Book Review: An Imperial Disaster by Benjamin Kingsbury

The book sheds light on the events preceding the cyclone and the mismanagement of the British power following the cyclone leading to massive loss of life and suffering of the natives.

Here is the story of British Barbarity at its best. And it’s different from most stories. It is not simply another book which describes volumes of injustices caused to poor Indians by dominant Britishers in as much as these accounts are only concerned with social and economic status and the subsequent exploitation. But here you’ll find an account of a group of brutal murderers vs helpless, weaponless submissive subjects for it almost brings out their worst vices and immoralities that no person in his right state of mind could ever justify.

The author, Benjamin Kingsbury describes the catastrophic Bengal Cyclone of 1876 and the famine that followed with complete honesty, revealing all details and dirty dealings of the British. In fact, he considers this more of man-made destruction and even labels it ‘An Imperial Disaster’. And he does convince you to believe in it by the end of the book.

The cyclone could’ve been prevented with the construction of embankments with less than half the money earned by revenues. They could’ve stopped the untimely death of millions of women and children with basic provisions of food. They could’ve maintained high levels of hygiene at last by decomposing the corpses- for there were either too less survivors or no digging tools left in these epidemic-stricken areas. But inaction was all that the people got from a government that never hesitated to extort unfair revenues from them.

This book acts as a great counter-argument to those British Sympathisers who believe that Britain did more good than harm. Well, they certainly introduced modern education, railway infrastructure, and the ‘universal’ language even though for their personal agendas. But at what cost?