As the race for Brexit is back and with it the debate that the United Kingdom is better off without Europe. France and Germany have propagated unification and co-operation instead of separation, but the British do not share their enthusiasm, with the view that Germans will and have been dominating the Eurozone.
Behind the argument of Brexit, is the notion that the United Kingdom was a colonial power and was thus called, “Great Britain”, and one of the slogans for Brexit has been, “let’s put the Great, back in Great Britain”. The “Great” obviously referring to the Great British Empire that boasted the fact, that the Sun doesn’t set on Great Britain. The acknowledgement of colonial British era needs to be understood especially in the context of Asia and the Sub-continent, what it did to India and how it should be seen as we progress in the new decade of 2020. The Great Britain and its colonial past were not great at all, in fact, it is a murderous and torturous memory of what was done to the sub-continent in the name of progress and superiority. Through, manipulation, violence, exploitation and misery, the British enjoyed prosperity at the cost of lives in its colonies. In today’s age of information, public freedom, liberty and international law, the morality and context of the past must be set right before the eyes of the world, vividly declaring, the difference between the victims and the oppressors.
The age of discovery brought with itself, untold horrors. From the 1500s, especially Spanish, the Dutch, the Portuguese and the French ventured into uncharted territories of Africa and South America. Through sheer brutality and inhuman treatment, many a nations were brought into subjugation through wars and violent tactics. The Spanish and French ventured into Africa and South America. Late to the menace of this colonial game were the British. Who began their journey of plundering and looting distant lands with their arrival in Bengal in the 1700s.
The East India Company was setup to find trade routes and to establish colonies as an initial plan. The British had superior fire power but that is not what they used to subjugate and mutilate other nations. The very first instance of divide and rule came in the form of defeat of Siraj-ud-Daula in Bengal by conspiring against him through Mir Jafar. And thereafter, the exploits and stories of violence never ended. Piece by piece, the British exploited the Indian Sub-continent to enrich their homeland. In the view of academics, the industrialization of the British Empire was based on de-industrialization of the Indian Sub-continent. Colonialism was a means to dominate other nations. Any other definition of colonial past cannot be accepted. And the dominance was conducted through massive exploitation and violence. The effects of colonial rule cannot be calculated, the least that can be done, is that its moral depravity can be seen as what it actually was.
From the time that the British arrived in the sub-continent, the percentage of world trade being conducted from India was 23% which was reduced to 4% when the British left. The first thing that the British did in every area they conquered was that they completed burned down and destroyed local handicrafts. Supply lines were established to supply raw material at almost negligible rates, back to their home country. London was flooded with riches that were looted from local population. The raw material that was the daily bread for the local population was used to feed the empire machinery. The goods produced in England were forcibly sold to the conquered areas at high rates. Duties and taxes were collected at the highest rates possible on agricultural produce and properties. The local labour was no exception. Only a few hundred British officers and troops were treated as royalty. They were given swathes of land and properties and could do they pleased with the masses. They systematically built systems to destroy the livelihood of people being ruled and made sure they served the empire, that is, the motherland. For over a hundred years, the East India Company, kept waging wars and lay waste to large areas of Bengal, Punjab and Southern parts of the Sub-continent, until the people of India revolted that gave rise to the war of independence in 1857. After that, the British made an exception by declaring India to be governed by the Crowned Queen herself declaring India to be the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.
Apart from the exploitation in trade, taxes, labor and property, the British did something so disastrous that its effects can be felt even today. From a numbers point of view, the English officers and troops that could be sent to colonies were few compared to the indigenous populations. In order to the counter this complication, the British formed allies in the form of conspirators and dictators who were ready to betray their own people. The prize was rulership or dependent rule under the British officers. Unfortunately, in every province of India, divide and rule policy always found a willing complicit ruler. The Nawabs, the maharajas and local chiefs that helped the British armies take control of India changed the landscape of the sub-continent forever.
Even today, the families that are contesting elections in Pakistan and India are the ones that co-operated with foreign invaders to take control and exploit the land. The progress of England and the destruction of prosperity in the sub-continent, owes a lot to these families and their past. As Pakistan and India have gone to war over Kashmir, the policies of a tyrannical partition and demagogic decisions of the Bogra family in deciding the fate of Kashmiris are a reminder of how much damage the British caused in this part of the world and continue to do so. Millions of people died and millions others were destroyed for 200 years at the hands of the British Raj, the Great Britain was not great at all by any means.
Shahshi Tharoor, a vocal MP from Kerala, India, has given a detailed account of British atrocities in the sub-continent in his book “Inglorious Empire”, and he is of the view that people of Britain owe damages and should pay reparations to Pakistan and India for the exploitation exacted upon people of these areas for 200 years. There is no justice in history, but it must be pointed out that time does not spare the oppressors. The dawn of colonial era has set, almost all nations under the yoke of cruel and inhuman colonial past have acquired independence from 1925 to 1975 thanks to the events after the two World Wars. It can only be hoped that the effects of a tormented past do not come in the way of future progress of these nations. The post-colonial time period of nations have raised huge challenges and many of them struggle to escape the vicious cycle of violence, maladministration and poverty but at least the ship is sailing in the right direction. According to a survey, a two third population in the United Kingdom is still proud of their colonial legacy, perhaps, now is the time to speak up and to let them know that the only legacy they should remember is shame and remorse in the name of a shared humanity.
The writer is Chairman of Jinnah Rafi Foundation
