Shashi Tharoor,
You are an eloquent speaker, no
doubt. I cannot match you on that, but I am sure you are well aware that an
articulate point of view isn’t necessarily right. Statistics and history can
always be twisted, what matters is the present. So to ask British to atone for
their past mistake is not going to make things right. This country still thinks
that an English speaker is more intelligent and logical than someone speaking
in any of the Indian languages. So the slow clap you have been receiving back
home for your thickly anglicized speech, may not actually be an endorsement of
your point of view. You may have just spoken for debate's sake, but suddenly that speech has stoked a patriotic fervor in pseudo patriots. Agreed British gave us and other colonies a raw deal. But if we reserve the right to rant about it and feel aggrieved, there is one question that remains unanswered. What have we done to come out of that adversity and build a better country. 70 years is a good enough time for us to rise above all the issues that plagued us and move in the right direction. Have we? And I am not challenging your debate, but merely pointing out that the issues that attributed to the British Rule, are still our own undoing. So whether or britons ruled us, we would have languished with similar issues. we were and are feudal system
The Bengal famine was unfortunate
and Churchill’s comment deplorable. But what do you expect from an alien. There will be no empathy, whatsoever.
But then why do you forget that as of 2010, finding showed that, 10,688 lakh
tonnes of food grains were found damaged in FCI depots, enough to feed over six
lakh people for over 10 years. Deplorable attitude of the authorities. is that You pointed out that there were many Indian soldiers in the
British army fighting WW1 and WW2. Were they forced to fight for them? I don’t
think so. But the soldiers who chose to fight the British occupation were
treated as traitors, so much so their files remain classified. Remember INA or
Subhash Chandra Bose? So when we didnt and dont treat our countrymen with respect, do you expect much from a snooty foreigner?
About racial, and ethnic and
religious tensions being a byproduct of British colonialism. Let me tell you
that the caste system was more than prevalent in India. Well before British set
foot. Shudras, Vaishya and Kshatriyas were a product of our
society. “Achoot” was a term your culture coined, not the British. Sati was a draconian ritual your culture
brought about. The British actually put an end to it. The British merely saw an
opportunity in creating a rift between the religious fanatics of this country.
And chose to exploit it. And what did we do in response? The esteemed father of
the nation embraced nepotism and favored his trusted lieutenant over
keeping the country united. He let the country get divided on religious lines
and the violence that ensued is written in millions of history books. And it is
still something that simmers. You gave birth to a new country on religious
lines so that you could enjoy absolute power in another one is downright
disgusting Mr.Tharoor. And the ethnic cleansing was something that Mughals practiced well in advance.
Now about the infrastructure.
Whether or not it was for the British’s own interest, it is serving the purpose
of ferrying millions of Indians daily. They have gone from meter gauge to
superfast trains. And it takes 10 years to lay a 7km metro line? Delhi being an
exception. Because we are downright lazy and corrupt. Even the people at the
helm of affairs are either a result of Reservation or Nepotism. And that is
something we imbibed from the British, setting aside all the good things they
possessed. So, if British had not laid the railways, we would have. But it would have taken years.India may have had 23% share in
the world economy, but that was at a time the world was hardly industrialized.
And by the time British left, other countries had come of age. So instead of
talking about India’s economy, let us talk about countries who were pummeled
during the world war 2 and yet rebuilt and became an economic powerhouse. Japan
and Germany. What did India do? Sucked up to the Nehru’s and Gandhis. And let
them fill their coffers.
Did you say we snatched democracy from the British? Or
course we did, for it to be further pushed into non-existence. In a country
where you cannot hoist a flag on top of your house, or speak openly about the
ills of politics and high handedness of VIPs, democracy is just a glorified
word. Oh wait, in-a-first a democratic country had state of emergency on the
whim of an autocratic leader. Nehru himself issued a gag order on a poet for
criticizing him. Hmm, that is a democracy with a pinch of nehruvian philosophy.
So democracy is little or no meaning at all in this country. You may talk about
democracy, but it is reserved for people who walk the powerful corridors of
Lutyens Delhi. And remember, you stood in a country and spoke ill of it.
Imagine talking ill about India in India, you would be lynched. You have
Indians sitting in British Parliament. But well Sonia Gandhi was strongly
opposed as a PM. So there my friend, you have the difference. Democracy indeed.
Gandhi didn’t die fighting for
freedom but died for the price he made the country pay for the freedom. The
bifurcation. So why is it that your party observes his death anniversary as a
Martyr’s day but not the death anniversary of Bhaghat Singh and many others
like him? And they actually fought for the country. Because they didn’t conform
to your idea of fighting for freedom. So spare us the bullshit of what the
British did to us, when you couldn’t honor your own countrymen and their
sacrifices. Britons did what they did, and nothing will absolve them of their tyranny and past crimes. But it is absolutely disgusting that we didnt do anything to right the wrongs in the past 70 years.
Seeking Britain’s apology will
amount to nothing. Reparations will amount to nothing. What the country needs
is that all the wrongs committed by its own countrymen shouldn’t be repeated. If
you reflect on your speech, you would realize most of our modern day problems
are our own creation, much after British left. We could have learnt so much
from the British, much like Hong Kong. But we chose to be governed by our own
insecurities, diversity, narrow mindedness and whims. And that is why we are
blaming a former ruler than our own self. An oppressor is only as guilty as the
oppressed.
