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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!

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To: Neocon who wrote (75114)2/23/2000 6:53:00 PM
From: Dayuhan  Read Replies (1) of 108807
 
11 million people died in intercommunal strife after independence was declared.........

I think I mentioned once that when the normal course of social evolution is halted, and order is imposed externally, tension accumulates to a degree that can be settled only by mass violence.

Why do you think there are so many civil wars in Africa? Is it not because the "nations" were not constructed along tribal and ethnic boundaries, but according to the limits of the territories that various European nations were able to conquer? The lumping of Hindu and Muslim into a single "nation" was for the convenience of a foreign administration.

The notion that the Raj brought any degree of modernization to India, beyond the urban enclaves, is absurd. How do you think a nation as small as Britain was able to administer a nation as large as India? They did what all colonial powers did - they cut deals with the local petty despots. The despots maintained order and made sure that business was smooth and the pinks were not threatened, and the colonial rulers backed up the despots with troops when necessary. Huge areas of India were "governed" by only a handful of British officials, who were often more concerned with diddling the local boys than with running the province (in Victorian England, those with "the tendency" - of whom there were plenty - headed straight for the colonies, where they had a ripping good time).

The end result was that the colonial powers ended up maintaining the rule of the most regressive and authoritarian elements of the local society, which in many cases would never have survived without their support.

Don't judge the Raj by the self-serving accounts of British apologists.
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