Hi Arun. Wow, a reasonable view of British colonialism. Usually the modern drivel is that the British raped, pillaged and plundered like Genghis, Japan and the Nazis. timesofindia.indiatimes.com
John Stuart Mill was NOT the same as Adolf Hitler and Tojo.
India did very well from British capital, science, technology, language, law and political development. You'd think there would even be some appreciation. Britain did well from India doing well. That's how it works between trade between consenting adults. [Yes, I know there were things like getting salt was illegal - NZ is full of similar nonsense. We go to gaol for cutting down one of our own trees nowadays.]
Olde-style tribal conquest by genocidal male-on-male takeover of territory, property and females was NOT what the British Empire was about. Which is not to say there weren't barbarians within the British capitalist colonialists.
After half a century of grinding poverty and little development in India after Britain left, blaming the evil-doing British wears thin.
Zimbabweans subscribed to this idea too <My nationalist credentials are impeccable. At college in Madras, I participated in debates where a favourite subject was 'Self-government is more precious than good government'. >
Most Zimbabweans are too young to remember the good old days of Rhodesia, but I wonder if a few aren't thinking that maybe a local ruler isn't necessarily better just because he has more shared DNA with them.
Indians too, did not get "self-government". Democracy is a lie like that - it's not self-government. It's just a different way of choosing who will be boss to benefit themselves and their acolytes. Humans everywhere on Earth remain state-owned chattel cattle. It's more We the Sheeple, than We the People. Some places are worse than others. Some are getting better, some are getting worse.
<India has not had a major famine in its post-independence history. > That's not because of Britain not being there. Nowhere has had a famine for half a century other than locally inspired by wars for alpha-malehood or odd situations such as supposedly happened in North Korean in recent years.
The huge production increase is because English-speaking geneticists [I hope that's right - I haven't checked] invented the agricultural systems to produce huge quantities of food and swanky new grain designs.
<Another example of neglect was the Bengal famine in 1943 where millions died. >
Are you trying to blame that on Britain? The Wikipedia article doesn't suggest it was much caused by Britain. But it's good to have evil-doing foreigners to blame. Britain was already lining up to leave India. Perhaps Indians could have taken over a little more enthusiastically. There's a hint that the local yokels hoarded food. That's enough to cause a shortage in most situations for most things.
In the USA, when there's a gasoline shortage, people hoard and price controls are put on to ensure the shortage is serious. We did that in NZ too to such an extent that people were only allowed to use their cars on odd days. Lack of intelligence isn't limited to India. It's a dominant human characteristic. Lack of knowledge too. That's why Google is so popular. It knows everything we don't. When it can think for us too, then life should improve even more.
Mqurice |
