British holocaust in India

04-30-2001, 12:54 AM

British holocaust in India

V.C.Vijayaraghavan
Some Indians especially Tamils were/are head over heels over the late
Britsh Indian Colonial Empire. Some devotees of colonialism like late
EVR thought that the depature of Britsh from India was a great
misfortune.

However, British period in India was a period of famines and
holocausts in which the Britsh profited by the famines, letting
thousands die.

Read the part of a book "Late Victorian Holocausts
El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World
By MIKE DAVIS" in

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/d...victorian.html

Responses:
From: Srini
VCV: Did Gopal Krishna Gokhale too see merit in British rule for some
more decades as an opportunity for furthering reforms? (I remember
having read so in Stanley Wolpert's book on "Tilak and Gokhale".
Incidentally, most justification on the then need to oust Britishers
seem to have stemmed from economic point of view, as though on social
plane the hihgly stratified Indian populace had come to accept the
British as perhaps belonging to another upper caste to whom
allegiance was perfunctory. !

From: V.C.Vijayaraghavan

Srini wroteVCV: Did Gopal Krishna Gokhale too see merit in British
rule for some more decades as an opportunity for furthering reforms?
-------------------------------------------------------------------

GKG belonged to what was called Moderate Wing of the Congress. After
all Congress itself was started by an Englishman in 1885. Hence the
first 20 years, Congress was 'moderate' i.e. wanted more reforms of
the British rule to give more representation to Indians and basically
they wanted a kind of self-rule by the Indians under British
direction.

Ironically, even after 1947, ALL the institutional structure of
britsh India like the Beureacarcy, Army, Police, Parliament,
Judiciary were kept intact and they continue by and large unchanged
even after 50 years.

Whatever one may say about Britishers, three things are sure
1. They were and are master Institution builders
2. They take a pragmatic, practical approach to problems and solve
them
3. Their organizational capacities are great.

From: Sugrutha

VCV,

It was just not EVR. Ambedkar also was of the same opinion. In my
times I have heard many upper-caste people of the older generation
lamenting the demise of the british rule and the birth of anarchy and
corruption in public life.

From: V.C.Vijayaraghavan

I have also heard similar things from older generation people in
India who were in awe for police firings by the British or the
eficiency of their police operations.

This is similar to some older Russians nostalgically remembering
Stalin days, when there was order in Soviet Union and USSR was a
super power.

The question is at what cost this 'order' was brought about and for
whose benefit the 'order' was brought about.. The purpose of any
imperialist venture like British India was to exploit the 'natives'
and the 'order' is brought about only to make this exploitation more
efficient. There were so many other famines in British India with
huge casualties brought about by govt. apathy. For example in the
Great famine in Bengal in 1941-42, estimated 3 million people died.
This arose due to the govt funneling all food , transport and other
resources for war effort.

After 1947, the frequency of famnines has greatly reduced and it has
not occured in the last 30 years.

From: Sugrutha
At that time, when these great famines occurred, Indians probably did
not comprehend entirely the British hand in it. It is now after half
a century, when we did not have famines even during our worst
droughts, that we realise what actually happened. Among our
generation no one glorifies the British out of proportion and want
them back. That is what counts.

From: Srini

VCV: The point is if so many others felt the same way, why single out
EVR as an example for such kind of people? He atleast had a genuine
passion to do something for the underdogs, without any political
plot. I think such references will only nourish the unnecessary
shisms on who was socially and politically more correct.

I think historical figures should be judged more by their 'intent'
than by their idealogies. By this token, even if EVR had thought of
British presence being good for us, it deserves only as much
criticism as Nehru deserves for believing in Socialistic model for
India. In either case, the intent to serve the country was not
questionable, right.

From: V.C.Vijayaraghavan
Srini wrote: The point is if so many others felt the same way, why
single out EVR as an example for such kind of people?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--

We are not talking of feelings of individuals but the political
actions. EVR decided to observe 15-8-1947 as a black day