<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The British bled us</b>
Dina Nath Mishra (Pioneer)
In my childhood, elders said India was once known as 'sone ki chidiya'. How can I believe it, looking at the clay bird it has become today. I have read many books on how the British exploited India. Some books like that by RC Dutta did convince me of their exploitation but, like many other Indians, I did not pay heed.
<b>This column deals with a book by Will Durant, the greatest American historian of the 20th Century. </b>He shot to fame because of his 11 volumes of Story of Civilisation and another book titled Story of Philosophy.<b> The third book, about which I am going to talk, was banned by the British. Not even a single copy could be found. </b>Fortunately, someone found a copy and it was published by Strand Book Stall, Mumbai. The book put me thinking on how India would survive. But first, let's see, what Durant had to say about India just before the British came.
Quoting Sunderland he says: "This wealth was created by the Hindus' vast and varied industries. Nearly every kind of manufacture of product known to the civilised world - nearly every kind of creation of man's brain and hand, existing anywhere and prized either for its utility or beauty - had long, long being produced in India. India was a far greater industrial and manufacturing nation than any in Europe or than any other in Asia. Her textile goods - the fine products of her looms, in cotton, wool, linen and silk - were famous over the civilised world; so were her exquisite jewellry and her precious stones cut in every lovely form; so were her pottery, porcelain, ceramics of every kind, quality, colour and beautiful shape; so were her fine works in metal - iron, steel, silver and gold. She had great architecture - equal in beauty to any in the world. She had great engineering works. She had great merchants, great businessmen, great bankers and financers. Not only was she, the greatest ship-building nation, but she had great commerce and trade by land and sea which extended to all known civilised countries. Such was the India which the British found when they came."
In his own inimitable style, Durant built India's case, "The present caste system in India consists of four classes: the real Brahmins - ie, the British bureaucracy; the Kshatriyas - ie, the British army; the real Vaishyas - ie, the British traders; and the real Shudras - ie, the Hindus."
The story of miserable farming community has gone through a process: "Before the coming of English, the land was private property, the Government made itself the sole owner of soil and charged for it a land tax or rental now equal to 1/5th of the produce. In many cases, in the past, this land tax has amounted to half the gross produce, in some cases, to more than the entire gross produce; in general, it is two to three times as high as under pre-English rule."
Durant, further wrote, "It might have been supposed that the building of 30,000 miles of railways would have brought a measure of prosperity to India. But these railways were built not for India but for England; not for the benefit of the Hindu, but for the purposes of the British Army and trade. If this seems doubtful, observe their operation. Their greatest revenue comes, not, as in America, from the transport of goods (for the British trader controls the rates), but from the third-class passengers - the Hindus; but these passengers are herded into barren coaches like animals bound for the slaughter, 20 or more in one compartment. The rails-roads are entirely in European hands, and the Government has refused to appoint even one Hindu in the Railway Board."
The book is full of instances describing how the British destroyed India's shipping trade, how artisans producing clothes were impoverished, how the Indians bore the cost of all the wars Britain fought, how the industrial revolution of Britain and some of Europe happened at the cost of Indians, how millions of people starved to death when the British exported grains, produced by Indian farmers. How education and social fibre of the society was destroyed systematically by Lord Macauley and duly approved by the British Parliament.
This is how Durant, described the conquerors of India: "The British conquest of India was the invasion and destruction of a high civilisation by a trading company, utterly without scruple or principle, careless of art and greedy of gain, over-running with fire and sword, a country temporarily disordered and helpless, bribing and murdering, annexing and stealing, and beginning that career of illegal and 'legal' plunder which has now gone on ruthlessly for 173 years."
Durant is not an ordinary historian and the rape of India by the British is not an ordinary event either. But, we Indians are most extraordinary people: We just take everything in our stride. Time we woke up from this stupor and mould India again into a sone ki chidiya.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Dina Nath Mishra (Pioneer)
In my childhood, elders said India was once known as 'sone ki chidiya'. How can I believe it, looking at the clay bird it has become today. I have read many books on how the British exploited India. Some books like that by RC Dutta did convince me of their exploitation but, like many other Indians, I did not pay heed.
<b>This column deals with a book by Will Durant, the greatest American historian of the 20th Century. </b>He shot to fame because of his 11 volumes of Story of Civilisation and another book titled Story of Philosophy.<b> The third book, about which I am going to talk, was banned by the British. Not even a single copy could be found. </b>Fortunately, someone found a copy and it was published by Strand Book Stall, Mumbai. The book put me thinking on how India would survive. But first, let's see, what Durant had to say about India just before the British came.
Quoting Sunderland he says: "This wealth was created by the Hindus' vast and varied industries. Nearly every kind of manufacture of product known to the civilised world - nearly every kind of creation of man's brain and hand, existing anywhere and prized either for its utility or beauty - had long, long being produced in India. India was a far greater industrial and manufacturing nation than any in Europe or than any other in Asia. Her textile goods - the fine products of her looms, in cotton, wool, linen and silk - were famous over the civilised world; so were her exquisite jewellry and her precious stones cut in every lovely form; so were her pottery, porcelain, ceramics of every kind, quality, colour and beautiful shape; so were her fine works in metal - iron, steel, silver and gold. She had great architecture - equal in beauty to any in the world. She had great engineering works. She had great merchants, great businessmen, great bankers and financers. Not only was she, the greatest ship-building nation, but she had great commerce and trade by land and sea which extended to all known civilised countries. Such was the India which the British found when they came."
In his own inimitable style, Durant built India's case, "The present caste system in India consists of four classes: the real Brahmins - ie, the British bureaucracy; the Kshatriyas - ie, the British army; the real Vaishyas - ie, the British traders; and the real Shudras - ie, the Hindus."
The story of miserable farming community has gone through a process: "Before the coming of English, the land was private property, the Government made itself the sole owner of soil and charged for it a land tax or rental now equal to 1/5th of the produce. In many cases, in the past, this land tax has amounted to half the gross produce, in some cases, to more than the entire gross produce; in general, it is two to three times as high as under pre-English rule."
Durant, further wrote, "It might have been supposed that the building of 30,000 miles of railways would have brought a measure of prosperity to India. But these railways were built not for India but for England; not for the benefit of the Hindu, but for the purposes of the British Army and trade. If this seems doubtful, observe their operation. Their greatest revenue comes, not, as in America, from the transport of goods (for the British trader controls the rates), but from the third-class passengers - the Hindus; but these passengers are herded into barren coaches like animals bound for the slaughter, 20 or more in one compartment. The rails-roads are entirely in European hands, and the Government has refused to appoint even one Hindu in the Railway Board."
The book is full of instances describing how the British destroyed India's shipping trade, how artisans producing clothes were impoverished, how the Indians bore the cost of all the wars Britain fought, how the industrial revolution of Britain and some of Europe happened at the cost of Indians, how millions of people starved to death when the British exported grains, produced by Indian farmers. How education and social fibre of the society was destroyed systematically by Lord Macauley and duly approved by the British Parliament.
This is how Durant, described the conquerors of India: "The British conquest of India was the invasion and destruction of a high civilisation by a trading company, utterly without scruple or principle, careless of art and greedy of gain, over-running with fire and sword, a country temporarily disordered and helpless, bribing and murdering, annexing and stealing, and beginning that career of illegal and 'legal' plunder which has now gone on ruthlessly for 173 years."
Durant is not an ordinary historian and the rape of India by the British is not an ordinary event either. But, we Indians are most extraordinary people: We just take everything in our stride. Time we woke up from this stupor and mould India again into a sone ki chidiya.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->