Not only do India and the British
have a past, they have a very
gory past as Shashi Tharoor
reminded us with his speech at
the Oxford Union. We share with
Britain a history of being oppressed for centuries, of
bloody massacres, mass arrests,
the suppression of democratic
rights and the supplanting of our
own culture to serve the British
interests. Remember Jallianwala
Bagh and the Bengal famine?
Here are five important
takeaways.
Fact: India was governed for
the benefit of the British.
This as we know it from our
history books is exactly spot on.
Not only was India looted of all
it's precious gems and riches, our
booming industries were
ruthlessly destroyed all for
Britain's own advancement
during Europe's"Industrial
Revolution." For example, our
handloom weavers were out of
jobs once the British decided they
wanted to promote their "finished
products" that were far inferior
to our handloom spun cloth.
Their exploitation of our
handloom industry was so famed
that even Marx wrote about it
in 1853 titling his paper 'The
British intruder who broke up
the Indian handloom' . A much
lesser known fact- the master
weavers were tortured and
their thumbs were cut off , so
that British-made cotton cloth
from their mills in England would
find a good market in India.
India's contribution in World
Wars
India contributed more soldiers
to the wars than Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and South
Africa put together. It has been
reported that one sixth of the
soldiers fighting for the British
Empire was from the Indian
subcontinent. Putting things in
perspective: almost 800,000
soldiers took part in the war,
around 53,000 Indian soldiers
lost their lives, 64,000 were
wounded and nearly 4000 went
missing or were imprisoned. And
this is just World War 2.
Not only that but troops from
India fought in all the major
centres of the war, from the
Western Front in Europe to
Africa and China. In 1945 India's
war contribution amounted to
about 8 billion pounds in 2015
money, 1.25 billion pounds was
owed to India and was never
actually paid.
Indian industries suffered the
most
The economic situation of the
colonies was worsened because
the British rule in India holds
true. India's share of the world
economy was 23% when the
British arrived, less than four
percent when they left. Not only
that, but India's share of world
trade went down from 27 percent
to less than two percent.
Acknowledging a debt is more
important than putting a
number to it
Though Tharoor in his speech
says, "I, for one, would be happy
to accept a symbolic pound a
year for the next two hundred
years, as a token of apology"
their debt is more than just a
number. All these years after the
British rule has ended, it's safe to
say it's impossible to put an exact
number to the 150 years of
exploitation. What would be
better however is them accepting
that yes, Britain f*****d up. We
shouldn't have invaded you
(India), nor should we have
oppressed your people, or killed
your industries, or starved your
citizens but hey, the British built
your railways and roads so
maybe it was for the best. Umm,
no. Many countries have built
railways and roads without any
overlord issuing the order like
Britain and USA. Despite
everything, currently, British
aide to India is only about 0.4
percent of the Indian economy.
Churchill and Bengal famine
Between 15 to 29 million Indians
died in British-induced famines
during their rule. The worst
however was the Bengal famine
of 1943. Then PM Churchill, as
part of his Western war effort,
ordered the diversion of food
from starving Indians to already
well-supplied British soldiers and
stockpiles in Britain and
elsewhere in Europe, including
Greece and Yugoslavia. According
to Madhusree Mukerjee's
book, Churchill's Secret War,
when asked about the famine he
wrote asking why Gandhi hadn't
died yet.
"Winston may be right in saying
that the starvation of anyhow
under-fed Bengalis is less serious
than sturdy Greeks, but he makes
no sufficient allowance for the
sense of Empire responsibility in
this country," wrote Sir Wavell
in his account of the meetings
between him and the PM.
