The Impact of British Colonial Rule on India

Colonial Merchant Ships

In this short essay I do not propose to discuss the historical developments pertaining to British rule. Instead i wish to discuss it's psychological impact on the Indian people. During the last 5,000 years India has been invaded by Aryans, Greeks, Huns, the nomads of central Asia, Muslims and European Christians. All the earlier invaders gradually got assimilated into Indian society. They also brought along with them their language, culture, architecture and food habits. They became indianised in due course.

The British were the last to arrive in the European succession game. The Portugal were led by Vasco-da-Gama, then the Dutch and the French followed. In the power game it was the British through East-India Company, who captured power. They slowly expanded their empire with the help of Indian soldiers. Indians joined the East-India company army solely for the reason they recieved salary on first of every month, which no other Indian king was doing.

The British rule lasted 150 years and their main idealogy was to resist indianisation and complete assimilation into Indian society. Initially in 18th century they went native and called themselves nabobs. They dressed like indians, ate indian food and married indian women and lived in Indian style houses. After the abolition of the East-India company rule they chose to build Europeanised cantonments away from the crowded Indian cities. Here they lived in spatious British bungaloes in grand isolation and the local 'white's only' gymkhana clubs became their cultural centres. Even in this tropical climate they struck to European mode of dressing in early 20th century. Most of them never bothered to learn any Indian language properly. Their Hindi was often good enough for their servants and cooks.

Old Steam Engine at Nagpur Station

The main-stream Indian society respected and feared the white rulers. The British travelled through India in seperate "European's only" first-class railway carriages. They had seperate waiting rooms in most of the major Railway stations. They also came to establish elite schools for their children. In most of the movie halls the balcony was reserved for the white's and the local maharaja. Their major passion during late 19th and early 20the century appears to be hunting animals and birds in Indian Jungles. Because of them and our Maharajahs the Indian Cheethah completely became extinct. The population of Tigers, Lions and Elephants came down because of extensive hunting. In the entrance of Bharatpur bird sanctuary there is a marble plaque which gives the individual count of birds killed by V.I.P's on the day prince of wales visited the bird's sanctuary.

The British rule introduced European education in India. The knowledge of English was essential to get a job in the British bureaucracy, in the British trading firms and of course in the British army at the officer's level. Many noble concepts like parliamentary democracy, the European scientific ideas, industrialisation and

Srinivasa Ramanujam

liberal human philosophy percolated into Indian Psyche. But we cannot ignore the negative aspects of the colonial rule. The Christian missionaries were busy ridiculing Hindu religion. They tried to project christianity as a superior religion and with economic incentives they converted the poor Indians into christianity. In the British schools and colleges they thought Indian students to accept European Science and culture as being superior to everything Indian. They were made to think before the coming of the Europeans India was a primitive and barbaric land with outlandish ideas. Indians came to be ashamed of their own religion, language, culture, food habits and in general their life style. They were made to forget their gloriuos history. The Indian Scientific achievments were not even mentioned in the foot-notes of European science books. When Indian Scientists like Sir.C.V.Raman, Jagadish Chandra Bose and S.N.Bose could prove that they were as good as European Scientists. The great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujam proved himself as being in the words of C.P.Snow "belonged to the Bradman class..", undoubtedly revived the great Indian mathematical tradition.

Young Gandhi back from Africa

The in-built inferiority complex was the hallmark of the bulk of the population till Mahatma Gandhi came on the scene. Most of the people automatically revered a white man or a woman, looked upon them as a super race. The majority of Indian students who went to England for higher studies were at first profoundly shocked in seeing white men and women doing menial jobs in England. The people in India, even after 50 years of Independence have not been able to achieve intellectual independence. Even today the average Indian goes ga-ga over western dress, gadgets ,automobiles, food and wine, perfumes and last but not the least the western music. It has become the desire of an average Indian boy or girl to look like a European . These brown complexioned youth look strange and exotic, when their hair is dyed either blonde or brunette depending on the fashion. They want to imitate the American accent without knowing the rudiments of English grammar. The western consumer society has arrived in India. Extensive borrowings on one's credit card to lead an expensive highlife appears to be an achievment of sorts. The Indian pop music groups belt out terrible hindi lyrics devoid of melody and harmony in fake western accents. Some 25 years ago the Hindi film music was composed by top music directors like Naushad and Madan Mohan. The songs were written by great poets like sahir ludhiani and others.

The intellectual and spiritual slavery giving rise to an inferiority complex shows the moral bankrupcty of the nation. This can be eradicated only through proper value based education. At present a degraded educational system is catering to the needs of millions of young men and women. They are coming out of Indian Universities in total ignorance of their cultural history, classical music, dance, literature and Indian science. This degenerate and denatured generation has become like putty in the hands of western manipulators. It has become the dream of an average Indian to either go abroad and settle down and if this is not possible and live like a wog (westernised oriental gentleman) in India. That is why there are no takers for Indian classical music and dance. For these people Hindu religion is nothing but a series of festivals meant to be enjoyed. The serious aspects of Hindu philosophy escape their notice. How can anybody be termed educated, if they do not even have a nodding acquaintance of Indian literature in a regional language. No amount of Harry Potter, Ludlum or Forsyth is no substitute for true Indian literature which mirrors Indian life. A nation, which is not proud of itself and forgets its own roots is destined to become a desolate desert, which is nothing but a dumping yard for International cultural garbage.