01-10-2022 The Asian Independent

20 01-10-2022 to 15-10-2022 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
The Queen is dead, long live the King
(Asian Independent)- Queen
Elizabeth II, the longest serving
monarch of British empire died on
September 8th, at the age of 96 and
since then the crazy 24 7 channels
including BBC and CNN are
minutely reporting every event
related to her death. The funeral will
take place on September 19th but till
then people will watch various
events and engagements of the
Royal family, particularly the new
King Charles III and his Consort.
The Queen ruled for over 70 years
and hence one can understand the
feeling of loss by a nation which
ruled a large part of the world. India
too declared a one-day national
moaning on September 11th. World
leaders are expected to pay join the
funeral procession on September
19th and London police is expecting
massive gathering of people and
leaders on that day.
This question comes for discussion
many time as why United
Kingdom despite being a robust
democracy still hang on with
Monarchy. The question become
more important to countries like
Canada, Australia and New Zealand
where anti Monarchy sentiments too
are growing yet continue to remain
part of the Realm . The conservative
lobby in the United States
remain aggressively pro monarchy
and market forces have tapped their
popularity . The disturbing point is
as why British Royals are so popular
with the American public who
revolted against them so many years
ago. There is a lot of anger among
the natives in the Caribbean Islands
and six countries had indicated that
they wish to become republic in the
coming years and these countries
are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas,
Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts
and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and
Grenadines. The process started
with Barbados which became a
republic on November 30th, 2021.
Three other countries Dominica,
Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago
became republics in the 1970s.
Protesters in these countries have
sought a formal apology for brutalisation
and enslavement of the local
people particularly Africans and
compensate it through reparation. It
is reported that over 14 million
blacks were brought in the European
Slave Trade to Caribbean and 10
million were used in Arab Trade.
These countries are out of the
British Realm but still part of the 54
members Commonwealth. The
question is how can the people who
have been treated worst than animal
rejoice being part of
Commonwealth which the Crown
and elite in Britain feel so much
proud off.
India was ruled by the British
Empire since 1858 till 1947 though
prior to that East India Company
had already started controlling
India s large part since 1757. After
independence, India maintained
good relations with Britain and a big
Indian diaspora now live in UK
which is hugely successful and
politically influential. However,
there are segments of people who
feel as if the British had come to
benefit them and these are two
diversely opposed side. One, the
Hindutva elite and their followers
still celebrate British as for them
India s enslavement started from
Mughal period and hence British
came as liberator for wider Hindu
population. A big section of
Ambedkarite too feel that British
opened door of liberation for them
through education. Recently, a fox
TV anchor was widely criticised
when he counted the greatness of
British empire in his show. Anchor
Tucker Carlson said, The British
Empire was not perfect, but it was
far more humane than any other
ever. It s gone now, barely even
remembered. Queen Elizabeth II
was the last living link to a truly
Great Britain. Today on social
media, the usual ghouls celebrated
her death. May her pain be excruciating,
a Carnegie Mellon professor
called Uju Anya wrote on Twitter of
the queen. May she die in agony.
When the U.S. government withdrew
from Afghanistan after 20
years, we left behind airstrips, shipping
containers and guns. When the
British pulled out of India, they left
behind an entire civilization, a language,
a legal system, schools,
churches and public buildings, all of
which are still in use today. Here s
the train station the English built in
Bombay, for example. There s nothing
like that in Washington, DC
right now, much less in Kabul or
Baghdad. Today, India is far more
powerful than the UK, the nation
that once ruled it and yet, after 75
years of independence, has that
country produced a single building
as beautiful as the Bombay train station
that the British colonialists
built? No, sadly, it has not. Not
one.[i]
Unfortunately, there are many
who share Tucker s views about the
British Raj in India without
acknowledging the fact that Indian
civilisation and great architecture of
Buddhist, Rajputs, Mughal, Maurya
architecture, Cholas and many others
were already visible in India. To
suggest that India did not have the
kind of structure like VT Railway
Station of Mumbai only reflect of
Victorian arrogance. The British
ruled in India for such a long period
that it was impossible for them to
rule without involving local people
in their administration. There is no
doubt they created vast Railway network
so that the expensive timber
from the Himalayas can be transported
to Kolkata port comfortably.
As they needed an effective and
loyal bureaucracy who can interact
with them, they promoted English
language and brought some reforms.
There is no doubt that many things
which look positive to us are not
because the British wanted but it
was a collateral benefit. Of course,
the quality of their work is no doubt
far superior to the things we are
doing it today whether it is the
bridges or train tracks or railway
stations.
There is no doubt that being a
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
neutral party whose only interest
were to exploit India s vast mineral
resources for the benefit of their
society and country, the British had
better attitude in handling the issues
of Caste question and untouchability.
The simple question any one can
ask is that without British the whole
question of participation of the marginalised
communities in political
and power structure would have
been difficult if not impossible.
Whether it was in their own interest
or they wanted to reform British
policy of English education helped
the marginalised sections to some
extent otherwise the upper caste
elite would not have allowed the
Dalits to come up to their level
politically, socially and economically.
Apart from providing us laws
even when the aim was to control us
but it ultimately helped us. India
became the biggest English-speaking
country of the world which
helped Indian community to become
a powerful group in diaspora.
Despite all this, the fact remain that
British did not come to India to liberate
us but to reap its economic
power. India s foreign Minister S
Jaishankar in a programme
informed that British loot in India
was close to $45 trillion as per
today s estimates. Says,
JaiShankar, India had two centuries
of humiliation by the West in
its predatory form it came to India in
the mid-18th century. An economic
study tried to estimate how much
British took out of India, it ended up
at a number of $45 trillion in today s
value, [ii].
Eminent Economist Prof Utsa
Patnaik calculated this figure of GP
45 trillion loot from India. In an
interview she says, Between 1765
and 1938, the drain amounted to
£9.2 trillion (equal to $45 trillion),
taking India s export surplus earnings
as the measure, and compounding
it at a 5% rate of interest. Indians
were never credited with their own
gold and forex earnings. Instead, the
local producers here were paid the
rupee equivalent out of the budget
something you d never find in any
independent country. The drain
varied between 26-36% of the central
government budget. It would
obviously have made an enormous
difference if India s huge international
earnings had been retained
within the country. India would
have been far more developed, with
much better health and social welfare
indicators. There was virtually
no increase in per capita income
between 1900 and 1946, even
though India registered the second
largest export surplus earnings in
the world for three decades before
1929 [iii].
Ironically, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi was inaugurating the
grand of statue of Netaji Subhash
Chandra Bose at the India gate
where Rajpath has been renamed as
Kartvyapath . Modi called to do
away with the symbols of slavery
and be proud of being Indian.
However, Narendra Modi was
among the first to respond to the
death of the Queen, giving a very
personalised message on twitter :
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
will be remembered as as stalwart of
our times. She provided inspiring
leadership to her nation and people.
She personified dignity and decency
in public life. Pained by her demise.
My thoughts are with her family and
people of UK in this sad hour. [iv]
He further said, I had memorable
meetings with Her Mejasty
Queen Elizabeth II during my UK
visits in 2015 and 2018. I will never
forget the warmth and kindness.
During one of the meetings she
showed me the handkerchief
Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her
wedding. I will always cherish that
gesture[v]
The government of India declared
a national moaning on September
11th though many people questioned
it but realistically it was done as per
the traditions and many countries are
doing so. We can not ignore our relationship
with British empire whether
it was good or bad. Important for all
to learn from history and move
ahead. In the modern world, we
know the importance of Great
Britain and our relationship with
them though both the countries view
the relationships from a different
perspective. For the British, India is
the biggest country of the
Commonwealth but as an Indian,
we don t know anything about
Commonwealth except for the
games where Indians look performing
better than any other international
event. The historical fact is that
Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru
played an extremely important role
to be part of Commonwealth just
because he gave importance to
India s relationship. It was on his
insistence Republics who were part
of British Commonwealth but now
do not have Queen as its head, were
allowed to be part of it. Today, even
countries like Rwanda who were
never part of British empire have
officially joined Commonwealth.
Perhaps, the power is that it brings
diverse countries together who had
commonality in the form of British
Raj. All these countries are now
power house
and can become
strong trading partners. Anyway,
Commonwealth mean nothing for us
except for that historical lineage but
as I mentioned earlier this has a different
meaning for the British
Empire particularly the Monarchy
which uses it to describe their power.
The fact is that The Queen or the
King is head of United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
apart from Australia, Canada and
New Zealand and 14 other countries
now part of the British Realm.
While the sentiment of being a
Republic or having their own
monarchy has been strong enough in
most of the Asian, African and
Caribbean countries which formed
part of British Empire and later
gained independence, the stand of
the ruling elite in Australia, Canada
and New zealand look intriguing.
Why these countries don t have the
sentiments like India and others in
the Indian subcontinents in relation
to Monarchy? And the harsh reality
is that experts like Tucker Carlson
are plenty in the United States and
leadership from both the Republican
and Democrats really love to have
the special relationship with the
monarchy.
See on Page 21