Peace, Poverty and Betrayal - A New History of British India

How can we explain Britain-s long rule in India beyond the clich-of -imperial- versus -nationalist- interpretations? In this new history, Roderick Matthews tells a more nuanced story of -oblige and rule-, the foundation of common purpose between colonisers and powerful Indians.Peace, Poverty and Betrayal argues that this was more a state of being than a system: British policy was never clear or consistent; the East India Company went from a manifestly incompetent ruler to, arguably, the world-s first liberal government; and among British and Indians alike there were both progressive and conservative attitudes to colonisation. Matthews skilfully illustrates that this very diversity and ambiguity of British-Indian relations also drove the social changes that led to the struggle for independence.Skewering the simplistic binaries that often dominate the debate, Peace, Poverty and Betrayal is a fresh and elegant history of British India.