Imperial Receipts

Partition
In this episode, Dr. Tharoor and RT’s Runjhun Sharma explore the trauma of the Partition, the split between India and Pakistan that claimed over a million lives and left tens of millions displaced, with the pain of that division still...
Oct 13, 2025 14:01
Imperial Receipts is a ten-part series confronting historical amnesia. Led by Shashi Tharoor – politician, author and chair of Indian Parliament’s External Affairs Committee – it reveals how Britain plundered a vast nation, what was lost, and how empire still shapes today’s politics and economics. Through archives and sharp analysis, it asks: should the loot be returned, and why must we reckon with London’s whitewashed past?

Partition
In this episode, Dr. Tharoor and RT’s Runjhun Sharma explore the trauma of the Partition, the split between India and Pakistan that claimed over a million lives and left tens of millions displaced, with the pain of that division still...
Oct 13, 2025 14:01
Decolonization
In this episode, Dr. Tharoor and RT’s Runjhun Sharma discuss the Kerala model, or how the state confronted its colonial legacy and reformed society from within. They point out that the British tried to replicate their own system of governance...
Oct 6, 2025 14:01
Gods
In this episode, Dr. Tharoor and RT’s Runjhun Sharma discuss how religion became a tool of conquest, and what that still means for India today. Dr. Tharoor explains that the British were eager to learn as much as they could about the country...
Sep 29, 2025 14:07
Identity
In the fourth episode of Imperial Receipts, Dr. Shashi Tharoor and RT’s Runjhun Sharma will examine the colonial strategies that reshaped Indian identity. They focus on the British policy of divide and rule, which became almost official policy...
Sep 22, 2025 14:38
Destruction
Dr Shashi Tharoor and RT’s Runjhun Sharma draw a sharp line between Trump’s tariffs today and the colonial tariffs Britain once imposed in India - tariffs that crushed India’s world-class textile industry. Before the British...
Sep 15, 2025 14:56
The Loot
On today’s episode of Imperial Receipts with Shashi Tharoor, ‘The Loot’, Dr. Tharoor and RT’s Runjhun Sharma examine what was taken from India by the British Crown. At the center of this discussion is the Kohinoor – the...
Sep 8, 2025 16:33
The Empire
In this episode, titled “The Empire,” Shashi Tharoor and RT’s South Asia Correspondent Runjhun Sharma explore how and why the British built railways in India, with Dr. Tharoor arguing that “for the British to claim the...
Sep 1, 2025 14:07
Imperial Receipts - Moscow Special Episode
At 4:30pm Moscow time on Monday, August 18, we air a special preview episode. It was filmed in Moscow in June, with the participation of Russian and international students and experts on a variety of topics, both of the past and present. In this...
Aug 18, 2025 14:12
Imperial Receipts: Shashi Tharoor confronts Britain’s colonial legacy
Imperial Receipts is an upcoming ten-part series. The brilliant intellectual Shashi Tharoor – politician, former diplomat, author, and chair of the Indian Parliament's External Affairs Committee – examines how the British systematically...
Aug 18, 2025 05:00