THERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF MARXIST AND socialist intellectuals within Indian academia ready, willing and able to argue that European powers of 18-19th centuries plundered and pillaged third world countries so thoroughly — the Indian subcontinent in particular — that we haven’t been able to recover our pre-colonial glory and momentum. These faux intellectuals conveniently forget that after independence a battalion of entrepreneurs including JRD Tata, G.D. Birla, Walchand Hirachand, Lala Shri Ram, Sarabhais among others who made sizeable fortunes in the teeth of British opposition, were set to dominate Asia, if not beyond. However under the “socialistic pattern of society” shaped by prime minister Nehru and cheered on by anti-business lefties, they were cabined, cribbed and confined by a stifling licence-permit-quota regimen.
In retrospect, it’s clear that of the greedy European powers who carved up the world some 200 years ago, Brits were the best of a bad lot. They left behind a functional civil service, judiciary, national railway and several high-quality English-medium schools and universities. And conclusive proof that they have since atoned and developed national capability to rise above crude racial prejudice is provided by the appointment on October 24 of Indian origin and practicing Hindu, Rishi Sunak as prime minister of Great Britain and N. Ireland.
Your editor who was active in British politics as a law student in London, was absolutely convinced that despite every encouragement I received from top leaders of the Labour and Conservative parties, racial prejudice was too pervasive in British society for even modest success. Instead I decided to try my luck in India, only to discover that the kith, kinship and caste loyalties were prerequisites of success in Indian politics.
Looking back, I had a better chance of rising in British politics than in India, where politics is a family business. With Sunak’s appointment as prime minister, our erstwhile masters have absolved themselves of the common charge of hypocrisy by creating Europe’s most multi-racial society.
