WITH BLOOD AND FLAME

A history book focuses on Bengal’s treatment at the hands of the British.

“The British Empire came to India to trade but stayed to rule, realizing that establishing military control was the only way in order to enhance their profits,” writes Chowdhury at the outset of his searing study of British rule in India. “All was done for only British interests, entailing profits that went to British coffers, not for the blood, sweat and energy of a single Indian.” In this volume, he deals with the modern-era history of the region bordered by the Himalayas in the North and the Bay of Bengal in the South: the Indian province of West Bengal and the independent country of Bangladesh. He points out that not only is West Bengal a strategic trading hub for Southeast Asia, producing millions of tons of rice every year, but also that the Bengal area was equally lavish and productive prior to the arrival of direct British imperial control in the 19th century—after which largely came exploitation and destruction. In this passionate book, Chowdhury skillfully takes readers through some of the most famous events of this colonial occupation, including the Amritsar Massacre in April 1919, in which more than a thousand people were killed or injured, and the 1942-44 Bengal famine, which he sees as a direct result of British rule under Winston Churchill. “British colonial government printed large amounts of money for military expenditure,” the author writes, which caused the price of rice in Bengal to rise by 300%. “Since wages did not rise, ordinary people were pushed even deeper into poverty.” In textured, urgent, and erudite prose, Chowdhury expertly covers various events, including those in the present day, in order to show how a “2.0 version of the British colonial project” has been at work in far more recent times, attempting to revive a “divide and rule” policy so that “outside players can pounce with their economic aid and investment.”

A fierce and knowledgeable examination of Bengal’s oppression.