The Lion and the Tiger: The Rise and Fall of the British Raj, 1600-1947 - Hardcover

Judd, Denis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192803581 ISBN 13: 9780192803580

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2004

Synopsis

By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, after a series of titanic struggles against the French and various local rulers during the eighteenth century, Britain had gained mastery of the subcontinent. This period, and the century and a half that followed, saw two powerful cultures locked in an often bloody battle over political control, land, trade and a way of life.
In The Lion and the Tiger, Denis Judd tells the fascinating story of the British impact upon India, capturing the essence of what the Raj really meant both for the British and their Indian subjects. Judd examines virtually every aspect of this long and controversial relationship, from the first tentative contacts between East and West, the foundation of the East India Company in 1600, the Victorian Raj in all its pomp and splendor, Gandhi's revolutionary tactics to overthrow the Raj and restore India to the Indians, and Lord Mountbatten's "swift surgery of partition" in 1947, creating the independent Commonwealth states of India and Pakistan. Against this epic backdrop, and using many revealing contemporary accounts, Judd explores the consequences of British rule for both rulers and ruled. Were the British intent on development or exploitation? Were they the "civilizing force" they claimed? What were Britain's greatest legacies--democracy and the rule of law, or cricket and an efficient railway system?
Vividly written, based on extensive research, with many new and colorful documentary extracts and literary sources to illustrate the story, The Lion and the Tiger provides an engaging account of a key moment in British Imperial history.

About this title

About the Author:

Denis Judd is Professor of British Imperial and Commonwealth History, at the London Metropolitan University. He is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1865 to the Present (which was second on the best selling London hardback list) and most recently, The Boer War.

Review:

"This concise, elegantly written history of the British experience in India holds interest for both experts and general readers. Judd has total command of his material, with interesting stories to tell at every turn."--Foreign Affairs

"The history of British India is a dense, riveting, and hotly contested subject. It is also difficult to summarize, which makes Judd's synopsis both rare and welcome.'--New York Sun

"An excellent introduction to the rise and fall of the British Raj, accurate, succinct, and engaging."--Stanley Wolpert, author of A New History of India and Gandhi's Passion

"A short, clear but wide-ranging account of a tangled and uneasy relationship."--Sunday Telegraph

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0192803581
• ISBN 13: 9780192803580
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280