A brilliant speech made by Shashi Tharoor, a Congress Minister of Parliament on the 28th of May 2015 in Oxford has bombarded social media websites for the past week. He talks about how British owes India after a long, tiresome and gruel colonisation of 200 years. The motion for the debate was "this house believes that British owes reparations to her former colonies". Speaking for the motion, his arguments were based on three main points.
As British saw an expansion in trade, India succumbed to loss of trade. Hand looms that spun cloth as fine as clouds were shut down. Raw materials and finished products were shipped to Britain where the country prospered in the effort of Indians. This left handloom workers jobless and on the streets. By the 19th century, India was the British's biggest colony for extracting money and we extensively bought British goods and gave handsome salaries to the British bureaucrats.
The two world wars saw Britain sucking all the power we Indians had and utilising it in every way possible. He added that 1/6th of the British forces were Indians and 54,000 Indians lost their lives in the first war alone. Coming to World War II, the estimate gets higher. British owes India 1.25 billion pounds, a debt that has still not been paid off.
Lastly, he spoke of Britishers blatant disregard to Indians and their sufferings. India went through many terrible famines during colonialism, but the worst one was the Bengal famine. As it took place during World War II, Winston Churchill gave orders that the stock of grains and other rations for India was to be diverted and transported to the soldiers out at war. This led to large-scale deaths. As Churchill was told about the situation in India, the only comment he had was "Why hasn't Gandhi died yet?"
In the end Shashi Tharoor said that estimates can be given in rupees and pounds but we do not need reparations in the form of aid. A simple sorry, accepting that what India went through during the British era was something no country should ever go through. One sorry would pay off all the debts Britain ever owed India. After viewing his speech, I realised that there is only one place on earth where people would laugh at themselves rather than try and cause violence because of different point of views and that is Britain. Britishers have the remarkable ability to laugh at themselves, something that lacks in every other country in the world. That is something, I personally feel, we should learn from them.
So, if you haven't had a look at this video, I suggest grab a pair of earphones, sit back and take a look at colonisation through the eyes of a politician of this century.
As British saw an expansion in trade, India succumbed to loss of trade. Hand looms that spun cloth as fine as clouds were shut down. Raw materials and finished products were shipped to Britain where the country prospered in the effort of Indians. This left handloom workers jobless and on the streets. By the 19th century, India was the British's biggest colony for extracting money and we extensively bought British goods and gave handsome salaries to the British bureaucrats.
The two world wars saw Britain sucking all the power we Indians had and utilising it in every way possible. He added that 1/6th of the British forces were Indians and 54,000 Indians lost their lives in the first war alone. Coming to World War II, the estimate gets higher. British owes India 1.25 billion pounds, a debt that has still not been paid off.
Lastly, he spoke of Britishers blatant disregard to Indians and their sufferings. India went through many terrible famines during colonialism, but the worst one was the Bengal famine. As it took place during World War II, Winston Churchill gave orders that the stock of grains and other rations for India was to be diverted and transported to the soldiers out at war. This led to large-scale deaths. As Churchill was told about the situation in India, the only comment he had was "Why hasn't Gandhi died yet?"
In the end Shashi Tharoor said that estimates can be given in rupees and pounds but we do not need reparations in the form of aid. A simple sorry, accepting that what India went through during the British era was something no country should ever go through. One sorry would pay off all the debts Britain ever owed India. After viewing his speech, I realised that there is only one place on earth where people would laugh at themselves rather than try and cause violence because of different point of views and that is Britain. Britishers have the remarkable ability to laugh at themselves, something that lacks in every other country in the world. That is something, I personally feel, we should learn from them.
So, if you haven't had a look at this video, I suggest grab a pair of earphones, sit back and take a look at colonisation through the eyes of a politician of this century.
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