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).
Colonial Indian armed forces took on the complacent Raj 1 week after this cartoon demanding freedom.
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 …
Be afraid ... very afraid
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!
The Master's Anticipation - Rubbing hands in glee, are you?
The debt that India owes Britain
Churchill very much wanted the option of squeezing the brown man at least a little more. Whatever little there was left of the brown man after the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. Clement Attlee pointed out that there was nothing left to squeeze. Attlee thought that the cost of squeezing was greater than the value of the extract.
How can we ever repay this debt.
Or the great benefit of English language.
These stupid Germans, Italians, Japanese, Russians, French, Chinese – they don’t know what we know!! English is the universal 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.
I must admit, this small, little, disloyal question keeps raising its head, in my head? Why cant the British use that great English language to lift themselves from that terminal decline?
What could the British do without captive markets 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.
Within 10 years of Indian independence, the British car industry started closing down. British coal mining became unviable within 15 years – and had to be shut finally. British Rail similarly collapsed. British capital goods industry (electrical, heavy machinery, electronics) went out of business. There is no British automotive industry worth talking about. British Steel collapsed and had to be nationalised within 20 years (Ratan Tata may revive British Steel and British Automotive segments finally).
British Steel collapsed and had to be nationalised within 20 years (Ratan Tata may revive British Steel finally).
Should we complain so much, if we inherited a decrepit, run down, accident prone, investment starved railway system with outdated technology from the British – though financed by loot from India?
Even though it took India 40 years, to modernize the colonial railway system, we should be thankful. Remember, they could have uprooted the rails, and taken away the wagons and engines. After all, Indian Railways was the biggest scrap iron collection in the world at that time.
Till Lal Bahadur Shastri’s resignation – the poor Indian railway-man was routinely blamed for railway accidents – by his British, and later the Indian bosses also.
- The Master’s Anticipation – Aren’t you disappointed?
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 and kill Indians the 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.
The other British legacy that we should be very grateful is our colonial bureaucracy. This colonial era bureaucracy, a permanent establishment, has been growing faster than our population – thrives by demonizing Indian politicians. Its corruption is aided by a myriad laws created by the same bureaucracy – for the benefit of Indians. In most states this bureaucracy takes up all the Governmental revenues and and leaves nothing but tax increases for us.
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.
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Hello.. where have you addressed the problem in the post title?
Kalidas – Do you think that the “Flamed out” paragraph does not answer this adequately?
Maybe, I can expand on that if you feel!
I find your blog very interesting and keep checking for updates but is getting a tad repetitive.
I might have been too sleepy when I was reading it for the first time.. but now I get it..
Good to see you back in action!
[...] many rebellions, wars, individual hits were made against the colonial British Government. The myth of non-violent Indian freedom movement, served both colonial and Congress interests. It showed the British as ‘civilized’ [...]
Great Britian may have done a couple good things for India BUT IT WAS all for self service. By building trains they were able to exploit the wealth much more efficiently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India An estimate by Angus Maddison, formerly of Groningen University, reveals that India’s share of the world income went from 24.4% in 1700, comparable to Europe’s share of 23.3%, to a low of 3.8% in 1952.
The British also found a way (guns helped) to literally amass our wealth not only from pre existing and fluorishing industries but managed to take our diamonds, rubies, gold.
From http://www.hindu.com/2000/10/01/stories/13010613.htm “Two thousand years ago, the Senate in Rome passed an ordinance forbidding senators from wearing togas made from Indian cloth – a legal effort to slow the flow of gold coins pouring out of Roman coffers into India”
This British contribution of railways in India is wearing very thin.
First – Why does anyone assume that India could not have bought the technology and the systems for trans-India railway network.
Two For instance, India has built a modern air transport system on its won in the last 60 years. It has created a national highways system in the last 10 years.
Three The world’s largest scrap collection aka The Indian Railways system in the 1940s comprised of steam engines, a track system which was shot, cattle class coaches without a fan (introduced by LB Shastri in 1954) and wooden slats as seats (changed by Madhu Dandavate in 1977).
The railway signalling system failed consistently – resulting in regular horrific accidents, for which we ‘incompetent Indians’ were blamed. It took LB Shastri’s resignation to bring home the fact that the responsibility for these accidents lay at the highest level – and not at at the end of rope.
Quite a lot of the colonial railway system went to Pakistan. Of the remaining that free India got, much was anyway owned by the Indian rulers – and NOT by the Colonial British Raj.
Crediting the British for the efficient railway system that we see today, is entirely a joke – it is an Indian creation. I only wish that people would stop talking about the Indian Railways as a legacy of the British!
Coming to the British loot
Yes! It was real and it happened. But not because the British had better guns and we had bows and arrows. No! Not at all. It was because Europeans were brutal enough to enslave tens of millions (that is a few crores) of people. With enslavement, came unemployment.
And the unemployed Europeans were recruited into armies – which committed the largest genocides in the history of mankind. It was this economic model which allowed the Europeans to loot and pillage India.
[...] many rebellions, wars, individual hits were made against the colonial British Government. The myth of non-violent Indian freedom movement, served both colonial and Congress interests. It showed the British as ‘civilized’ colonialists [...]