An Era of Darkness ranges through an impressive body of works and presents itself as an informed polemic on the ravages of colonial rule.

HE’S HIGH ON the list of India’s most successful people and practically became UN secretary general. Shashi Tharoor, the most popular Member of Parliament, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi (at least on Twitter) delivers almost the same speech from almost every platform, in describing “his” India.

“India,” the core of the address goes, “is no longer the nationalism of ethnicity or language or religion, because we have every ethnicity known to mankind, practically; we’ve every religion known to mankind… We have 23 official languages that are recognised in our constitution... We don’t even have geography uniting us because the natural geography of the subcontinent framed by the mountains and the sea was hacked by the partition with Pakistan in 1947. Even the name ‘India’ comes from a river, the Indus, which flows in Pakistan.

“But the whole point,” he continues (these words come from a TEDIndia talk from a few years ago), “is that India is the nationalism of an idea. It’s the idea of an ever-ever-land, emerging from an ancient civilisation, united by a shared history, but sustained, above all, by pluralist democracy. That is a 21stcentury story, as well as an ancient one.

But apart from India and nationalism, something that truly went viral after his Oxford Union speech last year was that Britain owed India reparations for its 400-year-rule over the ‘colony.’

Shashi Tharoor’s energetic debate speech was in speaking for the motion, “Britain Owes Reparations to Her Former Colonies,” and launched into a brilliantly argued, no-holds-barred nationalist roar against former colonial masters.

The video of the speech coursed through the cyber community Tharoor tells us in his book, over 3 million times. Cyber nationalists, Hindutva patriots, Modi bhakts who had mercilessly trolled Tharoor for his secular views, now hailed him as a hero for giving voice to their aggressive nationalism. A speech that echoed the views of the nationalist school of history writing begun as far back as the late 19th century had found a new millennial constituency.

Tharoor has now converted that ‘viral’ Oxford union speech into a new book, ‘An Era of Darkness’ (Aleph) in which he expands his theme of the evil, heartless, greedy and racist British mercilessly exploiting India, impoverishing its people, stealing its riches, destroying its social fabric and leaving it with a ruined economy, dysfunctional democracy and confused modernity, with even the so-called gains of colonialism like the English language and the railway network being only very mixed blessings. But while Tharoor’s speech was fluent drama, the book at times reads like a politician’s rant. While the speech was punchy and riveting, the book does at times feel like a re-run of the nationalist historiography of the 19th and early twentieth century.

Tharoor, 58, a member of the Indian National Congress Party, is high up on every list of India’s best and brightest. He’s written 14 bestselling books in English, including a collection of short stories and three novels, notably “The Great Indian Novel” (1989). He’s also published a biography of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, seven nonfiction works, plus two books of photographs, about his country. Until he entered politics in 2009, he wrote a weekly column, “India Reawakening,” that was syndicated in 80 newspapers worldwide.

Shashi Tharoor was born in London to an Indian family; he has two sisters. His father, originally from Kerala, a state in south-west India, was the group advertising manager for the Indian newspaper The Statesman. When Shashi was two, the family returned to India. He attended various schools in Mumbai, Calcutta and finally university in Delhi, obtaining an undergraduate degree in art and history. At age 19, he went to the United States to obtain an M.A. in international relations, at Tufts University.

Politically, Tharoor is a salient member of the leftliberal camp. He believes in economic competition and government-encouraged small businesses and believes that India’s future depends on its ability to open up to the world. He is keen on freedom of the press and an avid advocate of governmental transparency. He was the first elected representative in the history of India to publish annual reports about his work and his expenses and urged other politicians to do likewise.

Tharoor spent 30 years with the United Nations, beginning in the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, and working his way up in the organisation. In 2001, he was appointed undersecretary-general for communications and public Information, where he learned much about image presentation and about using various means to get messages across – skills that would boost his popularity later.

In 2006, he was nominated by the Indian government for the post of UN secretary general, becoming the first Indian to compete for the position. He and Ban Ki-moon, from South Korea, led all the other candidates. In the end, Tharoor received two fewer votes than Ban. Tharoor congratulated him, declined his offer to serve as his deputy, and left the UN.

At the age of 52, two years after that defeat and 33 years after leaving India, Tharoor returned to his country, famous and popular. “I feel as if I have never left India,” he says, adding, “I’m an Indian who happens to live in New York or work in Switzerland. Geography for me is a circumstance, not an identity.”

‘An Era of Darkness’ is thus not a book of new historical research but a racily written essay cum argument which takes up the hoary nationalist baton and races around spiritedly over welltrodden ground. Yet Tharoor is a well-regarded author, whose work India: From Midnight to Millenium was studied by none other than then US President Bill Clinton when preparing to visit India in 2000. So notwithstanding its familiar theme, Tharoor’s evocative prose makes known facts refreshingly relevant and interesting for the 21st-century reader.

Tharoor’s book is also important in the current political climate where the contribution of some prominent freedom fighters is being systematically erased from school syllabus. The present government’s drive to erase any version of history that doesn’t align with their wilful retelling is similar to how the British doctored the narrative in their favour while making themselves appear like saviours.