Where would India be without the British Raj

The British, by contrast, brought tangible development, ports and railways, that created the basis for a modern state. More important, they brought the framework for parliamentary democracy that Indians, who already possessed indigenous traditions of heterodoxy and pluralism, were able to fit to their own needs. Indeed, the very Hindu pantheon, with its many gods rather than one, works toward the realization that competing truths are what enable freedom. Thus, the British, despite all their flaws, advanced an ideal of Indian greatness. (via India’s New Face - The Atlantic (April 2009).

After the guns fell silent

At the end of WW2, Britain was a superpower, intact with its huge colonial Empire - apart from the massive debt that it owed the US. With Germany defeated and Hitler dead, Italy in shambles and Mussolini hanged, Britain sat at the head of ‘high tables’ in the post-WW2 world deciding the fate of the nations - with its partner in crime, the US of A.

Trouble from unexpected quarters

On February 18th, the lowly Naval Ratings from the Royal Indian Navy rained on the British parade - by raising the flag of Indian Independence. Britain did not have the stomach to take on the Indian Colonial Army, battle hardened and exposed to warfare in all the global theatres of WW2. They acquiesced and 18 months later the British were out. From then, to …

Flamed out

Britain today, a shell of its former self - with its manufacturing hollowed out, its agriculture in shambles, its economy on the verge of being relegated to the Third World is a huge descent. Much like Spain after Haiti.

In a 100 years after Haiti, Spain flamed out. By 1930, it was in the throes of a Civil War. And in Spain today, prostitution is national industry.

India, in the meantime, led by men of straw, has moved from being a ‘ship-to-mouth’ basket-case, to a significant economic and political success. Yet, the British colonial administrators needed to prove that only they could rule over India. Indians were after all ‘men of straw … of whom no trace will be found after a few years’. And they were led by ‘half naked fakir‘.

If Britain was indeed so good at its job, why can’t they do anything to save themselves from this terminal decline.

For all this, we owe a debt of gratitude to the British, Mr.Kaplan? Can you make up a better story please, next time!

A blog reader responds

The whole of black Africa has become a basket case. The people are ripped off by their rulers, in a far worse way than they ever were under white rule. Many of their citizens long for the return of white rule and the stability that would bring. It’s just a shame they are never going to get it.

By this logic, the way Britain is being run, it will need to be governed by guess who - Indians. Looking at where India was after the end of the Raj - and now, it is clear who is better at governing.

Looking at the ‘decline’ of Britain (what will happen after the secession of Scotland and Wales?) and Spain, after the end of Black Moslem rule, and you know who should be ruling over Britain and Spain at least.

Whatcha say …

The Detritus

As Britain (and the West) was forced out of various colonies, left behind was the garbage of colonialism. This post-colonial debris has become the ballast, that is dragging down many newly de-colonized countries. The Cyprus problem between Turkey, Greece and the Cypriots has been simmering for nearly 100 years. The role of the Anglo Saxon Bloc, in Indonesia, the overthrow of Sukarno, installation of Suharto and finally the secession of East Timor is another excellent example. The many issues in the West Asia and Africa are living testimony to the British gift to the modern world. The entire Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a creation of the Anglo-French-American axis.

Closer home is the Kashmir problem. After 60 years of negotiations, India-Pakistan relations have remained hostage to the Kashmir issue.

The Debt That India Owes Britain

“British government conceded Indian self-rule, they thought this the right thing to do. What would have happened to the Koreans or the Vietnamese if a local Gandhi had tried such tactics against the brutal Japanese kempetai or the French with their mercenaries from Morocco and Senegal? It was not that Gandhi was successful but that the British were forbearing … Gandhi’s tactics only work if the other side lets it …” Christie Davies’ Blog The Social Affairs Unit.

Indians are an ungrateful lot. How can we forget the British and give Gandhi all the credit.

Ever the oriental selfishness. Why can we not sacrifice ourselves for the Great British Empire? Can we even imagine that the greatest empire in history had anything but the milk of human kindness at the time of granting Independence. After WW2, even though Britain was on rationing, they let us browns go independent.

Churchill very much wanted the option of squeezing the brown man a little more. Whatever little there was left of the brown man after the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. After Montagu Norman, Churchill, Lord Willingdon, Neville Chamberlain had finished with the Great Bullion Scam against India from 1925-1945. After the war was over and the brown man was used in Africa and Europe. They let us go - and allowed us to rule ourselves.

How can we ever repay this debt?

First, the great benefit of English language. All other super powers and developed countries (Japan, China, Russia, France, Germany, Italy) use their own respective languages. They could have been very successful (like India) if they had learnt English, talked English, walked English, read English, cooked English, washed English, done everything in English.

But these stupid Germans, Italians, Japanese, Russians, French, Chinese - they dont know what we know!! English is the universal language.

Can we ever forget the Lees-Mody pact which saved the Indian farmer from ruin? The Japanese had stopped purchase of Indian cotton. Never mind the fact that the British raised customs duty for imported Japanese cloth to protect the Lancashire Mills, which were hurting by the Gandhian (that tricky so and so oriental) boycott.

We ungrateful Indians must further appreciate the British sacrifice and the industrial cost of conceding self rule to India. Within 15 years of Indian independence, the British car industry started closing down. British Steel collapsed and had to be nationalised within 20 years (Ratan Tata may revive British Steel finally). British coal mining became unviable withn 25 years - and had to be shut. British Rail similarly collapsed. It is now making hesitant comeback after privatisation. British capital goods industry (electrical, heavy machinery, electronics) went out of business. All due to us Indians.

But they taught Laloo Prasad Yadav how to run Indian Railways profitably.

What could the British do without captive market and raw material sources. The British let all this go - so that Indian industry could survive. British business manager taught Indian businessmen how to run business competitively - and completely ignored their own business. Today, Britain has very few of the colonial era multinationals.

British (The Great Benefactors) said - Go forth, brown man.

Some biased historians claim that the Britishers said to us Indians, “We know that you can do nothing by yourself. You are useless to us now. You are a burden to us. We have anyway sucked you dry. But, since you want to go away from our protective umbrella, go forth and stagnate at the bottom”, under their breadth, at the time of Independence. I dont believe that. Like I dont believe that the sun rises in the East (it is a conspiracy against us).

We also do not appreciate their kindness towards us!

The other British legacy that we should be very grateful is our colonial bureaucracy. This colonial era bureaucracy was permanently established - and it has been growing faster than our population. Its corruption is aided by a myriad laws created by the same bureaucracy - for the benefit of Indians. The British never had any intention to benefit from this entrenched laws and bureaucracy.

Recent archaeology (available with me) evidence shows that the British were repaying our kindness. Indians “marwari” seths had lent Queen Bodicea some money during her struggle against the Romans. The British have never forgotten that. (This secret story is based on documents to which only I have access).

Hence, they did not kill us Indians in the numbers that they killed (more than 10 lakh Kenyans in 10 years) in the Mau Mau uprising. Or they did not torture or kill Indians they way they killed the Malaysians. Due to this reason, they also did not establish apartheid the way they did in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa. This unblemished record of the British against other people had nothing to do with Gandhiji. Gandhiji’s focus on post-colonial India, had nothing to with the existence of our statehood. It was all the British legacy.

The one British failure was that they did not kill Gandhi. That job was outsourced to an Indian “coolie”. They could have easily done that. This was one thing that they could have done - but didn’t do! In my books, we should be eternally grateful to the British Colonialist for not killing Gandhiji.