Publisher's Synopsis
Though numbered volume I, this book is a companion to the book about the so-called Amritsar Massacre which is entitled 'The British Raj volume II Decay', written by Elisabeth Beckett. It is a potted history of the involvement of the British in the Indian sub-continent, which began in the early years of the Seventeenth Century, when Queen Elizabeth I granted a Charter to some of Her subjects to voyage to the East Indies for trade. Having written about the Amritsar incident, Elisabeth Beckett recognised that many people had been deceived on that subject because of the lies and propaganda surrounding the presence and actions of the British in India from their first arrival. Both The Honourable East India Company and later, the British Crown, were described as the worst of colonial powers, ruthless exploiters of Indian people, rapacious thieves of Indian riches and cruel despoilers of Indian culture. In order to counter these false images and to portray a more factual account of the British Raj, Elisabeth undertook the research from both, Indian and British sources, which resulted in this volume. Four hundred years of Indian history is too vast a subject to be fully covered in one short book, but even a short book can point up the facts and inaccuracies in other accounts, which have concealed or distorted the record in order to further political ambitions. The dedicated website at www.massacremyth.com will include opportunity to comment on this later addition to Elisabeth's research, recorded in her manuscript, which exists only as a preamble to the account contained in volume II. Like volume II, it has been edited by John Wrake.
