A family of semi-starved Indians in Calcutta: Nigel Biggar's aim is to defend colonialism not to critique ethics, and he presents us with a simple dichotomy: between orderly if necessarily tough government on the one hand and horrible 'anarchy' on the other. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images This book is a shot in the “culture war” which has provided steady work for conservative commentators and “decolonising” radicals for years now. In his acknowledgments, Prof Nigel Biggar refers to the pressures he and his co-thinkers have felt, including shabby treatment by publishers, as “that hell”. I can sympathise with this, but cannot help...