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Yet Another Self-Important Blog.
Rohit Singh
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[Fri, 26 Dec 2003]
Indian Freedom Movement, circa 1908
The Atlantic Monthly has an archive feature where they publish old
articles. Somebody on Sulekha posted a recent article, from their Oct
1908 issue titled "The New Nationalist Movement in India". Go read this
article (local copy). It is a long article but worth every minute.
Some of the prevalent sentiments just made my blood boil. Like the Canadian P.M.'s statement that
"The Empire of Rome was composed of slave states; the British Empire is a galaxy of free nations".
Or why millions died in the famines-- they were too poor to buy food:
"the average daily income of the people of India in the year 1850 was estimated as four cents per person (a pittance on which one wonders that any human being can live), in 1882 it had fallen to three cents per person, and in 1900 actually to less than two cents per person".
Or the claim that governing India was an expensive task:
" Of course the reason why is plain: it is because it is a government carried on not by the people of the soil, but by men from a distant country. These foreigners, having all power in their own hands, including power to create such offices as they choose and to attach to them such salaries and pensions as they see fit, naturally do not err on the side of making the offices too few or the salaries and pensions too small. Nearly all the higher officials throughout India are British."
Finally, there was a good rejoinder to the disgusting statement that Indians can't rule themselves:
"It is said that India is incapable of ruling herself. If so, what an indictment is this against England! She was not incapable of ruling herself before England came. Have one hundred and fifty years of English tutelage produced in her such deterioration? As we have seen, she was possessed of a high civilization and of developed governments long before England or any part of Europe had emerged from barbarism."
There was this funny (in retrospect) remark that avg Indian income was $6.00 annually and he paid $2.00 in taxes and how no American would tolerate paying 1/3rd his income in taxes. Heck! They pay a lot more these days!! Kudos to the Soviet Union; if only for having made the rest of the world a little more welfare-oriented.
Google rocks!
Google's rendering of 5 days of Christmas. I guess they were too lazy to do a "12 days of Christmas" series.
What the Heck!!
My horoscope (on Yahoo!) for the day:
"If you let it, this is bound to turn into a silly day, dear Libra. Your best tactic would be to simply give in to the strange patterns at work in the universe. Communication seems to get blocked at every turn. You can expect to have technical difficulties, such as a phone malfunction or a computer shutdown. You and your mate will speak as though in two different languages. No one seems able to get his or her point across. Don't fight it. Just laugh along with everyone else. Tomorrow, all will be normal once again."
Did the guy have too much eggnogg or what!