Thursday, February 03, 2005

What About British Excesses

Those of you watching PBS wouldn't have missed the long programs about the Nazi death/concentration camp Aushwitz-Birkenau, which was liberated in January 1945 by the Russian Red army. The holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi's on the Jewish populations as well as many others such as gypsies, the handicapped, homosexuals, Jehovah's witnesses etc. was most definitely tragic and condemnable in the strongest terms. There are huge awareness campaigns and museums to educate the general public about the incident. Now that is all very well but how about the great crimes committed against us, Indians, by the british; why are many of us ignorant about those incidents?

The british caused a famine during the 1940's that killed an estimated 3-4 milion. They wreaked total havoc on our agricultural and economic system , the effects of which we still face today. However, all these are not taught in our history books; instead we are taught that they laid railway lines (as if they did it for our benefit)!! Why isn't information about all this and much more made accessable to the general public?; why arent there awareness campaigns that educate us about these crimes? Unfortunately, I do not at this point, have answers to these questions. I wait to be educated about anything related to this by anybody who volunteers.

It is amazing that there are many who still think India was better off under british rule! Probably, the fault isn't entirely theirs.

Here is an excellent blog on Indian History: Varnam

1 comment:

oremuna said...

good

I agree with u

May be u should start a musiam

but normally we used to be far away from what makes us "hate" something.