Separating Facts From Fiction: The British Rule ...Contd

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This wasn't really wrong either: A Bengali in Delhi was as much foreigner as an Englishman in Rome. A native of Calcutta was more of a foreigner to the hardy races on the frontiers of Northern India than Englishman could be. Even some of existing native states were ruled by unassimilated by a Muslim Prince backed by an army of Arab mercenaries. The Maratha states of Gwalior, Indore and Baroda had combined population of 6 ' million; but apart from the rulers and followers, they contained no Marathas. However, this is not to say that British did the unifying part of India. The nation was unified mostly due to the equal treatment from the British to the men of the land - the divide and rule policy.

Yet another justification for British rule was provided by the conviction that 'India would fall apart if left to it.' They, some section of people, thought that departure of the British would lead to the disintegration of India, the establishment of rival states and the certainty of anarchy and civil war.

Conveniently for the British some Indians backed the view. For example talking to General Roberts in 1884, Sir Madhav Rao, a former minister of Baroda, scoffed at the cry 'India for the Indians'. "You have to only go to the zoological gardens and open the doors of the cages, and you will very soon see what would be the result of putting that theory into practice. There would be terrific fight among animals, which would end in the tiger walking proudly over the dead bodies of the rest." When Roberts asked who the tiger was, Madhav Rao replied, "The Mohammedans from the North." The point, it may be noted, was not wrong either. Before the British the Mughals have ruthlessly dominated the infidels (non-Muslims) with inspiration from the Mullahs.

Boell, who visited the subcontinent at the beginning of the twentieth century, wrote, "The question is not whether England has right to keep India, but rather whether she has the right to leave it. To abandon India would in truth lead to the most frightful anarchy. Where is the native power, which would unite Hindus and Muslims, Rajputs and Marathas, Sikhs and Bengalis, Parsees and Christians under one scepter? England has accomplished this miracle."

Indians acknowledged the fact, that is of the only British united India for the first time, sadly because they were unaware of their own history and the story of Mauryan Empire. It was in fact Kautilya and his disciple and king of the empire Chandragupta who could be heralded for having united the land in one sphere. The India then included today Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Burma.

The British Raj had divided India to rule it. They encourage scraps among local ruling princes to come to bows, and magnified the existing class and caste systems so they could sit on judgment.

We have been forced throughout our school days to say that "Gandhi won us freedom through Ahimsa (read Nonviolence)" At the core, should you study the history in depth you would agree that: "India's independence in 1947 was in fact a fallout from turbulence the British experienced in their home country. World war II and Nazi dictatorship frightened the world into uniting towards a civilized society. Britain's people and Army seemed unwilling to continue with repression in the Empire, so freedom for India was inevitable." Even Sir Winston Churchill who led the Allies into Victory was not chosen to steer Britain as Prime Minister in peacetime. Hw won election, but his party lost the power to rule. England understood that colonialism and dictatorship are not too different from one another.

If one reads German or British history he will find that their ruling instincts were more or less the same. The Germans employed the hard dose of extermination while the British used the soft dose of Cultural Transformation. Writes Shombit Sengupta "History has proved that a soft dose has a lasting impact. Britain's obsession with imperial pelf gets no less attention even from their Left wing governments. Britain and erstwhile colonies in the commonwealth of Nations, still kowtow to Buckingham Palace, Lady Di and Camilla, giving them superior majestic stature. Why did independent India invite Lord Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General to remain as her ceremonial head for a year? The strong influence of the soft dose is obviously at play."

This is a very brief saga of British Imperialism in India. How sad to know the fact that: many Indians still don't know much about it?