The Theft of India

Title: The Theft of India – The European Conquests of India 1498 – 1765

Author: Roy Moxham

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9789352640904

Pages: 252

 

Before I begin, let me inform you that this is the 400th book review in this blog.

There are a few incidents in history which don’t make much immediate impact as and when they unfold, but which later turn out to be world-shattering in its long-term consequences. One such event is the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror in 1453. This won’t have made much of an impact had it occurred two centuries earlier, when Europe was still tired of the futile crusades and laboring in the Dark Ages. But the fall of the great city came at a moment when Europe was on the cusp of Renaissance and a soaring spirit of adventure was steeling the nerves of the petty kingdoms. Besides, the key to European trade now lay with the Arabs and Turks who controlled all trade routes to India, China and the Spice islands. The Spanish quest for finding a trade route by the sea opened up a whole new continent that was as vast in area as it was rich in resources. European states established trading outposts all over the world and these enterprises slowly transformed into colonial administrations. The trading companies openly picked the pockets of the oriental kingdoms, and the colonial regimes made laws that helped pick the money with greater ease. It took nearly three centuries for the colonies to gain independence from their masters, but profound changes had taken place in the meantime for the countries and their societies. India was also no exception and this book spells the story as it began in 1498 with the arrival of Vasco da Gama and runs to the grant of the diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1765 to the East India Company. The British thus consolidated their hold on Bengal, which was one of the richest provinces. This book is compiled from the narrative accounts of traders, company officials and travelers to the realms. Roy Moxham is not an academician, but is more than compensated for this drawback on account of many years of first-hand service in managing tea estates and organizing art in Africa. He is a qualified book and paper conservator and has authored many history books and novels. Following retirement from active work, he spends half his time in London and the other half travelling, principally in South and South East Asia.

The story of the subjugation of India started in 1498 according to this book, when Vasco da Gama disembarked at Calicut. This is rather odd. India had been subject to disastrous raids and colonization by Muslim invaders for another 500 years before this date. But the author has cleverly chosen to omit this period, perhaps for being politically correct! In the Indian academic circles dominated by Leftist historians who are more loyal than the king, anyone attempting to cast aspersions on the Muslim invasions are certain to be beaten black and blue in reviews and criticisms. These Islamic invasions are in fact as disastrous, unsettling and tragic as the European ones. Some of the cruelties of the Mughal officials recounted in the book make us feel that the Europeans, especially the British, treated Indians far better. Some of the Mughal kings were tolerant by the standards of the times, but the petty officials through which the sultan’s writ was run were bigoted and extremely corrupt. The Mughal officials were reported to be ‘employing Hindus taking from them nothing but their bad mud-walled ill thatched houses, and a few cattle to till the ground, besides other miseries’ (p.68). And mind you, the Mughals were the most humane of the Muslim kings who ruled India! Under the reign of Aurangzeb, the torture reached its extreme. He pulled down many places of worship, whether they be Hindu or Jain and erected mosques in its stead. Moxham reports from eyewitness accounts that if a Muslim man was asked to repay a debt taken from a Hindu, he’d threaten to report him for insulting the prophet, forced to circumcise as a punishment and become a Muslim (p.96). If you think this practice to be medieval and has died out from the world, stop for a moment before learning that such misdeeds are reported from Pakistan even today. The Portuguese were no better in granting freedom of worship and respect for human rights. Merchants and learned men usually fled from their strongholds. One of the greatest advantages that accrued to the British was that a lot of talent and money flowed into Bombay when the East India Company set up a trading post there. The comparatively free and liberal policies of the company made the marshy island attractive to traders who later developed it into India’s largest metropolis.

There are no analyses presented in the book on anything. Moxham presents the narrative in an interesting style that is based on the records of eyewitnesses or travelers. It is a pertinent question as to why the country lost out so miserably to foreign invaders. India lost its superiority of land-based forces to the Afghan and Turk conquerors at first. Capitalizing on the weakness of the native rulers, they set up expansive regimes that grew to pervade all available space for kingship. After settling down for a few centuries, the conquerors became too emphatic and dependent on land-based armies. They were oblivious to the sweeping changes taking place in navigation and ocean exploration. The Europeans were forced to venture the seas as the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, thereby controlling all possible avenues of trade with the East. This necessity prompted Spain and Portugal to explore the oceans to find a sea route to the Indies. This head-start helped the Europeans to develop better techniques of naval warfare. The Indian sultans neglected to build up their navies. This was because all maritime trade with India was handled mostly by the Arabs, who were the co-religionists of the sultans. So, when the axe fell, they were unprepared to take on the European naval men. The astounding thing was that the Arab kingdoms were also defenseless against this new threat. Portugal could bring the entire Indian ocean under their effective control.  Others could ply their ships and carry on trade only with a written permit called ‘cartaz’ issued by the Portuguese authorities. Moxham makes a comparison of the prospects of the Portuguese and the Dutch, who lost out on the race for India against the English, who turned out immensely successful in the end. This is ascribed to the scarce use of military power by the British, at least in the initial stages of consolidation in the seventeenth century. This was in stark contrast with the Portuguese who fought everywhere with the native principalities and overstretched themselves. The British brought in their military recruited mainly from Indians only towards a very late stage of political drama.

The Europeans were overawed at first by the immense number of infantry troops gathered by Indian princes and probably thought that they didn’t stand a chance against that formidable force. This bubble was pricked in 1746 when the French defeated Mahfuz Khan’s Carnatic army in Madras. It convinced the Europeans that they might challenge the supremacy of the huge Indian armies with modernly equipped and well trained soldiers. It was then a short step to the British overrunning Bengal under Robert Clive. The book presents the very grave danger of the traders becoming rulers of the land, and the Bengal famine that ensued. The company grabbed the revenue of Bengal as gratification for its officers and transported this money to England. When the monsoons failed that year, the local administration couldn’t buy food from other parts of India, plunging the province into a severe famine. An estimated ten million out of the total population of thirty million perished in it. At the peak of the famine, the company displayed the temerity to hike the land tax by a further ten percent. This instance serves as a warning to separate the commercial interests from administration in any government – past, present or future.

The book is easy to read, interestingly written and well structured. Being sourced from narrative accounts, a lot of interesting anecdotes are also retold. The Danes were one of the runners in the race for India, but most history books omit them, being an insignificant story in the grand game. Moxham includes details of them too. The book also incorporates a good bibliography and an index.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star