Print

[Blwe_torch]

East India Company and selective memory
Avijit Ghosh,  16 August 2010, 07:33 PM IST

The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting, remarked Czech writer Milan Kundera. And the line seems perfect for what happened in London on August 15.

There the East India Company was re-launched in a new avatar: a luxury goods brand. "I see the East India Company as a brand tomorrow's India can build upon," said Mumbai-born owner Sanjiv Mehta. He also hoped to "capitalize on and retain the brand's impeccable pedigree and enviable heritage."

It's a sign of the times that Mr Mehta intends to sell EIC as a luxury brand to India hoping that the entire nation has no memory or awareness of what the company did to 18th century India. Or maybe, at a time when bars peddle tiranga vodkas to celebrate Independence Day, he believes, it just wouldn't care.

Which is why it is important to go back to the history books and remember what exactly the English East India Company did to the 'natives.'

Once the East India Company had established its complete military dominance in Bengal after winning the battles of Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764), its officials plundered the land like never before. Even Robert Clive, who had fashioned the Plassey triumph was forced to admit: "I shall only say that such a scene of anarchy, confusion, bribery, corruption and extortion was never seen or heard of in any country but Bengal."

Writes reputed historian Bipan Chandra in NCERT's Modern India: A history textbook for Class XII, studied by lakhs of students across the country:

"In 1770, Bengal suffered from a famine in which its effects proved one of the most terrible famines known in human history. People died in lakhs and nearly one-third of Bengal's population fell victim to its ravages. Though the famine was due to failure of the rains, its effects were heightened by the Company's policies." What happened in Bengal soon extended to other parts of the country spreading poverty and hardship.

Nothing was more tragic than the disruption of the traditional economy that led to the ruin of artisans and craftsmen and the pauperisation of the peasantry.

As Chandra says, "The oppression practised by the East India Company and its servants on the craftsmen of Bengal during the second half of the 18th century, forcing them to sell their goods below the market price and to hire their services below the prevailing wage, compelled a large number of them to abandon their ancestral professions."

Cities like Dhaka, Surat and Murshidabad were ruined. Even Lord William Bentinck said in 1834-35: "The misery hardly finds a parallel in the history of commerce. The bones of the cotton-weavers are bleaching the plains of India."

Contrast this with what Mr Mehta says: "Without the company, Britain would not have tea on its tables and in Mumbai and Bangalore, people would not be having jams on their toast for breakfast."

He even philosophises, "The world would have been a very different place if there had been no East India Company."

For once, I fully agree.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Addictions/entry/east-india-company-and-selective

[vincent]

Yes,it is a shame to immortalize the plunderers. Even Clive reurned home with a bagfull of "souvenirs" having a value of a billion dollars of today..

Until the mid 19th century for almost 1800 years the total GDP of India and China was around 50% of the world's GDP with each having more or less equal share. By the time of Independence India's GDP had plummeted to around 1% of world's GDP (of course the emergence of US also had the impact on the statistic). Both India and China were desroyed in different ways.

[Blwe_torch]

Actually, over a period of time we were losing the sting vis-a-vis England. I remember, in our childhood, we used to dislike England( we were indirectly taught to do so).
Gradually, we started discovering the positives abt England....their gentlemanly behaviour, their superior administration, legal system, etc...part of which India inherited......................

I atleast started supporting England against Australia( cricket), or Germany (football), thinking that they are the graceful under-dogs.

But thanks to this serial ( Jhansi ki Rani)...which is playing on our TVs nowadays, and I almost cannot avoid ( since my wife is a big fan of these avoidable tele-serials) unfortunately, I have learnt that England thru this East India company actually tortured/humiliated our country-men brutally.
I know, this is only a TV serial, but even if just 10% of this is true, it was pretty bad.................and I have started disliking England all over again. 

[dextrous]

Actually, over a period of time we were losing the sting vis-a-vis England. I remember, in our childhood, we used to dislike England( we were indirectly taught to do so).
Gradually, we started discovering the positives abt England....their gentlemanly behaviour, their superior administration, legal system, etc...part of which India inherited......................

I atleast started supporting England against Australia( cricket), or Germany (football), thinking that they are the graceful under-dogs.

But thanks to this serial ( Jhansi ki Rani)...which is playing on our TVs nowadays, and I almost cannot avoid ( since my wife is a big fan of these avoidable tele-serials) unfortunately, I have learnt that England thru this East India company actually tortured/humiliated our country-men brutally.
I know, this is only a TV serial, but even if just 10% of this is true, it was pretty bad.................and I have started disliking England all over again. 

Burn Mark & Spencer!