Not every Briton in India was a sinner ...and not every Indian was a saint IFLLYSE SOULCHUTNETER

As he becomes the first Anglo-Asian author to chair the prestigious Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, VASEEM KHAN reflects on the shadow of Empire and why we should all learn from the past, not heedlessly tear it down

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TOWERING over Mumbai is the world’s most expensive private residence. The 27-storey, $2billion Antilia skyscraper is home to India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and his family. Like something from a James Bond film, the 400,000sqft building boasts a ballroom, three helipads, nine lifts and its own 50-seat cinema, as well as six floors devoted solely to storing cars. It reportedly takes 600 staff to keep it running.

Yet in its shadow, quite literally in some cases, are the biggest slums in the world.

Indeed, more than half the population of Mumbai, née Bombay, live in shanty towns that in many cases lack access to clean water, electricity and public transport.

And this, according to critically-acclaimed crime writer Vaseem Khan, is the striking paradox at the heart of India, which can be traced back to the days of the Raj.

The London-born author and university research manager, who takes the reins as programming chair at this year’s highly anticipated 20th anniversary Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing festival in Harrogate, admits: “It’s a controversial topic because virtually everything the British did in India was to smooth the rails for their own colonial enterprise.

“They built the railways to move men and material around the country, they taught the language so the Indian Civil Service could work more smoothly, and they introduced the legal system to mirror their own.

“For Indians, none of those things justify colonialism, but some feel they later made it easier for India to become a modern, semi-Westernised and globalised economy.”

Having enjoyed an economic boom from the outsourcing revolution – hosting call centres and other back-office functions, taking advantage in part of the ubiquity of the English language – India now enjoys a burgeoning middle-class.