I don't believe I'd heard of any of those bits of history before reading that column. I was so shocked by them that I did a bit more digging about the books and authors which the writer based that column on.

Turns out that Mike Davis, who wrote the book about the Indian famine, is a self-described "Marxist-Environmentalist", and one reviewer on Amazon.com described his book as a "relentlessly one-dimensional polemic."

Similarly, Caroline Elkins' book about the Mau Mau Uprising has been described by other historians as "sensationalist" and "one-sided." A good bit of criticism at the Amazon.com listing for that book, too.

I hasten to add that I have no doubt that nasty and unjust things happened under British colonial rule. I just think the particular article Zach linked to may be somewhat exaggerated.

I haven't heard about those bits of history, either, since I'm an American. US public schools don't exactly teach a heck of a lot about British colonial rule, other than that situated on the North American mainland south of the St. Lawrence River.