Book Reviews: India and the Passing of Empire. By SIR GEORGE DUNBAR, Bt. (New York: Philosophical Library. 1952. Pp. 225. $4.75.)

• Published date: 01 December 1952
• Author: Ithiel De Sola Pool
• Date: 01 December 1952
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295200500441
• Subject Matter: Articles

705

India

and

the

Passing

of

Empire.

By

SIR

GEORGE

DUNBAR,

Bt.

(New

York:

Philosophical

Library.

1952.

Pp.

225.

$4.75.)

This

mistitled

book

is

a

conventional

history

of

India

from

the

earliest

times

until

1947.

It

is

not,

as

the

name

implies,

a

monograph

on

empire

or

on

the

passing

of

the

British

Empire

or

on

the

Indian

independ-

ence

movement.

As

a

conventional

short

history,

it

has

certain

laudable

qualities.

It

is

simply

written,

and

far

more

readable

than

the

average

text.

It

also

attains

a

somewhat

higher

level

of

detachment

and

objectivity

than

most

British

histories

of

India.

At

the

same

time,

it

adds

no

new

ideas

nor

flashes

of

insight.

It

belongs

to

the

school

of

history

writing

in

which

kings,

battles,

and

white

papers

are

the

main

substance,

and

the

task

of

the

historian

is

to

assess

their

merits

and

demerits

with

a

scholar’s

urbane

detachment.

It

can

on

the

whole

be

recommended

as

a

useful

book

to

persons

seeking

an

elementary

background

knowledge

of

Indian

history,

but

not

to

those

with

more

serious

interests,

nor

to

those

specifically

interested

in

modern

India.

The

bias

of

the

book

is

distinctly

pro-British,

though

not

in

a

ranting

fashion.

Referring

to

the

Roman

and

British

empires,

the

author

says

that

these

two

empires &dquo; ...

whatever

their

faults

and

failings,

conferred

more

benefits

on

mankind

than

any

other

widely

imposed

political

system

the

world

has

known.&dquo;

He

describes

the

British

administration

as

&dquo; ...

a

guardianship

unparalleled

in

its

magnitude

and

efficient

control

of

Asiatics;

...

whatever

else

British

dominion

may or

may

not

have

done

it

set

up

a

standard

of

scrupulous

integrity,

and

of

even-handed

justice

between

Indian

and

Indian,

it

brought

with

it

the

maintenance

of

internal

peace

and

security,

and

it

imposed

political

unity

in

the

subcontinent.&dquo;

Such

qualified

encomiums,

which

an

Indian

nationalist

historian

would

ob-

viously

reject,

summarize

Sir

George’s

attitude

toward

British

rule.

He

does

not

choose

to

debate

explicitly

against

the

nationalist

version

of

Indian

history

in

which

a

Golden

Age

was

followed

by

progressive

deterioration,

a

deterioration

most

marked

under

the

British,

but

he

clearly

presents

the

standard

British

version

of

Indian

history

as

unmitigated

chaos

until

the

British

took

over.

He

does

not

deal

with such

nationalist

argu-

ments

as

that

communalism

and

communal

violence

were

an

outcome

of

a

deliberate

British

policy

of

Divide

and

Rule,

or

that

the

average

life

expectancy

declined

in

India

under

British

rule.

To

the

political

scientist,

the

most

relevant

portion

of

the

book

is

that

which

deals

with

the

past

thirty-five

or

fifty

years.

It

is

perhaps

unfair

to

evaluate

a

general

history

in

terms

of

its

treatment

of

the

most

difficult

subject

matter

it

encompasses.

In

a

political

science

journal,

however,

it

is

this

last

period

which

requires

closest

attention.

The

treatment

of

the