Though it sounds humourous, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s demand of reparation payments (compensation) from the United Kingdom for 200 years of colonial rule should serve as a caution-move to any nation colonizing the weaker nations across the world. Such kind of demand can be considered as a symbolic expression, but it will send a strong message to the colonial powers for the assault of moral imperatives. Shashi Tharoor’s light-vein comment should also be a message to India to have thorough retrospection and introspection whether the country itself owes such dues to other nations. “India was Britain’s biggest cash cow,” was what the former official of the United Nations said at the famed debating platform, the Oxford Union Society recently. Mr Tharoor’s assertion was that “India was governed for the benefit of the Britain”. According to media reports, Shashi Tharoor “made his case for restitution using several India-specific examples.” The Congress MP also harped on the “effect colonialism had on the economy citing the example of how India’s share of the world economy dropped from 23% to 4% as a result of British occupation”, according to the media reports. The reports stated that the former UN official recalled “how Britain’s industrialiation was anchored on the de-industrialisation of India and argued that a lot of the racial, ethnic and religious problems in the former colonies were a direct result of the British Empire’s colonization”. Hence, he said that the debt is not just monetary but moral. The media reports also said that the Congress MP also “stressed on the need for atonement as a matter of principle.” “India’s dense and intricate railway network, one of the largest in the world, was built thanks to the British. But Tharoor’s simple rejoinder, after reiterating that the railways and roads were built only to serve British interests,” the media reports added.
Now, the mood point is—no one is comfortable of saying that India itself is free from such reparation-payment dues. The rights of certain peoples which affirm their dignity have been dismantled in this country too. This is one repugnant behavior of the colonialists which deserves strong criticism. It is time the colonial powers realize things and see reasons around an idea of justice.
