दूसरों को आँकने की कसौटी उनकी जाति न होकर — जैसाकि मार्टिन लूथर किंग कहा करते थे — उनके चरित्र के तत्त्व या उनकी योग्यताओं का सार था। - Shashi Tharoor

Like India herself, I am at home in hovels and palaces, Ganapathi, I trundle in bullock-carts and propel myself into space, I read the vedas and quote the laws of cricket. I move to the strains of a morning raga in perfect evening dress.

Indians paid, in other words, for the privilege of being conquered by the British.

"With the absorption of each native state, the (East India) company official John Sullivan observed in 1840s: "The little court disappears — the capital decays — trade languishes — the capital decays — the people are impoverished — the Englishman flourishes, and acts like a sponge, drawing up riches from the banks of the Ganges, and squeezing them down upon the banks of the Thames.