Customer Reviews

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

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My father grew up in India as a British schoolboy (3rd or 4th generation in India), and left with his family when the British pulled out. I wanted a relatively short overview of the British experience in India, and the book delivered. It provided a good understanding of how the British started trading in India and slowly established rule over the subcontinent, and then nicely covered the move for independence. Many of my father's stories and recollections rang true in the book, from going off to boarding school in the mountains to calls to "quit India" screamed at the British.

However, the book read like a textbook and had no drive or excitement. It relied heavily on quotes, which would be fine for a longer book, but at only 200 pages in a small format with wide spacing, it made the limited text even shorter. The conclusion is almost completely quotes, with no real analysis provided by the author.

Overall, the book provided a good overview, but more engaging writing and in-depth analysis would have improved the book.

Great book, every page of it. If you are not very acquainted with India history and if you are seeking for a concise history of British Rule in this country, this is for sure a good choice. The reading is absorbing, in particular on how the author explain the most important aspects of the 350 years of interaction, using lots of real notes and letters of those who lived there -- accounts that help you grasp, and understand better, how was it to live in India in those years, both for Britons and Indians. The relationship was difficult and left some sensibilities in the Indians that last to this day, but I think it was meant to be since both rulers and ruled were so different in almost every aspect.

One corollary from the partition of India is that is not good to have two strong religions in a country, for that meaning rivalry and violence. You can see that also in the ex-Yugoslavia and even in today Iraq (shia and sunni muslims).