4 ms·

> It is actually amazing how little British folks today know about their own historical misdeeds, they may accept the issues towards USA and other countries bu

> It is actually amazing how little British folks today know about their own historical misdeeds, they may accept the issues towards USA and other countries but tend to downplay atrocities magnitudes higher in India and other countries To add to this, it's not just the British. The Portuguese, French, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish (among others) colonized parts of India long before the British did, and the Portuguese and French also kept their colonies in India much longer. When people talk about India's independence in 1947, that's just referring to the independence of British India. The French stayed until 1962, and the Portuguese held their colonies until 1975. Amusingly, most Portuguese and French people I've talked to under the age of forty[0] or so are genuinely shocked to learn this. On the other hand, most British people are apparently proud of their colonial plundering[1], so I guess everyone has a long way to go still. (P.S. If you're thinking of responding to this with a comment about how the British "improved" India by industrializing it, or all the "benefits" India got from being plundered for 450 years, please save us all the trouble and don't. These are typical revisionist talking points that are easily debunked as ahistorical with some basic research, and they're put forth to distract from the sheer volume of wealth that was stolen, the amount of infrastructure that was destroyed by colonial regimes, the genocides and other war crimes that were committed by the colonizing countries, and so on. For most of recorded history, India (Bengal in particular) was the world's largest economy - over 25% of the world's GDP[2] - and every discussion that attempts to rationalize that loss after colonization without recognizing the value that was destroyed, stolen, or outright murdered ultimately into revisionist white supremacist history, which is not what HN is for.) I know I'll get eventually downvoted for this, because talking about the brutality and legacy of European colonialism is always unpopular on HN for obvious reasons, but it's important enough that it needs to be said. [0] ie, young enough that this wasn't in their lifetimes [1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-people-are-proud-of-colonialism-and-the-british-empire-poll-finds-a6821206.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-people... [2] https://www.coursera.org/learn/passport-to-india/lecture/uYUIK/when-india-was-the-richest-country-on-earth https://www.coursera.org/learn/passport-to-india/lecture/uYU...

celticninja 9y ago
Imagine invading a country to essentially control it's natural resources. Thanks goodness we have moved on from that sort of behaviour and now we need some kind of moral reason (e.g war on terror) to do this to other countries (e.g. Iraq).
- jhgb 9y ago
  Have we really? Or did we simply move to more insidious policies like forcing "free trade treaties" and such?
itissid 9y ago
When things like the bengal famine happen because of just diverting India's supply chain to the WWII how the F* do you put up with something like that. If you haven't seen it already read the wikipedia entry[1] and pause and think for a moment, they denied food shipments for almost 2 full years in a famine. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943
- nonamechicken 9y ago
  It's not just one famine. There have been many. It's estimated that anywhere from 10 to 40 million died in these alone. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-35-million-deaths-britain-shashi-tharoor-british-empire-a7627041.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-35-millio...
blackrock 9y ago
> If you're thinking of responding to this with a comment about how the British "improved" India by industrializing it, or all the "benefits" India got from being plundered for 450 years I once overheard my white coworker say, that the British did India a huge favor, by bringing them English. It was in his belief that back then, the Indians were just killing each other for fun. So the British did them a huge favor by colonizing them. And because of that, today, India is a major software player for outsourcing, all thanks to the British for colonizing them, and bringing them English. I sat there thinking to myself, this is unbelievable. I didn't want to talk politics in a business setting, so I ignored it. The British destroyed a civilization. Enslaved a generation. And enriched themselves in the process. But all that is swept under the rug, because they brought English to their colonies.

celticninja 9y ago

Imagine invading a country to essentially control it's natural resources. Thanks goodness we have moved on from that sort of behaviour and now we need some kind of moral reason (e.g war on terror) to do this to other countries (e.g. Iraq).

jhgb 9y ago
Have we really? Or did we simply move to more insidious policies like forcing "free trade treaties" and such?

itissid 9y ago

When things like the bengal famine happen because of just diverting India's supply chain to the WWII how the F* do you put up with something like that. If you haven't seen it already read the wikipedia entry[1] and pause and think for a moment, they denied food shipments for almost 2 full years in a famine. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943

nonamechicken 9y ago
It's not just one famine. There have been many. It's estimated that anywhere from 10 to 40 million died in these alone. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-35-million-deaths-britain-shashi-tharoor-british-empire-a7627041.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-35-millio...

blackrock 9y ago

> If you're thinking of responding to this with a comment about how the British "improved" India by industrializing it, or all the "benefits" India got from being plundered for 450 years I once overheard my white coworker say, that the British did India a huge favor, by bringing them English. It was in his belief that back then, the Indians were just killing each other for fun. So the British did them a huge favor by colonizing them. And because of that, today, India is a major software player for outsourcing, all thanks to the British for colonizing them, and bringing them English. I sat there thinking to myself, this is unbelievable. I didn't want to talk politics in a business setting, so I ignored it. The British destroyed a civilization. Enslaved a generation. And enriched themselves in the process. But all that is swept under the rug, because they brought English to their colonies.