Blame the British…

Every time I am in a discussion on issues related to poverty or infrastructure(or the lack of  it) in this country with friends or colleagues – somebody has to blame the British for
it all – “Buggers took everything from here” – is the standard concluding rant. And everybody else concurs.

Little do they realize that our own leaders have looted the country much more in 65 years
than the British did during their rule. I mean….just look at the numbers that come out each time there’s a scam. The vast majority can’t even write that kind of amount in figures.

The point is – the British were colonialists. They weren’t missionaries. They didn’t come here for the welfare of Indians. They came here to exploit. That’s what colonialists and conquerors do isn’t it. Why blame them – they were just doing what they set out to do. Does blaming them solve our problems. If anybody is to be blamed – its ourselves. They merely exploited our religious, racial, linguistic, caste divisions most of which exist even today!!!

In fact – India in its current form wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for the British Raj. Had it not been for the British – we wouldn’t have had this vast railway network even. Now when I say this – I do realize that they didn’t build this network so that Indian people could travel. They built it to ferry goods and troops faster. To strengthen their grip on the country. But the point I am trying to make is –  the least our politicians could have done is to expand this wonderful legacy and manage it well.

What prevented us ? Are the British responsible for India being a poor country? Or – are we a poor country in the first place? I say – We were never a poor country. Not today, not any time in our past. We are a mismanaged and a corrupt country. That’s all. Look at it this way – What are the resources we lack? We definitely do not lack in human resources. And for the natural resources that we’re short of – we have enough other resources which we can barter or trade in exchange for the resource in deficit.

It’s very easy to blame somebody else for our problems. As if that absolves us of our responsibility. This society needs to introspect. We can’t fix our problems when our diagnosis itself is wrong.