This exciting book moves beyond and against the current postcolonial orthodoxy. Instead of arguing that all colonization is wrong and inherently unjust, Dr. Kartar Lalvani argues that Britain made a crucial contribution in providing India with its lasting physical and institutional infrastructure which continues to underpin the world's largest democracy. The indisputable fact is that India as a nation, as it stands today, was originally put together and created by a small distant island nation. That India has endured as a democracy and a unified nation is thanks to the all important and fully functional infrastructure of an independent civil service and judiciary, a disciplined and apolitical army and a well drilled and efficient police force--all developed by an imperial power. This finally explodes the myth that all India`s problems are caused by outsiders' interference

Dr. Kartar is himself Indian and is fully aware that his book will create great controversy, but it is a meticulously argued and researched history of the people of India since the 17th century.