Book length essay about the history of British India from the perspective of what the British took from India vs what they provided. Also speculates just a bit on what courses Indian history could have taken without British domination. Uses & quotes many primary sources from the colonial era. Points out that (as with many other colonies & empires) ethic, religious, & caste divides were fostered & hardened by the British for the purposes of divide & rule. Tharoor argues that much of our modern conception of the caste system's hierarchy & immutability is largely a British creation. Demonstrates pretty conclusively how Britain's Indian Empire was routinely treated as a piggy bank for Great Britain, and that many of the visible relics of the colonial era were built for the British, & not the Indians. An easy read.