Rejoinder to Col Abel's article by CDR.AKEEL SHAIKH I.N.(retd)

----- Original Message -----
From: naseemakeel shaikh
To: maurice.abel@ukonline.co.uk
Cc: Chander Kamboj
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 10:54 PM
Subject: Col. Abel's take on why the British left India

Dear Col.Abel,

Your view is that an impoverished GREAT Britain, was just too tired to continue to "manage " their Empire, and thus left India. You also say that the common man was tired and only wanted to rebuild his home, and that the consensus among the leaders and the people was that India had become ungovernable and there was nothing to be gained from continuing to "manage " the Empire.

The fact that we all agree on is that India HAD become ungovernable. Shall we then agree that Great Britain had become unable to govern it since the will of the people of India was manifesting itself in a variety of ways? Britain's inability to continue to govern the Indian people is being linked to it's heroic efforts to save the world from the tyranny of Fascism and Communism, bringing it to the edge of it's capabilities, and there was nothing more to be gained from "Staying On." Nothing more to be gained by whom ? By India from the kind ministrations of the British,or the British after centuries of ruling India, having come in in the guise of traders?

This reminds me of an interesting talk by an American when I was in Vishakapatnam in 1964..He was part of a delegation from the U.S.A. He propounded the view that slavery in America, and the ongoing segregationist policies, were being seen in a wrong light.He claimed that the relationship between Negroes ( this was before it became politically incorrect to use this rascist word) & the whites was a love-hate kind of relationship and often platonic, and that the blacks in fact loved the whites. Since the rest of the audience was too polite and mature to laugh out loud, I decided in my immaturity to stand and ask this gentleman if he was serious, and what made him think that this platitude would be swallowed by the audience.

In the same vein I would like to know whether the same Government which condoned acts such as Jallianwalla Bagh, and had been systematically enriching itself from it's "management"of India, would leave India at a time when it could have speeded up it's own rehabilitation by squeezing it more energetically.

Conquerors and managers have traditionally attempted to garb themselves as benefactors. The U.S.A. was built by virtually extinguishing the Native American population,and exploiting Chinese and black labour.The Indian Reservations in the U.S.A. are like sores which will never go away,forced on the native Americans through blood-shed and chicanery and downright cheating.This is not MY view,but of a number of Western Scholars.

I think I will ask readers of your response in enlightening us whether they agree with your analysis, and whether there is any material evidence available anywhere which supports this view.

Yours sincerely,

CDR.AKEEL SHAIKH I.N.(retd)
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