British Raj

The Raj, as anyone in modern Britain can tell you, is still considered the 'jewel in the crown' of British colonial achievement, but how many of us Britons are able to explain why? Consequently, such belief requires an unquestioning leap of faith. Startlingly though, this rose-tinted analysis is not shared by the Indian subcontinent, whose national archives tell a very different history under British rule. As Britain's Indian Empire was always its greatest accolade one need look no further for a litmus test of imperial success. Lord Curzon declared that Britain had come to the subcontinent under Providence... for the lasting benefit of millions of the human race, but were the British different from other colonial powers, as we are so often reassured, or equally flawed? “Under Providence” is the first in the three-part British Raj Series that will illuminate and analyze Britain's role and track record in her Indian Empire, a subject which most know very little or nothing about.

The Raj is considered the jewel in the crown of British colonial achievement. Startlingly, this rose-tinted view is not shared by the Indian subcontinent. The national archives of India tell of a very different history under British control; a history which is well documented in its public records and similarly well covered by the nation's historians. When the Great Famine swept across India, the population perished in their millions. But to what extent were the British accountable for one of the greatest losses of life in history? Few famines, however, are the sole making of an unreasonable Mother Nature. Did the British administration then, do anything to exacerbate the catastrophe or did they, as alleged, do all in their power to save life? No event in Britain's colonial venture more completely answers the debate over our nation's ulterior motives of Empire than the Great Famine in India. The Famine of 1876-78 has faded from the pages of British history but not from the memory of the nation devastated by it. Was the British Empire then, different from other Colonial powers or equally flawed?