It's great to see someone standing up for colonialism, especially British colonialism. I agree wholeheartedly with this observation, for example:
The subquote comes from an article in New Criterion, by Roger Kimball.Had Britain had the courage to face down Gandhi and his rabble a few years longer, the tragedy that was the partititon of India might have been avoided.
So let me see; the British tried to avoid partition and were stymied by Gandhi and his "rabble". I can't stop gasping long enough to provide a cogent response to this filth, which is probably why I don't post on politics in the first place.
(HT: Crooked Timber)
Of course, there are good reasons to believe that without Gandi quieting down the violence in 1926 (year from my memory), then India would have beome completely uncontrolable for the British and they probably would have lost it around 1930 (of course, in this case, it is safe to assume that India would have splitted into even more countries, not to mention that the bloodshed would have been worst).
ReplyDelete(Based on my ignorance, so if I have about 30 factual mistakes in this statements, it is quite alright.)
Posted by Anonymous
It's worth remembering that a large part of the animus that led to Partition was fomented by the British. It's tricky to engage in counterfactuals, and I am not a historian, but it is by no means clear that any british withdrawal from India was bound to lead to a partition.
ReplyDeletePosted by Suresh
In general, not just in India, the British were well known for exploiting ethnic/religious differences between groups of people (Ireland, Sudan, and Kenya come to mind). It was in their best interest to do so; better to have the people divided then united against them. So I would say that the British really exacerbated the problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd I might add that it is really ironic a right-wing blog is advocating colonialism, don't they want to spread freedom throughout world?
Posted by Anonymous
Sometimes I just want to cry . . . at least you have mathematics to take refuge in. . .
ReplyDeletePosted by Saheli