Amitav Ghosh and Shashi Tharoor heat the stage at Tata Lit Live 2016

A crowd of more than 600 was gathered at the iconic National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) theatre at Marine Drive for the inauguration ceremony of the 2016 edition of Tata Literature Live. This year’s festival kicked off with the literary musings of noted author Amitav Ghosh and political thinker, non-fiction writer- Dr. Shashi Tharoor. The presence of these two eminent personalities added to the charm of the magnificent NCPA that afternoon on November 17, 2016 as the duo swayed the audience with their wit and bountiful knowledge.

Amitav Ghosh and Shashi Tharoor at the inauguration ceremony of Tata Lit Live 2016

After the opening speech by the Tata Lit Festival’s Founder and Director, Anil Dharker and Harish Bhat of Tata Sons, Ghosh and Tharoor were welcomed upon the stage. Their Persona and the aura which they carried with themselves was enough to mesmerize every single person present in the theatre hall, right from the very beginning. Despite of having lived abroad many years, both Ghosh and Tharoor seem to be proud of their origin and Indian culture as they were dressed in an elegant yet simple Indian attire of Kurta, Pajama and vest.

Ghosh and Tharoor immediately managed to engage the audience with their enthralling conversation about the legacy of the British Raj in India. Tharoor, then, gave an insight to his recently launched book, ‘An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India’.

Further, in conversation with Ghosh, Tharoor says that the Railways was a very big colonial scam. There is often a perception that Indians should be grateful to the British for giving the country the facility of Railways. But that is not true. The purpose of the Railways was merely to serve the British, promote trade and acquire profits for the East India Company. More so, there was a great deal of racism involved. Indian passengers were given only the third class carriages whereas Europeans were the number one priority and were given first class treatment. Every mile of the railway was built for nearly £18000 while railway network developed around the same time in South America or Britain itself cost only £2000 per mile.”

Contradicting to what most Indians believe, Ghosh added that the British did not give India a legal system, instead it established a two-tier system, clearly dividing the Indian society into the Haves and the Have-nots; as it is prevailing today.

“What’s surprising is that the citizens of UK today are largely unaware of this part of history as they have been fed an altogether different version of their history,” said Tharoor. In a 45 minute literary- political debate, Ghosh and Tharoor created a kind of political undercurrent. The session left the audience with something to ponder upon and urged us to revisit our colonial history.