There is a difference between admitting/acknowledging a fact and appreciating/defending a fact. I would not defend any foreign rule of my motherland. That is why, while I acknowledge that the British were better than the Mughals, I feel ashamed of my forefathers and the societies that they left behind.
Here are some facts for Dr. Roy and others to consider.
1) A so-called low caste Hindu walks by a so-called high caste Hindu; the latter has to take a bath to cleanse himself because he had touched the shadow of the former. To me, the latter here is asking for hostility from the former for no good reason. This was a custom of our society not very long ago. Did the Mughal or the British make our forefathers that stupid? To me, this kind of societies deserved to be booted by the foreigners.
2) A serious flood happens; animals and people die by the thousands. The so-called high-caste Hindus would not touch the rotting corps/carcasses, because they think they would lose their caste by doing so. They would live in the stench and bacteria-infested environment, but not clean up. This happened only a few years back is Orissa. To me, these barbarians do not know how to live a civilized life; they would do better being ruled by others.
3) The owners of buses would not allow their buses to ply the highway, because the highway is too bad in shape to drive. Tens of thousands of commuters get stranded. This happened only a few weeks back in Bangladesh. What were the governments doing to address this public safety issue before it reached such a sorry state? Good question. To me, people from this country would do better doing odd jobs everywhere in the world. Where should the intellectuals of this country focus; in forming an Odd-job Givers Appreciating Club?
There are a lot of other examples we could find. I hope I have gotten my points across a bit better now.
More later,
Sukhamaya Bain
From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2011 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Would India be better off without British rule?
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2011 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Would India be better off without British rule?
| SB Said : "I think this topic should be more about our own soul-searching. Shouldn't we feel ashamed to think that we are better today because of a foreign rule? Shouldn't we feel embarrassed to think that our loving forefathers were of too poor quality to advance us as much as what a sucking foreign ruling class did?" Response: We can be ashamed as much as we want, but that will not change the fact, and the fact is - India is better off today because of British rule, instead of Mughal rule. I have no shame to admit this fact. We have to judge the situation with proper context, and that is - India had been already under foreign rulers for more than 500 years when British came in. I would feel ashamed to defend British rule had they occupied an independent India. Unfortunately, that was not the situation. I am trying to arrive at a logical conclusion, not emotional one. Thanks. Jiten Roy --- On Fri, 10/7/11, Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com> wrote:
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