Anvita Agrawal answers “As an Indian I find this writer's venom...”

Engelbert Humper asked this question about An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India:

As an Indian I find this writer's venom against Britain more than a bit embarrassing. Britain left India about 70 years ago and with all the resources of modern technology India could have solved its problems of poverty long ago, instead of being the world's greatest reservoir of human misery. The British did a lot of good in India and in their empire, as well as a lot of evil. United India without them? A joke.

Anvita Agrawal If this was written in the spirit of 'let bygones be bygones' I might have taken you a bit seriously.
But some thoughts for you.
1) In a country where …moreIf this was written in the spirit of 'let bygones be bygones' I might have taken you a bit seriously.
But some thoughts for you.
1) In a country where you've been treated as vermin for the better part of 2 centuries, collectively as a people you internalize the feeling of being "always lesser than". It's taken a few generations, but it's only with the current 30-somethings of today did we begin to see a modicum of self confidence, self esteem and fearlessness creep in, culturally. This was perhaps one of their biggest damages, due to its far reaching effects.
2) To avail and fully utilize modern technology from the west requires money. A country left impoverished doesn't have that obviously, nor did they have the capital to invest in creating technologies of our own. What they had left, had to be invested in re-building and re-starting from 0. When the markets opened up and the country was on more solid footing, from the late 90s onward India has been one of the fastest growing economies. To the point that economists predict India will overtake the U.S economy by 2050. Had the Raj not done its dirty deed, we would have gotten there much earlier.
3) You've also completely ignored the fact that India was extremely rich in various technological developments in every field (except automation as it didn't exist then - as you seem to indicate that that's the modern technology you're referring to specifically), which were all systematically destroyed by the Raj. That was a huge loss to the world in terms of knowledge, but specifically to the people involved in such pursuits - their livelihoods were tortured out of them literally. For example Textile (as the example that Mr.Tharoor gives most). It's only in the last 10 -15 years that a concerted effort could be made to revitalize the industry, to provide sustainable livelihood to rural artisans, and give them incentive to keep all the art and technology alive for future generations.
4) As an Indian, you've surely heard of the great Partition of 1947. Which was also in a sense the direct consequence of a little-known policy of theirs called 'Divide and Rule'. So deep were the roots of this malice, that it has murderous consequences for both countries to date. Is this the United India you were speaking of?

It would be much appreciated if you took the time to do proper research and objectively analyze the information, before forming your thoughts and inflicting them on the world, instead of the knee-jerk reaction you've penned. It's embarrassing to have to school you on this. (less)

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An Era of Darkness

by Shashi Tharoor

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