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A History of British India  By  cover art

A History of British India

By: The Great Courses, Hayden J. Bellenoit
Narrated by: Hayden J. Bellenoit
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Publisher's summary

No era is more pertinent to understanding how present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh evolved than the nearly 200 years of British rule. This colonial period was a time of deep change and transformation - for India and for the world. These 24 engrossing lectures offer you new perspectives on the history of European imperialism, on world economic history, on the features of British colonialism, and on the rich cultures of the Indian subcontinent.

Over the course of this remarkable saga you'll explore:

  • How the English East India Company, a commercial trading entity, established a presence in India and took the reins of power in one of the strangest political transformations in world history
  • How the monumental Mughal Empire, builders of the Taj Mahal and longstanding Muslim rulers in India, gradually came apart in the face of British conquest
  • How Britain extended its rule across the subcontinent, built a huge economic machine in India, and ultimately exacted a heavy price from the Indian people
  • How India finally achieved independence in 1947, through one of humanity's most noteworthy examples of resourceful and philosophically sophisticated leadership

You'll trace the economic motives that brought the British and other Westerners to India, like how the emergence of the English as a stereotypically tea-drinking society was directly related to the Indian colonial economy. You will also take stock of the incredibly lavish lifestyles of India's maharajahs and how the British leveraged alliances with them. And you'll grasp the fundamental moral contradiction of the Raj, the conflict between Britain's economic interests and the human needs of the empire's Indian subjects, and more. In A History of British India, you'll relive a crucial era in international relations, one with deep and lasting implications for our contemporary world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2017 The Great Courses (P)2017 The Teaching Company, LLC

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    3 out of 5 stars

High school level

This is a fascinating period dominated by larger than life personalities, but this course doesn't do it justice and the prof functions at a high school level. He would do better to highlight specific personalities in each lesson and give more details. General statistics and overviews are important for context but the story needs to be fleshed out. Continual use of "remember', "think about it", rhetorical questions punctuated by a puerile "you got it" is annoying and patronizing. No profiles of individual maharajas, only a few eccentricities mentioned. Only major characters and incidents well known to anyone who knows even a little of Indian history are discussed. He gets animated with Gandhi and the National Congress. But this course either needs to be reworked for adults, both style and content, or recategorized as introductory. He hints numerous times that something is a subject for "another course". Oh my.

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11 people found this helpful

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Good history - Annoying narration

Very interesting for a newbie to this important and interesting history of the region. I found the narrator a bit annoying, especially, about 100 times throughout the course his asking a question and then saying "you got it" like a half second after the question. About half way through I found myself shouting back at him #you got it" before he even said it, which most of the time he did. I'm surprised no one caught that, or that he wasn't annoyed at himself.

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10 people found this helpful

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Very Informative but.......

remember there are two sides to every story. Having family that lived through some of the history told in this course, keep an open mind. I found the Professor very informative but mostly one sided. I would have liked to hear a more balanced approach. Just my opinion.......

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Solid Introspective into Cultural Context of Event

I have to admit I am surprised by the number of negative reviews for this course. Sure Professor Bellenoit paints every British action during its rule of India as repressive and immoral even though we know that simply can't be the truth. But is he really that far off?

And yes, his frequent use of rhetorical questions throughout the lectures was so overbearing I almost gave up early on. There was only one thing worse than his repeated use of questions to the audience such as “Why did…?”, “How did…?”, and “Why would…?” and it was this: he actually would ANSWER with responses such as “You got it” or “Correct” or “You guessed it” or “Think about it”. I remain stunned that someone didn't bring this to his attention and advocate for a change in style before releasing this series to the public. It was like he wanted to be a game show host or something: at times asking condescendingly childish questions like we were 7 year olds and at other times asking more difficult questions and still assuming we had responded at home exactly as he would for an answer. SIGH.

Similarly, his usual conclusion to a lecture with the statement “We’ve covered a great deal in this lecture” grew stale.

And his enmity towards Muhammad Ali Jinnah is clear and obvious and while he is probably correct about a lot of his shortcomings and questionable behavior and that a lot of the horror resulting from partition may've been avoided if the Muslim League hadn't changed its tactics to be more aggressive in the 1940's, I still would’ve expected at least a little bit of balanced coverage/telling of the other side of the story vs. a clearly subjective approach.

Still don't let all of the negative reviews sway you if you are on the fence. This was a very solid and introspective course.

Professor Bellenoit covered the social, economic, and cultural aspects of the time period very well excelling at explaining how three distinct populations interacted and coexisted in India: the British, Hindu Indians, and Muslim Indians.

He didn't just relate history but provided enlightening introspective into the social, economic, and cultural contexts that explains some of the big picture questions relating to this subject and time period; For example he would explain the social, cultural, and political reasons for why the British were were successful in taking control of India, why the Indian princes worked with the British, why Britain didn’t take direct rule of areas, why Indian Nationalism arose when it did, etc. Providing this context really helped in contemplating the greater picture of this subject/time period vs. just listening to a series of events. This is the bellwether of a Great Course taking its content to the next level vs. an average history course reciting events.

Lecture 23 was fascinating to listen to. The negotiations between the British, the Indian National Congress, and the Muslim League on what an independent India would look like when the British departed was high drama and the resulting partition into India and Pakistan represented a bittersweet achievement of the long-sought for independence.

When I am debating about whether I should invest my time in a course I first check out the negative reviews on TGC. Typically if I observe a common theme among the reviewers and it falls into my personal pet peeves about a course then I make up my mind at that point not to proceed. Listening to a Great Course is a significant time investment and we all know how valuable time is. In this case I am glad I didn't do the "typical" thing but instead gave this course a shot.

Yes, the professor has "ticks" that can make you nauseated and on the verge of wanting to yell at him to drop the rhetorical questions. But he also provides some really interesting perspective and explanations to big themes that are not always found in other courses. He deserves applause for this. I felt like this course was definitely worth my time and would recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.

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Interesting but biased

Professor Bellenoit is knowledgeable and a clear speaker. But his anti-British bias mars the information. The British built railroads, schools and information systems. While misguided, they saw India in a paternalistic way - is that REALLY so terrible? I wanted to understand the real story...instead it seemed very one-sided. Sigh. I wish it had been better.

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Biased account

Professor Bellenoit castigates the British, mostly without citing any evidence. I am surprised this passes for scholarship.

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Extremely Interesting

If you could sum up A History of British India in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, Engaging, Fascinating

What did you like best about this story?

Indian history is so vast and rich that it is very difficult to tell. Looking at the history of British India gives the course a nice starting point for people (like me) who don't know Indian history in depth. It gave me an accessible introduction to the subject and I definitely want more.

Have you listened to any of Professor Hayden J. Bellenoit’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't but I greatly hope that the teaching company releases new courses from Professor Bellenoit. I would definitely enjoy a history of India before the British or post-colonial history of India or Pakistan.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The course was too long for me to do it in one sitting. However it was a great listen for my commute to and from work for a couple weeks.

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3 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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A rich history marred by a politically correct, left wing narration

The Honourable East India Company enjoyed a long and rich history during is years in India. Unfortunately, the lecturer failed to provide an accurate and balanced portrayal of this history and rather, presented a one-sided, left wing, politically correct interpretation of its history. I cannot recommend this audiobook.

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every Indian and Pakistanis should read it

Great insight of India history during British time, definitely lot to learn from history .

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learned a lot about British India

a lot of surprising information about British India including the starvation of 3 million during World War II and the death of another three million during the division of India and Pakistan

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