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.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-10407997.htmlDr 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."
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
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-colonial-ruleNarendra 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.
better start opening them purse strings, Britain.