As India celebrates its Independence, my research has been drawing me deep into its moral, cultural and artistic heritage, which the British Empire completely misunderstood and diminished. The bigger question that arises is – have we become independent from the cultural influence of empire, where critical institutions like our laws and schools were shaped, and where English language became superior and supreme?
My very general answer to this is that we have still got a long way to go, and this is echoed by a number of eminent thinkers and writers today. Even in India, those scholars and writers who wish to rescue our legacy, have very little funding and resources, and are often marginalised and seen as backward rather than modern. The DNA of imperialism has left very deep footprints of cultural suffocation.
My colleague at City St. George’s, University of London, Dr Diya Gupta, has written a wonderful and painful emotional history of Indian soldiers during the Second World War. One major episode during that war was the Bengal Famine, where 3 million Bengalis died unnecessarily and deliberately, as a result of prejudice and abject exploitation by Winston Churchill and the British colonialists. This is in spite of the fact that nearly 2.5 million Indians helped the empire during the Second World War and fought and served in a variety of nations from Burma to Malaysia and many countries in Europe.
So, few people in the world know about this genocide, and even in India, there is no memorial to the people who died in this man-made famine. In their desperation for food, many Bengalis sold their lands losing their livelihoods, and the constant hunger pains of their children became insufferable, so they were sold. The BBC Radio 4 series on the Bengal Famine by Kavita Puri is a must listen for every Indian today anywhere in the world and is freely available as a podcast.
History is not just a story of the past. It is an important lesson in the morals and values of society, and the violence that comes from ignorance, prejudice, war and aggression. It influences the present in deep and profound ways, shaping our culture, institutions and even our knowledge and ignorance. Not only were the British successful in raiding and exploiting India, they continue to remain influential in wiping out the memories of such murderous episodes, giving a civilised impression of themselves. In the war of narrative, India seems often on a losing battle, with the media obsessed by caste, or gender violence or religious discrimination, when the real story of 1.4 billion people is much more complex, and it is a miracle that the majority even today live in peace and turn up to vote in the largest democracy in the world.
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The layers of culture and morality, and the stories and literature which have inspired a deep faith and humility in the Indian conscience, continue to fascinate me and I feel I am only scratching the surface of this vast ocean. Our ancient languages of Sanskrit and Prakrit and the ways in which they embraced equality to all living beings are rarely discussed and celebrated today in spite of the Anthropocene. The poverty that we see in India today is often a historical injury, resulting from years of exploitation and expropriation by outsiders. The cultural and emotional wealth of India continues to prevail, but is hardly mentioned in mainstream media, even in the culture pages of ‘The Sunday Times’ or ‘The New York Times’. This is living fraud and fiction, something which every Indian should question and challenge. In my own way, I do so regularly, using the pen as my weapon of choice. Please continue following and spreading this column.
Professor Atul K. Shah [@atulkshah] teaches and writes about Indian wisdom on business, culture and community at various UK universities and is a renowned international author, speaker and broadcaster.
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*Info: BBC Radio4 ‘Three Million’; ‘India in the Second World War: An Emotional History’; Hunger Burns