Page 1 of 9 123456789 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 180

Thread: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

  1. #1
    Indefinitely Banned
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    21,467

    Default Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    In a vid that's gone viral on the interwebs, former Indian Minister and current MP Dr Shashi Tharoor has laid down the reasons why Britain owes India for its many hundreds of years of rape and pillage, but mostly rape, of the Indian subcontinent.

    Dr Shashi Tharoor tells the Oxford Union why Britain owes reparations for colonising India in viral speech





    The video of his impassioned speech has been shared widely in India

    An Indian politician has called for Britain to pay reparations to India and other former colonies for its decades of imperial rule, in a speech at the Oxford Union.

    Dr Shashi Tharoor, a former Indian government minister and Member of Parliament, made the case in a debate entitled 'This house believes Britain owes reparations to her former colonies', which was put on by the world-famous debating society, the Oxford Union.
    The main thrust of Dr Tharoor's speech was about the economic toll that British rule took on India.
    He said: "India's share of the world economy when Britain arrived on it shores was 23 per cent. By the time the British left it was down to below four per cent. Why? Simply because India had been governed for the benefit of Britain. Britain's rise for 200 years was financed by its depredations in India."


    "In fact, Britain's industrial revolution was actually premised upon the de-industrialisation of India."
    Dr Tharoor, and the rest of the speakers at the debate, were not arguing about a specific amount that should be handed over in monetary reparations, but instead asking whether there is a debt, and whether Britain does owe reparations or not.
    Concluding his speech, he said: "As far as I'm concerned, the ability to acknowledge a wrong that has been done, to simply say sorry, will go a far, far, far longer way than some percentage of GDP in the form of aid."
    "What it required is accepting the principle that reparations are owed. Personally, I'd be quite happy if it was one pound a year for the next two hundred years, after the last two hundred years of Britain in India."



    Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-10407997.html



    It appears that as India becomes more and more developed, we can expect to see more demands for restitution from their former Colonial Overlords.

    Why, even the Indian PM Modi agrees
    Narendra Modi endorses Britain paying damages to India for colonial rule
    Compensation for centuries of economic destruction

    Indian prime minister praises opposition MP Shashi Tharoor’s call for UK to pay compensation for centuries of economic destruction
    Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, has praised an opposition politician who called for Britain to make reparations to India for the damage done during 200 years of colonial rule in a speech at Oxford University.

    A video clip of Shashi Tharoor, an author and well-known parliamentarian from the centre-left Congress party, making an impassioned argument in favour of Britain providing India financial compensation for centuries of economic destruction and extraction became a hit on social media after the Oxford Union debating society posted it online last week.
    “Tharoor’s speech reflected the feelings of patriotic Indians on the issue and showed what impression one can leave with effective arguments by saying the right things at the right place,” Modi said at an event in New Delhi’s parliament on Thursday.
    Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-colonial-rule

    better start opening them purse strings, Britain.
    Last edited by Exarch; July 24, 2015 at 06:53 AM.

  2. #2
    Comes Domesticorum
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Athenai
    Posts
    33,211

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Nobody owes anyone anything, especially through the passage of time.

  3. #3
    Big War Bird's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    South Carolina, USA
    Posts
    12,340

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Back off India! That's our client state your talking to!
    As a teenager, I was taken to various houses and flats above takeaways in the north of England, to be beaten, tortured and raped over 100 times. I was called a “white slag” and “white ****” as they beat me.

    -Ella Hill

  4. #4

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Who could I sue for the Hunnic invasions?

  5. #5

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    So when are they going to demand reparations from Afghanistan, Mongolia, Iran, KSA, Iraq, Uzbekistan, China, France, and Portugal? Maybe Greece too (you know, Alexander and all that stuff), while we're at it? Gotta love selective historical awareness.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    You do realise the Oxford Union debates are competitions to argue the merits of arguments, not real life policies, yes?
    Last edited by Dante Von Hespburg; July 24, 2015 at 10:54 AM. Reason: personal remark removed

  7. #7
    Indefinitely Banned
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    21,467

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    i also realise that when a sitting Prime Minister of India, in his capacity as PM, agrees with such sentiment openly and publicly, it's more or less the official position of the Indian government-all the more so considering Modi belongs to the opposing party that Tharoor was in.

    Bigger q you should be asking yourself is what the Conservative opposing speaker is smoking when he thinks Britain's enslavement of Indians can only be a good thing

  8. #8

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    I'd be thinking "this is the most famous debating society of the world where people compete to argue positions they don't necessarily believe in in practice."

    A nationalist PM taking the opportunity to get a cheap vote doesn't equate to the policy of the indian government.

  9. #9
    Aymer de Valence's Avatar Protector Domesticus
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Somewhere along The Pilgrim's Way.....
    Posts
    4,270

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Yes, reparations for giving you roads, hospitals, schools and civilisation. Yes let's all pay up now...
    Cry God for Harry, England and Saint George!

  10. #10
    Indefinitely Banned
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    21,467

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Quote Originally Posted by Ferrets54 View Post
    I'd be thinking "this is the most famous debating society of the world where people compete to argue positions they don't necessarily believe in in practice."

    A nationalist PM taking the opportunity to get a cheap vote doesn't equate to the policy of the indian government.
    judging by the growing nationalistic sentiment coming out of the subcontinent, i dont think you're going to have the luxury of enjoying that thinking for long.

    In any case, far out have you seen the size of the koh-i-noor diamond looted from India and affixed to the British crown?!



    according to wiki, the diamond was originally a piece from a Hindu statue's eye gem; that is some hardcore pwnage right there. Nothing says suck my fat one like stealing a national treasure from a colonised people and inserting it into your own country's national jewellery; that is some quake level humiliation right there.

    EDIT: small wonder hindu nationalists are getting pissy over the koh-i-noor diamond, especially when Cameron refused to return it to the Indians in 2013

  11. #11
    Roma_Victrix's Avatar Call me Ishmael
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Posts
    15,242

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Quote Originally Posted by Exarch View Post
    judging by the growing nationalistic sentiment coming out of the subcontinent, i dont think you're going to have the luxury of enjoying that thinking for long.

    In any case, far out have you seen the size of the koh-i-noor diamond looted from India and affixed to the British crown?!



    according to wiki, the diamond was originally a piece from a Hindu statue's eye gem; that is some hardcore pwnage right there. Nothing says suck my fat one like stealing a national treasure from a colonised people and inserting it into your own country's national jewellery; that is some quake level humiliation right there.

    EDIT: small wonder hindu nationalists are getting pissy over the koh-i-noor diamond, especially when Cameron refused to return it to the Indians in 2013
    Why stop there? I guess the Republic of Venice...oops! I mean Italy which now has Venice as one of its cities should then return the Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs to either Constantinople (oops! it's Istanbul under Turkey now) or to the Greek government in Athens. Seriously, Exarch, don't you have better things to do than share asinine news stories?
    Last edited by Dante Von Hespburg; July 24, 2015 at 10:53 AM. Reason: Personal remark removed

  12. #12

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Talk is cheap.
    IN PATROCINIVM SVB MareNostrum

  13. #13
    Comes Domesticorum
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Athenai
    Posts
    33,211

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Quote Originally Posted by Exarch View Post
    judging by the growing nationalistic sentiment coming out of the subcontinent, i dont think you're going to have the luxury of enjoying that thinking for long.

    In any case, far out have you seen the size of the koh-i-noor diamond looted from India and affixed to the British crown?!



    according to wiki, the diamond was originally a piece from a Hindu statue's eye gem; that is some hardcore pwnage right there. Nothing says suck my fat one like stealing a national treasure from a colonised people and inserting it into your own country's national jewellery; that is some quake level humiliation right there.

    EDIT: small wonder hindu nationalists are getting pissy over the koh-i-noor diamond, especially when Cameron refused to return it to the Indians in 2013
    India belonged to Britain, they could do whatever they want. Nothing was looted.

  14. #14
    Indefinitely Banned
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    21,467

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    y'know what aint cheap? enslaving a nation.
    I computed all of these in my Illustrated Weekly piece of 1988 and, after adjusting for inflation, the debt owed by Britain to India in 1988 worked out to $500 billion. In today's (2015) money that would be closer to three trillion dollars.
    Source: http://www.dailyo.in/politics/minhaz...html#pq=Y0QXWb
    Apparently, it's going to cost Britons $3 trillion to pay the indians back; that's $3,000,000,000,000 dollars.

    Putting that into perspective, that's the rough equivalent of how much money china held at the end of 2012 ~ $3.3 trillion; i'm sure them Indians would sure love that amount of money to go into developing their country after the predations of the coloniser and enslaver.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Quote Originally Posted by Exarch View Post
    judging by the growing nationalistic sentiment coming out of the subcontinent, i dont think you're going to have the luxury of enjoying that thinking for long.

    In any case, far out have you seen the size of the koh-i-noor diamond looted from India and affixed to the British crown?!



    according to wiki, the diamond was originally a piece from a Hindu statue's eye gem; that is some hardcore pwnage right there. Nothing says suck my fat one like stealing a national treasure from a colonised people and inserting it into your own country's national jewellery; that is some quake level humiliation right there.

    EDIT: small wonder hindu nationalists are getting pissy over the koh-i-noor diamond, especially when Cameron refused to return it to the Indians in 2013
    Unfortunately for you, nationalism anywhere has no effect on my freedom to thought or speech.

    Who would you like to return the Koor-i-Noor to? The Punjabis? Or the Afghans who they took it from? Or the Iranians who they took it from? Or the Turks who they took it from? Or the Tamils that they took it from? Or the miner who dug it up?
    Last edited by Dante Von Hespburg; July 24, 2015 at 10:52 AM. Reason: personal remark removed.

  16. #16
    Roma_Victrix's Avatar Call me Ishmael
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Posts
    15,242

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Quote Originally Posted by Exarch View Post
    y'know what aint cheap? enslaving a nation.

    Source: http://www.dailyo.in/politics/minhaz...html#pq=Y0QXWb
    Apparently, it's going to cost Britons $3 trillion to pay the indians back; that's $3,000,000,000,000 dollars.

    Putting that into perspective, that's the rough equivalent of how much money china held at the end of 2012 ~ $3.3 trillion; i'm sure them Indians would sure love that amount of money to go into developing their country after the predations of the coloniser and enslaver.
    This all assumes that Indian subjects were not free subjects at all, but actual legal slaves, which is a preposterous statement. Under the British Raj and colonial rule, there were plenty of wealthy native Indian families who prospered and benefited under the British system, with total freedom of movement and financial security. How is that slavery, again? Of course the Indians didn't have as many legal rights as the British themselves, and this was wrong and discriminatory, but it has nothing to do with slavery, which was outlawed in the British Empire in the early 19th century (more than a century before India gained independence).

    Also, aren't we ignoring the elephant in the room here? The country of "India" probably wouldn't even exist today if it weren't for the British. If it had never been colonized, it would have remained politically fractured with rival kingdoms still fighting each other for dominance over the subcontinent, just as in the days of old. The British are to be credited with the whole invention of the modern state of India in the first place.

  17. #17
    Aymer de Valence's Avatar Protector Domesticus
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Somewhere along The Pilgrim's Way.....
    Posts
    4,270

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    The British are to be credited with the whole invention of the modern state of India in the first place.
    Shhhhhhh!!!!
    Cry God for Harry, England and Saint George!

  18. #18

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Quote Originally Posted by Aymer de Valence View Post
    Shhhhhhh!!!!
    If you're going to get defensive, try avoiding points that are fairly well answered in the source material.

  19. #19

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Quote Originally Posted by Aymer de Valence View Post
    Yes, reparations for giving you roads, hospitals, schools and civilisation. Yes let's all pay up now...
    I think the British are wrong to be upset by the Blitz bringing them science, gender equality, democracy and civilization.
    Last edited by Enros; July 24, 2015 at 09:23 AM.

  20. #20

    Default Re: Britain Owes Reparations for Colonising India: Indian MP

    Quote Originally Posted by Enros View Post
    I think the British are wrong to be upset by the Blitz bringing them science, gender equality, democracy and civilization.
    Oh be more provocative and wrong.

Page 1 of 9 123456789 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •