Keeping The Jewel In The Crown

Download or read book Keeping the Jewel in the Crown written by Walter Reid and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1947, when India achieved independence, Britain portrayed the transfer of power as the outcome of decades, even centuries, of responsible planning – the honourable discharge of an historic responsibility. That view has never been seriously challenged in Britain. But this book shows that the official narrative is a travesty of what really happened. Drawing on the documentary evidence – letters, diaries, state papers – Walter Reid reveals how Britain selfishly deceived and prevaricated in order to arrest political progress in India for as long as possible – a shameful passage in British imperial policy which led to tragedy and untold suffering when independence finally became inevitable.

Download or read book Empire of Sand written by Walter Reid and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the First World War Britain and to a much lesser extent France created the modern Middle East. The possessions of the former Ottoman Empire were carved up with scant regard for the wishes of those who lived there. Frontiers were devised and alien dynasties imposed on the populations as arbitrarily as in medieval times. From the outset the project was destined to failure. Conflicting and ambiguous promises had been made to the Arabs during the war but were not honoured. Brief hopes for Arab unity were dashed, and a harsh belief in western perfidy persists to the present day. Britain was quick to see the riches promised by the black pools of oil that lay on the ground around Baghdad. When France too grasped their importance, bitter differences opened up and the area became the focus of a return to traditional enmity. The war-time allies came close to blows and then drifted apart, leaving a vacuum of which Hitler took advantage. Working from both primary and secondary sources, Walter Reid explores Britain's role in the creation of the modern Middle East and the rise of Zionism from the early years of the twentieth century to 1948, when Britain handed over Palestine to UN control. From the decisions that Britain made has flowed much of the instability of the region and of the world-wide tensions that threaten the twenty-first century. How far was Britain to blame?

Download or read book JEWEL IN HIS CROWN written by Lynne Graham and published by Harlequin / SB Creative. This book was released on 2018-07-13 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 【A story by USA Today bestselling author becomes a comic!】Ruby works as a receptionist in the English countryside. One day a prince named Raja from the Middle Eastern country of Najar appears in front of her, seeking a political marriage. Her mother is the former wife of the King of Ashur, a neighboring country. In order to fulfill the conditions of a newly established peace treaty, Raja has come to retrieve Ruby, the sole heir of Ashur. But she flatly denies his offer, not wanting to become like her mother, who suffered through so much. Sure this would incur Raja's wrath, she is surprised that responds with a devilish, enigmatic smile…

Download or read book The Jewel In The Crown written by Paul Scott and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-09-30 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ___________________ NOW A BBC RADIO 4 EXTRA DRAMATISATION STARRING ANNA MAXWELL MARTIN AND PRASANNA PUWANARAJAH ___________________ BOOK ONE OF THE RAJ QUARTET India 1942: everything is in flux. World War II has shown that the British are not invincible and the self-rule lobby is gaining many supporters. Against this background, Daphne Manners, a young English girl, is brutally raped in the Bibighat Gardens. The racism, brutality and hatred launched upon the head of her young Indian lover echo the dreadful violence perpetrated on Daphne and reveal the desperate state of Anglo-Indian relations. The rift that will eventually prise India - the jewel in the Imperial Crown - from colonial rule is beginning to gape wide. ___________________ 'A major work, a glittering combination of brilliant craftsmanship, psychological perception and objective reporting... Rarely have the sounds and smells and total atmosphere been so evocatively suggested' - New York Times 'Absorbing and brilliant... A triumph' - Evening Standard 'One of the most important landmarks of post-war fiction... A mighty literary experience' - The Times 'Quite simply, monumental' - Washington Post

Download or read book The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown written by Vaseem Khan and published by Redhook. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the second instalment of a charming mystery series, a Mumbai-based investigator and his elephant partner are on the hunt for the Queen of England's stolen Crown Jewels. For centuries, the Koh-i-Noor diamond has set man against man and king against king. Now part of the British Crown Jewels, the priceless gem is a prize that many have killed to possess. So when the Crown Jewels go on display in Mumbai, security is everyone's principal concern. And yet, on the very day Inspector Chopra visits the exhibition, the diamond is stolen from under his nose. The heist was daring and seemingly impossible. The hunt is on for the culprits. But it soon becomes clear that only one man -- and his elephant -- can possibly crack this case. . . Featuring the most charming crime-solving duo ever to grace the pages of a book, the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series is a must-read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith.

Download or read book Staying On written by Paul Scott and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-02-11 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sequel to The Raj Quartet, Colonel Tusker and Lucy Smalley stay on in the hills of Pankot after Indian independence deprives them of their colonial status. Finally fed up with accommodating her husband, Lucy claims a degree of independence herself. Eloquent and hilarious, she and Tusker act out class tensions among the British of the Raj and give voice to the loneliness, rage, and stubborn affection in their marriage. Staying On won the Booker Prize in 1977 and was made into a motion picture starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in 1979. "Staying On far transcends the events of its central action. . . . [The work] should help win for Scott . . . the reputation he deserves—as one of the best novelists to emerge from Britain's silver age."—Robert Towers, Newsweek "Scott's vision is both precise and painterly. Like an engraver cross-hatching in the illusion of fullness, he selects nuances that will make his characters take on depth and poignancy."—Jean G. Zorn, New York Times Book Review "A graceful comic coda to the earlier song of India. . . . No one writing knows or can evoke an Anglo-Indian setting better than Scott."—Paul Gray, Time "Staying On provides a sort of postscript to [Scott's] deservedly acclaimed The Raj Quartet. . . . He has, as it were, summoned up the Raj's ghost in Staying On. . . . It is the story of the living death, in retirement, and the final end of a walk-on character from the quartet. . . . Scott has completed the task of covering in the form of a fictional narrative the events leading up to India's partition and the achievement of independence in 1947. It is, on any showing, a creditable achievement."—Malcolm Muggeridge, New York Times Book Review

Download or read book The Birds of Paradise written by Paul Scott and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-08-22 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of The Raj Quartet, a coming-of-age tale about a boy and his childhood friendships with a British diplomat’s daughter and the son of a Raj. The Birds of Paradise is set in India when the British Raj still seemed a paradise, but a paradise that boy comes to recognize as already lost. As Scott weaves together themes of political and personal history, he makes us feel how the protagonist identifies with the beautiful, mysterious India of the Raj. With a keen eye for character and graceful prose, Scott captures the reverie of a youth complete with parades of elephants, garden parties, and the titular birds of paradise, who are stuffed trophies of an Indian prince, kept as decoration in a gilded cage. When the boy is sent away to England, he experiences his exile as both the personal wound of abandonment and the foreshadowing of the Partition. Winner of the Booker Prize Praise for The Birds of Paradise “A rare literary bird, a novel that in a short space recreates a man’s lifetime. Using exotic backgrounds, it manages to say something useful about growing up—a process that only children believe takes place mainly in childhood.” —Time “Scott’s vision is both precise and painterly. Like an engraver crosshatching the illusion of fullness, he selects nuances that will make his characters take on depth and poignancy.” —Jean G. Zorn, New York Times Book Review “One of the best novelists to emerge from Britain’s silver age.” —Robert Towers, Newsweek “Far more even than E. M. Forester, in whose long literary shadow he has to work, Paull Scott is successful in exploring the provinces of the human heart.” —Life