--- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, "balaji" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hello Pierre,
Sorry for the late posting. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 2:26 AM Subject: [biofuel] [biofuels] Re: US poll about Iraq war > --- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, "balaji" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Colonisation was not however an unmitigated disaster for > > India and had many positives. > "We are bringing them to Christianity" said Slater on the slave ship. "not unmitigated disaster", remember ? Slater is (was?) a slave trader and an adventurer. What else can you expect from such a character without roots ? Incidentally, India had its own slaves for millenia, long before the advent of the British. We also had bonded serfs on agricultural lands till the late 70's. > An upright and honest judicial system that > > continued to dispense humane justice in spite of the many black > laws enacted > > by the administration. > The British judicial system was only intent upon ensuring the smooth > exploitation of India - contracts law - that is what it was all > about. You do no justice to the significant (though sometimes botched) work of British codification of traditional Hindu & Muslim laws extant at that time. >Entire generations of Brahman were transformed from being > spiritual non-materialistic beacons into judges who would ensure > transactions that bled India of its resources. Pray tell me how these "spiritual non-materialistic beacons" were induced into becoming judges who would ensure transactions that bled India of its resources. Many of the Indian jurors and judges stood up to their European colleagues. And the system allowed for that. For instance, the towering extremist leader Tilak was handed down a sentence of 6 years in Mandalay by a a jury of 9 (7 Europeans for and two Indians against) (As an aside, it is useful to respect convention in identifying Hindus. Brahmana with a long vowel in the first syllable and the n sounding the same as the 'n' in "and" is the educated and priestly caste, and traditionally transcribed in English as Brahmin, While Brahman, with a short vowel in the first syllable and a wan 'n', denotes the ultimate truth beyond all truths, immanent in all creation and forming its substratum.) > The many voices of conscience from Britain that spoke > > up for the natives. > Churchill's voice rose above them all: "naked little fakhir". Voices > were raised around the world. Yet the British kept electing racist > imperialistic governments There was a groundswell of sympathy for the Indian freedom struggle among Britain's intelligensia and writers represented by Hume, the Webbs, Bernard Shaw, Annie Besant et al. > The excellent education system which was mostly secular > > with little attempt at religious proselytisation. > To transform Indians into good little servants - engineers, technical > workers, etc. to better exploit the nation. Indians left alone would > nevertheless have an excellent school system. They have no one to > thank. But what was the system that existed earlier ? There was no universal education paradigm. Traditional learning was confined tothe priestly and upper castes. Agreed that the British educational system was originally designed by Macaulay to produce an army of clerks. It also produced the Mahatma, who was a barrister, Nehru, Dadabhai Naoroji, Bankim Chandra Chatterji, the Tatas, the Birlas, C V Raman and a host of other leaders, industrialists and technocrats. > Proselytisation would have spelled an unmanageable jihad against the > occupiers. It was a practical choice, nothing more. There is no concept of Jihad among Hindus, the overwhelming majority in India. The secular Indian Muslims, who by and large represent the majority in their community, likewise have no truck with such a concept of a holy war against other communisities so much as a war against atheism and a struggle for self control. I think present day Iraq has already cast its long shadow into the past. > The basic railroad that > > has mushroomed > > into the largest in the world. > The railroad was built to move resources and workers. It was a > system designed to rob Indians of their resources as efficiently as > possible. What Indians did with it after the Brits were booted out > is a testament to Indians, not to the British. But you cannot but acknowledge the by-product good. The British were not booted out, but forced out by the moral force of the non-violent leaders, British and world opinion. it was a largely peaceful struggle. > > 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. > What a crock. Where is the fair play in keeping an entire nation > subjugated by force of arms?. The fairplay myth is just that, a > myth. It may have existed on a coventry cricket field, but it did > not exist in any colony of any empire. And yet questions were raised in the British parliament by other fair minded Englishmen (who no doubt played on coventry cricket fields), about the injustice which placed a lot of moral pressure on the administration. We also had our own local entirely Indian cricket teams facing off the official English Team before independence. > That's possibly why slave trading initiated by the British in the > > Americas, > > was abolished in 1807, long before it happened in the USA. > more likely from the extreme guilt associated with being the world's > number one and most ruthless slave traders. Precisely my point. Guilt is indication of conscience, whether of the administration on its own or induced by others inside the system. I think you are looking at the original evil intent, while we in India are living with the wholesome unintended consequences. Besides, you need to get outside yourself and assess all this objectively and not suffer from a surrogate guilty conscience. Regards. Balaji > > > > Regards. > > > > balaji > > > good reading on the matter: > > Freedom struggle > http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/- > /8173044422/qid=1084999512/sr=8-15/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i15_xgl14/103- > 3251336-7764659?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 > Pierre --- End forwarded message ---
