Hello Craig, ----- Original Message ----- From: "craig reece" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 6:38 AM Subject: [biofuel] RE: [biofuels] Re: US poll about Iraq war
Hakan, You wrote: >What's interesting in Ryan's post is the assumption that colonizing >what is now the United States is seen as being the only way anyone <(other than the former inhabitants, that is) could've possibly >"directly benefitted." That is, there is apparently no way to share the >resources of a place with the "former owners" in a way that benefits >both them and the colonizing power. While I'd agree that we have no >good model or historical precedent for such a thing, that shouldn't >mean we can't recognize the horror that was the colonial experience for >those who were colonized. It is interesting to compare the circumstance and the consequence of colonisation of the Indias and the Americas. We have greater India (comprising present day Bangladesh, India and Pakistan) which was a largely British Colony for nearly two centuries, the same duration it took the Red Indian tribes to be subjugated, decimated and destroyed. We also had our unfair share of colonists - Portuguese in Goa, Daman & Diu (almost as brutal as the Spanish) the French (more intolerant but less brutal) in Pondicherry, Yanam & Mahe and the least disruptive Dutch (or was it the Danish) in Tranquebar. The British were most exploitatitve of the natives in economic terms. We also had many false treaties written with the eye on the main chance just as Indian Chiefs were cheated by men who entered into troth with no intention of keeping it the next morn. The rulers of the many princely states that fractured our country were likewise played one against the other as it happened with our Red cousins in distress. The cultural differences were siginifcant. What the British saw in India was a higly stratified society with large populations in towns that were centuries old. They were struck by the grand iniquitous opulence and decadent lifetyle of rajahs and the Mughals. They could understand the urbane sophistication and Byzantine intrigues of the ministers in court. In fact the courtiers of the British crown must have felt completely at ease in such surroundings. Besides, for most of them, India was a temporary though prolonged posting from which they could always return home. Many of the early British school of Indology got lost in its other wordly philosophy. The Red Indian tribes at least in North America were hunter gatherers and largely nomadic. Their close to nature lifestyle was a ready lure for the settlers, who found little competition in such a vast land. They also had no home to return to, having burnt their bridges. USA in 1700- 1850 was the Wild West, raw frontier country being newly settled, where might was right and nobody present to check the wrong doing except kangaroo courts by roving circuit judges and lynch mobs. I think it is the lack of a judicial infrastructure that did the native tribes in. That and the initial struggle to survive and the growing greed of men. The British of course exploited the natives to the hilt and even destroyed the indigenous indigo and muslin industry among others as they posed market threats to Britain. Colonisation was not however an unmitigated disaster for India and had many positives. An upright and honest judicial system that continued to dispense humane justice in spite of the many black laws enacted by the administration. The many voices of conscience from Britain that spoke up for the natives. The excellent education system which was mostly secular with little attempt at religious proselytisation. The basic railroad that has mushroomed into the largest in the world. I think it had partly to do with the British sense of justice and fairplay (it wasn't cricket) and the rule of law most of them abided by back in Britain. That's possibly why slave trading initiated by the British in the Americas, was abolished in 1807, long before it happened in the USA. Regards. balaji ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70 http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
