A History of British India
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A History of British India
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Narrated by:
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Hayden J. Bellenoit
About this listen
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, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about A History of British India
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jan Omar
- 04-10-22
Great!
Excellent in depth introduction for any student of the subcontinent. Thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a lot.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 11-05-20
a great, in-depth audible book
this is a great, in-depth audible book covering the pre colonial, during colonial and independence of India
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Elizabeth
- 26-10-22
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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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- bc1056
- 01-05-24
Schoolboy Error
Early in this narrative Mr Bellenoit asserts that Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) was the Governor General of the East India Company. It was, in fact, his elder brother Richard Wellesley. Pretty schoolboy error. Did not give me much confidence for the accuracy of the rest of the lecture series…
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Iqbal Hussain Ali
- 20-04-21
Interesting and depressing in same measure
Had to write this review, having read other reviews which seem to say: "come on, the British weren't all bad. There's no more sati." And "India has railways thanks to the British."
First, Hayden is actually very balanced here and does not pick on or "sneer" at the British. He states facts. Like the British removed systems that Mughals had in place to avoid famines. That's not criticising. That's just a (sad) fact. Another is a refusal to accept they got it wrong and the Mughals had that right, cost the lives of millions more.
Hayden also details what the British did well. The fact that the British come off as arrogant looters is not his fault, but the fault of the British. Recommended listening for anyone interested in this part of history.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 03-10-22
Worth listening to but some bias
The course is good overall and worth listening to. But I found the author/reader full of sanctimony and did seem to want to try and compare the British rule to the Mogul unfavourably throughout whilst leaving important info out.
He strangely left out the extent of aid given to the EIC by Indians and why the ruler was so hated (favoured tool of punishment for many things even to those close to him was rape, male or female and that he’d alienated many of the ruling elites/Financiers)
Was some points of clear anti-British influence throughout.
Is always easy to pick and chose info on a subject so big.
It’s worth listening to - but don’t expect an unbiased series here.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazonbuyer
- 18-10-17
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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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Matthew Thompson
- 14-09-22
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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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- T. J. Jones
- 14-08-18
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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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- papapownall
- 25-07-19
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