I am grateful to Sh Krishen Kak for allowing me to publish this essay by him (in full), first published as THE IDEA OF INDIA by India First Foundation, Nov 2008:127-138. I would encourage everyone to please read it in full. It is superbly thought-provoking, richly referenced and well researched. Without further ado (CAUTION: Long Post),
*** THE IDEA OF INDIA ***
KRISHEN KAK
The idea of India is a conception often credited by our English-speaking “secular” elite to Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru or Sunil Khilnani, not necessarily in that order.
Our British colonizers too gave themselves credit for it, with an echo by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 8, 2005 at Oxford University. It is they, he said, who gave us our notions of the rule of law, of a Constitutional government, of a free press, of a professional civil service, of modern universities and research laboratories, our judiciary, our legal system, our bureaucracy, the English language, and cricket.[1] Mr Singh on that occasion did make the token nod to “India’s ancient civilization”, but it is clear he believes we did not have these notions before the British blessed us with them. Regrettably, he omitted mentioning the railways that are supposed to have knitted us together and, for universal school education, he omitted making the conventional ascription to British missionaries[2].
In point of fact, however, the historical conception of the one-ness of what in English is called “India” goes back at least 6000 years to the Rig Veda[3]. It is important to understand this history because the name we give ourselves or that others give us provides us with a social and political identity and meaning, so that “India” says something about how we see ourselves and how others see us.
The citizens of India are called Indians, as distinguished from the followers of a “religion” called Hinduism[4]. At the same time, the indigenous peoples in many parts of the world are called “Indians”. “Indian” was frequently a Western imperial and pejorative label for dark-coloured indigenes and, at least till the end of the 14th century (a Vijaynagar inscription c.1393 referring to the emperor as “Hindurayasuratrana”), that is, just about 600 years ago in the history of our civilization going back at least 9,000 years, we had no such thing as “Hinduism”. So let us see how we got our name, and the meanings often connected with it.
The word “India” is the pronunciation in English of the Greek pronunciation of the Iranian pronunciation of the Sanskrit word “sindhu”, which was our own name in our own language for the mighty river called Indus which has always been a major landmark for travellers to our country from lands to our northwest.
The ancient Iranians - or Persians, as they used to be called - found difficulty in pronouncing the initial “s” of “sindhu”, so they called it “hindu” – the word occurs for the first time in the Avesta of the ancient Iranians, and they used it to describe generally this land and all the people in it. From Iran the word passed to Greece where it became Indus, with variations among the ancient Arabs, Turks, Mongolians, and Chinese (the last saying “shin-tu”) who came into contact with us to study, trade or conquer.
This word “Hindu” is not found in any of our ancient texts. It is nowhere in the Vedas; it is nowhere in our epics, nor in the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, nor in any of the treatises of Yoga. It does not appear in any of our indigenous languages, not till the 7th century when it was brought in by the Islamic invaders. The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang who visited our country between 630 and 645 AD reports that while “shin-tu” or its variants could be heard outside our borders, it was unknown within our country. Even after Islamic rule was established in our country, the word did not gain popular currency and was not used, at least till the 14th century, except by the Islamic rulers to refer to the non-Muslim population as a whole of this land.
So, it is quite clear that, to begin with, “Hindu” was a foreign word. It was not a “religious” description. It was a purely geographical label, initially describing the land and people in the vicinity of the Sindhu river but gradually spreading to cover all parts of this country and its people. It can be said that the word “Hindu” acquired a pan-Indian connotation from ancient Iranian times - but this was only in the speech of foreigners, and even with them it did not indicate any distinction of class, caste or creed. To emphasize, it was merely a foreign geographical description, and “Hindustan” was the land of the “Hindus”. How from being a geocultural description this was made into a “religious” label is another story.
Thus, the word we have adopted to describe our country and ourselves evolved as a word foreign to us. Over the millennia, this word has acquired a number of meanings that foreigners associated with us, and many of which we have internalized. Most of these meanings are not complimentary. In fact, most frequently, in the post-colonial international eye, India stands for overpopulation, poverty, dirt and corruption, and the majority of our people are believed to be lazy other-worldly Hindus. Remember that it was an Indian who made an international joke of what he cunningly called “the Hindu rate of growth”[5] – conveniently forgetting, of course, that in pre-colonial times it was this same rate of growth that resulted in making us what the historian KM Ashraf described as “the wealthiest colossus of the world”. How British colonial rule reduced us from being one of the richest lands to becoming one of the poorest is also another story.[6]
Keep Reading…
November 16th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Hindu Political Philosophy, British Rule in India, Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, History, Identity, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Politics and Governance in India, Sanatana Dharma, Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization, Spirituality & Philosophy, Women in Hinduism & India |
2 comments
Start your weekend by reading Sh Modi’s interview in The Indian Express…which re-emphasises why development ought to be priority #1 for any political party today.
Then read what drives young, articulate leaders like Prakash Sharma to bat for Bajrang Dal (Just in case, you are wondering, there are numerous points in his interview which I disagree with - Shantanu)
…and finally, here is why Lalit Koul believes Syed Ali Shah Geelani should be given a one-way ticket to Pakistan.
Bonus: Have a look at the new depth being plumbed by mainstream media while reporting on current affairs.
Excerpts from all these articles below.
Keep Reading…
November 14th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Current Affairs, Hindu Dharma, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Identity, Indian Media, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History |
2 comments
Start this weekend by finding out why Nandan Nilekani feels obliged to use his position and ideas ”to make a difference to a country on verge of transformation”.
Continue with Why India needs Narendra Modi….
and end with the “usefulness” of History, courtesy Varnam.
Brief excerpts from all the articles below.
Keep Reading…
November 8th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Corruption in India, Current Affairs, History, Politics and Governance in India |
3 comments
I received this email yesterday and could not stop before reading it right through to the end…It is a long read…quite a long read, in fact. And it is seriously thought-provoking. Below, excerpts from a speech delivered by Sh. Gurumurthy at IIT Chennai in 2003 which - although five years old - still retains its and relevance and punch. This is a *must read*.
*** Excerpts from “The Intellectual Scene in Post-Independence India“ by Sh Gurumurthy ***
A critical review of strengths and weaknesses
… Defeat and anger go together. Abuse and defeat go together. So, it is in this norm and with this understanding of what an intellectual debate means, I would like to place before you some of my thoughts today. Some of may find it provocative. I am confident that the audience is competent enough to absorb this and think rather than get into the mood which all of us have got used to in the last 30-40 years abuse.
Background: India before Independence
Let us see the pre-independence background, the intellectual content of India. See the kind of personalities who led the Indian mind Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhiji, Tilak- giants in their own way. Most of them were involved in politics, active politics, day-to-day politics, handling men, walking on the road, addressing meetings, solving problems between their followers. And, meeting the challenges posed by the enemy, the conspiracies hatched against them. They were handling everything, yet, they were maintaining an intellectual supremacy, and a record and an originality which history has recorded.
Let us look at the academic side. Whether it is a P. C. Ray who wrote on Indian Chemistry in 1905 or Sir C. V. Raman who wrote about mridangam, tabala, and violin, and saw the Physics in it (this was in 1913); whether it was R. C. Majumdar or Radhakumud Mukherjee who saw greatness in the Indian Civilization; trying to bring up points, instances, historical evidence to mirror the greatness of India, to the defeated Indian race, they were all building the Indian mind brick by brick. Sri Aurobindo spoke of Sanatana Dharma as the Nationalism of India. He didn”t rank it as a philosophy. He brought it down to the level of emotional consciousness. Swami Vivekananda spoke of spiritual nationalism; it was the same Swami who spoke of Universal brotherhood. For them philosophy was not removed from the ground reality. The nation was at the core of their philosophy. Swami Vivekananda was called the “patriot monk”.
Mahatma Gandhi spoke of Rama Rajya. Bankim Chandra wrote Bande Maataram. The song, the slogans in it, the mantra in it made hundreds of people kiss the gallows smilingly and many others went to jail. It transformed the life of the people; this was the intellectual scene, this was the content…This was the core of India, the soul of the Indian freedom movement.
The symptoms: India immediately after Independence
…Let us look at post Independence India. The persons who led post-Independence India were also trained in the same freedom movement. They went to jail, but they were not rooted in the intellectual content of the Freedom movement!
The first Prime Minister of India, he was in jail for 7 years. He was a great intellectual himself, purely in the sense of his capacity to reason, understand, read, and expound a thought. He told Galbrieth once, “I would be regarded as the last English Prime Minister of India. See the intellectual capability of the man, the enormously competent mind.
But intellectualism doesn”t exist in a vacuum. It has to be rooted in something concrete. Vivekananda”s universal brotherhood was rooted in India”s greatness as a civilization, which proclaimed it. The concept of “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam” cannot exist without a living form, a population which believes in it and believes in itself. You need to have a society, which believes in it.
That is why India could invite the Jews who were butchered, raped, all over the world. In 107 out of 108 countries, this race was butchered. At least they had the courtesy and the gratitude to publish a book, the Israeli govt. published a book that out of 108 countries that we sought refuge, the only civilization, the only country, the only people, the only ideology that gave us refuge was the Indian civilization. They published a book, which most Indians are unaware of.
And we invited the Muslims. The refugee Muslims first landed in Kutch. And they are called the Kutchy Memons even today but not the Memons who bomb Bombay. But the Memons who lived with us.
Keep Reading…
October 26th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, An Indian Identity, British Rule in India, Hindu Dharma, Identity, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History, Sanatana Dharma, Women in Hinduism & India |
7 comments
A Marathi Manoos’ house is ransacked in Jamshedpur for no other reason except that he belonged to the wrong “state”
A 10-year old boy - almost certainly too young to understand what the fuss is all about - gets killed in Bihar
Four people are killed in violence at Kalyan that erupted after Sh Raj Thackeray’s arrest.
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation suffers a loss of Rs 30 Lakhs in two days of violence which resulted in 286 of its buses being damaged.
And the last “not funny” bit:
A Sikh group supports Raj’s cause and his “approach” since the “state doesn’t provide suitable enviournment for non-violent struggle”…Oh, by the way, they also express alarm at the “heavy influx” of migrant population into the state and accuse all political parties of “pursuing narrow political ends” [ link ].
Will Sh Thackeray now show genuine leadership and commitment to national interest and call off his mis-guided supporters?
Related Posts:
There is a “राष्ट्र” in “महाराष्ट्र”…
After Maharashtra, it is the turn of West Bengal
October 23rd, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
An Indian Identity, Current Affairs, Debates & Discussions, Identity, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History |
44 comments
Happy VijayaDashami, Durgotsab, Durga Pooja and Dussehra to all…
On this auspicious day, let us all pledge to do our best to get rid of the three major evils that plague India…Terrorism, Poverty and Illiteracy…and promise ourselves to work towards building a proud, strong and united India.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!
(Above) An effigy of the demon king Ravana go up in flames, marking the victory of good over evil, on the occasion of the Dussehara festival in New Delhi [ Original Link ]
A scene from the immersion the idol of Goddess Durga at the Ichamati river in between India and Bangladesh. The idol is loaded on a typical conjoint boat called ‘taki’. The other side of the river is Satkhira in Khulna district of Bangladesh. [ Original Link ]
Photographs Courtesy: Press Information Bureau of India
Related Posts:
Om Namah Shivaya
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!
October 9th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Hindu Festivals, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Women in Hinduism & India |
2 comments
For the last few days, I have been following the twists and turns of the “clashes” in Assam with great interest…Not least because I have a very strong personal bond with the region but also because I know the region a little better than many other states in India…
As is the case in most situations, initial reports about the killings were sketchy and appeared to be more conjecture than facts…E.g.
…The communally tense twin districts of Assam, Udalguri and Darrang, witnessed yet another day of rioting as the death toll climbed to nine on Saturday. Over 50 people have been injured in clashes between Bodo tribals and Muslims that broke out on Friday…”
Udalguri police said reports about hoisting of a Pakistani national flag at Sonaripara caused fresh turmoil. [ link ]
A report from HT suggested another angle to the attacks:
The immediate provocation for the clashes was the attack on a group of Village Defence Party (VDP) volunteers early Friday by armed miscreants.
“The VDP members belonged to the tribal Bodo community and were attacked by members of a religious minority group and that sparked off the clashes,” the official said.
Meanwhile the death toll continued to climb…but the matter appeared to have dropped off the radar of mainstream media…Latest reports suggest that the death toll is already higher than the number of people killed in attacks in Orissa (49 according to this report)…but I have not yet seen any detailed report on the attacks and what triggered them…
Could it be because the reality appears to be slightly more complicated here?
According to this report, the clashes are not really between “tribals” and Muslims or Hindus and Muslims or even Hindus and Christians but between Christians and Muslims:
“…Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the root cause was a programme of “ethnic cleansing” implemented by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a rebel group fighting for an independent tribal homeland.
“They want to drive out all non-Bodos from the area… it’s a systematic pogrom,” Sarma told IANS.
The NDFB, which is a largely Christian outfit, entered into a ceasefire with the Indian government in 2005, but has never renounced its independence struggle.”
Many media reports though have conveniently forgot to mention the word “Christian” and are instead referring to “Ethnic Bodos” or “Bodo Tribals” or a lame “clashes between two communities”…
I will be watching this with interest…and sadness in my heart…
Who is there to cry for the innocents that have been murdered and the lives that have been displaced (1.1 lakh according to official reports)?…or is this something that happened so far away…in such a distant land that all this is merely statistics…and something to be read and forgotten with your next cup of tea?
Related Posts:
“India Breaking” - Read this and Weep
North-East “burning”
Some startling stats from the eastern front…
October 7th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Identity, India & Its Neighbours, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History |
20 comments
Excerpts from a well-researched attempt at dating the MahABhArat… (published Feb ‘04 in the Daily Pioneer)
*** Excerpts Begin ***
…For thousands of years, we have believed in the divinity of Shri Krishna. For us he was a Karmayogi par excellence who gave us action oriented philosophy of life in the form of Bhagavad Gita. But questions have constantly haunted us as to whether Krishna was a historical or mythical character and whether the war of Mahabharata was actually fought.
Till recently, we did not have the wherewithal to search for and establish the truth. But modern scientific tools and techniques like computers with planetarium softwares, advancements in archaeological and marine archaeological techniques, earth-sensing satellite photography and thermo-luminescence dating methods, all have made it possible to establish the authenticity and dating of many events narrated in ancient texts like the Mahabharata. Recent archaeo-astronomical studies, results of marine-archaeological explorations and overwhelming archaeological evidence have established the historicity and dating of many events narrated in the Mahabharata. These have led to the conclusion that Mahabharata War was actually fought in 1478 BC and Shri Krishna’s Dwarka City got submerged under the sea in 1443 BC.
Astronomical Evidence: In the Mahabharata references to sequential solar and lunar eclipses as also references to some celestial observations have been made. Dr RN Iyengar…examined relevant references and searched for the compatible dates by making use of planetarium software (PVIS and EZC). He concluded that most of these references were internally consistent and that the eclipses and celestial observations of Mahabharata belong to the period 1493 BC-1443 BC of Indian History, (refer Indian Journal of History of Science/38.2/2003/77-115).
Keep Reading…
October 6th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization |
3 comments
Last week, responding to a petition to ban a history textbook, the Supreme Court asked Delhi University’s expert panel to consider the views of petitioners before submitting a final report to the Vice-Chancellor.
As some of you would know, the textbook - prescribed as part of the BA (Hons) second year syllabus at Delhi University - is said to include offensive references to Shri Hanuman and Sita Mataa such as “Lord Hanuman was a henchman of Lord Rama” and “the little monkey was a womaniser” etc…The book was the cause of a protest led by ABVP earlier this year during which Dr Jafri, the Head of History Deptt at DU was manhandled…
Curious to know more about the textbook, I spent some time researching on the internet this morning…Here is a link to Ramanujan’s essay that is included in the textbook…
After reading it, I felt that the ABVP over-reacted on this one… The “offensive” passages are not penned by Ramanujan but are part of folklore and stories around Ramayana in different cultures and regions. Furthermore, I found them more “entertaining” rather than “offensive”…As an example,
One day when Rama was sitting on his throne, his ring fell off. When it touched the earth, it made a hole in the ground and disappeared into it. It was gone. His trusty henchman, Hanuman, was at his feet. Rama said to Hanuman, “Look, my ring is lost. Find it for me.”
Note that the word “henchman” is not Ramanujan’s translation and possibly part of the original folk-story…What is the problem in that? In another version of Ramayana mentioned by Ramanujan, Sita is Ravana’s daughter…
I hope most of you would agree that there is space for divergent views in Hinduism…and a big attraction of this faith for me is that it allows - and respects - alternative interpretations, viewpoints and thoughts….Let us not dilute this core feature of Sanatan Dharma.
***
On Sunday in far-away London, the home of the publisher of a similarly controversial book (although this was not a textbook but a fictional novel) was fire-bombed, just “hours after police had warned the man that he could be a target for fanatics”. The book, “The Jewel of Medina” is written by Sherry Jones and had already caused controversy in the US. Martin Rynja (the publisher) had bought the UK publishing rights earlier this month.
From The Guardian:
The book was originally due to have been published in August by US giant Random House. But amid controversy the company halted publication, a move denounced by Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, as ‘censorship by fear’.
…One sex scene has been described as ’softcore pornography’ by an American academic, Denise Spellberg, an influential professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas. Spellberg made the comments after Random House sent her the book hoping for a favourable comment to publish on its jacket. Instead, in an email that was leaked to the US press, Spellberg described the novel as a ‘very ugly, stupid piece of work’.
‘I don’t have a problem with historical fiction,’ Spellberg wrote. ‘I do have a problem with the deliberate misinterpretation of history. You can’t play with a sacred history and turn it into softcore pornography.’
It appears Spellberg was instrumental in drawing attention to the book among segments of the Muslim community. In April, Shahed Amanullah, an editor of a popular Muslim website, claimed Spellberg had told him the book ‘made fun of Muslims and their history’.
The resulting furore prompted Random House to pull the book, a move that dismayed its author, who received a $100,000 advance…
My question to all of you is:
What do you make of Spellberg’s argument viz: “‘I don’t have a problem with historical fiction (but)…I do have a problem with the deliberate misinterpretation of history. You can’t play with a sacred history…”
- Is “Ramayana” part of our sacred history?
- Can the folk-variants of Ramayana be considered ”deliberate mis-interpretation” of history?
Anyways, I will be watching the reaction of Indian government to this book whenever (if) it is released in India.
Suggested Reading: Academic Terrorists and The right to offend
Related Posts:
Leave Ashis Nandy alone
UPDATED: Is Taslima being treated differently from MF Husain?
Will Arundhati Roy pl. stand up for Francois Gautier?
P.S. Curiously, it appears that DU had not taken permission from OUP before reproducing Ramanujan’s essay in their textbook.
October 1st, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Current Affairs, Debates & Discussions, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Miscellaneous, Women in Hinduism & India |
12 comments
Excerpts from a review of Arun Shourie’s “Are we deceiving ourselves again?” by Brahma Chellaney:
…having forsaken the Kautilyan principles, has proven no match to China’s Sun Tzu-style statecraft. From Nehru’s grudging acceptance of Chinese suzerainty to Atal Behari Vajpayee’s blithe acceptance of full Chinese sovereignty, India has incrementally shed its main card — Tibet.
…it wasn’t geography but guns — the sudden occupation of the traditional buffer, Tibet, soon after the communists seized power in Beijing — that made China India’s neighbour.
…Shourie’s well-researched, powerfully written book relies on Nehru’s letters, speeches, notes and other correspondence to bring out the significance, in Nehru’s own words, of the events from the 1950-51 fall of Tibet to China’s 1962 invasion.
Keep Reading…
September 24th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
China related, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), India & Its Neighbours, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History |
no comments
Some links for weekend reading:
1. From the Telegraph, an excellent article by Ambassador K Sibal on why borders are (still) relevant.
2. A revealing interview with Govindacharya: Jaitley is BJP’s best, Rajnath saboteur
3. Why Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam may not mean what you think it does and finally,
4. Why India..while enjoying all the characteristics of great power, is unlikely to become one (a 2005 article but still relevant, in my view).
Excerpts from all the three articles are below. Enjoy the weekend.
Keep Reading…
September 5th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Hindu Political Philosophy, Ancient Indian History, Current Affairs, Elections Analysis, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), India & Its Neighbours, Jammu & Kashmir related, Politics and Governance in India |
no comments
Thanks to Sh Nachiketa Tiwari for spotting this and Sh Kak for emailing it to me.
Although this is a fairly long excerpt from an exchange of emails re. learning Sanskrit, pl. try and read in full. It shows how some western academics tarnish any attempt(s) at learning more about our ancient heritage (including language) with labels such as “fundamentalism” and of course, “Hindutva”.
I have taken out email addresses of the respondents to protect privacy.
By the way, many of you would remember that learning Sanskrit is now considered to be a “communal” activity.
*** Excerpts from the email exchange ***
Keep Reading…
September 4th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, History, Identity, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Sanatana Dharma, Spirituality & Philosophy |
7 comments
A leading cine-artiste makes the claim that being a Muslim, she has had difficulty finding a home in Mumbai.
A screen writer says that he too faced the same “problem”. The reporter adds…
Top film stars, household names for you and me, as well as TV actors and models almost all have had it tough because of their religion.
…but fails to mention even one of these “household names”…apparently, ”none of them were willing to say it aloud” !!
And in all of this, she sees “a pattern of Muslim artistes simply not finding a place to stay in Mumbai.” (sic)
From what I remember of my English, a “pattern” needs to have regularly repeated occurences…I see none here…or has the meaning of “pattern” changed in the last two decades?
Oddly not one word about…”certain Parsi societies that do not allow non-Parsis” or “…societies (in Bandra) that do not allow non-Christians“…and of course no mention of most of us being unable to buy land in Kashmir - or of Shabana and Javed’s flats in Juhu. [ link ]
Related Posts:
“The great joke that is Indian Media” series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
September 2nd, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Indian Media, Post Independence History |
7 comments
I came across this fascinating piece of research a while ago but almost forgot to post it here. From The Colonial Legacy - Myths and Popular Beliefs, some thought-provoking excerpts:
*** Excerpts Begin ***
While few educated South Asians would deny that British Colonial rule was detrimental to the interests of the common people of the sub-continent - several harbor an illusion that the British weren’t all bad. Didn’t they, perhaps, educate us - build us modern cities, build us irrigation canals - protect our ancient monuments - etc. etc. And then, there are some who might even say that their record was actually superior to that of independent India’s! Perhaps, it is time that the colonial record be retrieved from the archives and re-examined - so that those of us who weren’t alive during the freedom movement can learn to distinguish between the myths and the reality.
Literacy and Education
…(since) the last year, I have been making a point of asking English-speaking Indians to guess what India’s literacy rate in the colonial period might have been…Most guessed the number to be between 30% and 40%. When I suggested that their guess was on the high side - they offered 25% to 35%. No one was prepared to believe that literacy in British India in 1911 was only 6%, in 1931 it was 8%, and by 1947 it had crawled to 11%! That fifty years of freedom had allowed the nation to quintuple it’s literacy rate was something that almost seemed unfathomable to them…
Urban Development
It is undoubtedly true that the British built modern cities with modern conveniences for their administrative officers. But it should be noted that these were exclusive zones not intended for the “natives” to enjoy. Consider that in 1911, 69 per cent of Bombay’s population lived in one-room tenements (as against 6 per cent in London in the same year). The 1931 census revealed that the figure had increased to 74 per cent - with one-third living more than 5 to a room. The same was true of Karachi and Ahmedabad.
…Yet, in 1757 (the year of the Plassey defeat), Clive of the East India Company had observed of Murshidabad in Bengal: “This city is as extensive, populous and rich as the city of London…” (so quoted in the Indian Industrial Commission Report of 1916-18). Dacca was even more famous as a manufacturing town, it’s muslin a source of many legends and it’s weavers had an international reputation that was unmatched in the medieval world.
…The percentage of population dependant on agriculture and pastoral pursuits actually rose to 73% in 1921 from 61% in 1891. (Reliable figures for earlier periods are not available.)
In 1854, Sir Arthur Cotton writing in “Public Works in India” noted: “Public works have been almost entirely neglected throughout India…
Nothing can be more revealing than the remark by John Bright in the House of Commons on June 24, 1858, “The single city of Manchester, in the supply of its inhabitants with the single article of water, has spent a larger sum of money than the East India Company has spent in the fourteen years from 1834 to 1848 in public works of every kind throughout the whole of its vast dominions.”
Irrigation and Agricultural Development
There is another popular belief about British rule: ‘The British modernized Indian agriculture by building canals’. But the actual record reveals a somewhat different story. ” The roads and tanks and canals,” noted an observer in 1838 (G. Thompson, “India and the Colonies,” 1838), ”which Hindu or Mussulman Governments constructed for the service of the nations and the good of the country have been suffered to fall into dilapidation; and now the want of the means of irrigation causes famines.” Montgomery Martin, in his standard work “The Indian Empire”, in 1858, noted that the old East India Company “omitted not only to initiate improvements, but even to keep in repair the old works upon which the revenue depended.”
The Report of the Bengal Irrigation Department Committee in 1930 reads:…“As regards the revival or maintenance of minor routes, … practically nothing has been done, with the result that, in some parts of the Province at least, channels have been silted up, navigation has become limited to a few months in the year, and crops can only be marketed when the Khals rise high enough in the monsoon to make transport possible”.
Sir William Willcock, a distinguished hydraulic engineer, whose name was associated with irrigation enterprises in Egypt and Mesopotamia had made an investigation of conditions in Bengal. He had discovered that innumerable small destructive rivers of the delta region, constantly changing their course, were originally canals which under the English regime were allowed to escape from their channels and run wild. Formerly these canals distributed the flood waters of the Ganges and provided for proper drainage of the land, undoubtedly accounting for that prosperity of Bengal which lured the rapacious East India merchants there in the early days of the eighteenth century.. He wrote” Not only was nothing done to utilize and improve the original canal system, but railway embankments were subsequently thrown up, entirely destroying it. Some areas, cut off from the supply of loam-bearing Ganges water, have gradually become sterile and unproductive, others improperly drained, show an advanced degree of water-logging, with the inevitable accompaniment of malaria. Nor has any attempt been made to construct proper embankments for the Gauges in its low course, to prevent the enormous erosion by which villages and groves and cultivated fields are swallowed up each year.”…
Keep Reading…
August 30th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
British Rule in India, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Modern Indian History |
4 comments
