For thinking people - Lessons of the Raj

I fail to understand those who desist from an outright condemnation of the British rule in India citing stuff like the Railways, Civil Services etc. Most (probably all) of these so called gifts to India were created by the British not out any altruistic inclination towards the suffering Indians but were rather created as instruments of furthering British interests in India. For all our Gandhian heritage of love and non-violence, I am unable to banish the feelings of acute resentment against the British. At the least, India (and all other ex-colonies) deserve a public apology from Britain for the numerous historical wrongs.

Some facts for public consumption
1)In the Bengal famine of 1770-72, close to ten million people died, as Rajni Palme-Dutt pointed out in his remarkable book, India Today. The East India Company's own report put it simply. The famine in that province "exceeds all description."
Yet, Warren Hastings wrote to the directors of the East India Company in 1772: "Notwithstanding the loss of at least one-third of the inhabitants of this province, and the consequent decrease in cultivation, the net collections of the year 1771 exceeded even those of [pre-famine] 1768." Hastings was clear on why and how this was achieved. It was "owing to [tax collection] being violently kept up to its former standard."

Calling it cruel would be understating it.

2) Over 6 million humans perished in just 1876 — when Madras was a hell. This, it may be noted, was after the honourable British government had taken over the administration from the Company.

3)Between 24 million and 29 million Indians, maybe more, died in famines in the era of British good governance. Many of these famines were policy-driven.

4)Before the Great Bengal Famine, the report of that province's Director for Health for 1927-28 made grisly reading. It noted that "the present peasantry of Bengal are in a very large proportion taking to a dietary on which even rats could not live for more than five weeks."

5)By 1931, life expectancy in India was sharply down. It was now 23.2 and 22.8 years for men and women. Less than half that of those living in England and Wales. (Palme-Dutt.)

6)4 million people died in the Great Bengal Famine of 1942-43. As Amartya Sen points out, this appalling event was never officially declared as a famine. It was only in October 1943, when much of the damage had been done, that the famine was "acknowledged officially in Parliament by the Secretary of State for India... "

7)Countless numbers of Indians died in wars waged for, by, and against the British. Over 8,000 died in the single battle around Kut in Iraq in 1916. London used them as canon fodder in its desperate search for a success against the Turks after the rout at Gallipoli. When there were no Indians around, the British sacrificed other captive peoples. "Waste the Irish" was the term used by an English officer when sending out troops on a suicidal mission.


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