, and his telling of the rise of the British East India Company and the transition to imperial rule illustrates the ambivalence of the British. Judd objectively covers the emergence of Indian nationalism and the struggle for independence but ultimately withholds judgment on whether this story is a positive or a negative one, whether the British developed India or exploited it. What he is sure of is that it is astonishingly complex and one of the truly great stories of world history.

Foreign Affairs

"This concise, elegantly written history of the British experience in India holds interest for both experts and general readers. Judd has total command of his material, with interesting stories to tell at every turn."—Foreign Affairs

"The history of British India is a dense, riveting, and hotly contested subject. It is also difficult to summarize, which makes Judd's synopsis both rare and welcome.'—New York Sun

"An excellent introduction to the rise and fall of the British Raj, accurate, succinct, and engaging."—Stanley Wolpert, author of A New History of India and Gandhi's Passion

"A short, clear but wide-ranging account of a tangled and uneasy relationship."—Sunday Telegraph

From the Publisher