Colonization in India
In November 2021 I attended the RC Healing from War Workshop led by Julian Weissglass (International Commonality Reference Person for the Transformation of Society).
On day three Julian talked about colonialism and imperialism. He said that they were a form of theft. The word “theft” felt just right to me. It countered my distress recordings that tell me that the two-hundred-year British colonization of India was benign.
The British-led partition of India (dividing Muslims and Hindus) made my parents and grandparents flee their homes to relocate in a new part of India. Even though I was born after the Partition, I grew up with refugee distresses—insecurity, fear of attack, fear of authority, secrecy, mistrust.
British colonization of India was a theft of wealth that over time enabled Britain to become a mighty imperial world power. According to British economist Angus Maddison, before colonization India’s share of the world economy was twenty-three percent, as large as the share of all of Europe together. When colonization ended, it had gone down to just over three percent.
British colonization of India was a theft of human labor. The colonial government used Indians as servants and soldiers—for example, Indian troops were sent to the frontline of World War II. The colonizers also manipulated Indians into building roads, railways, and seaports for transporting raw materials from India to Britain.
Colonization was a theft of security and self-esteem. My parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and possibly great-great-grandparents were humiliated and felt inferior. They carried terror inside, accepted injustices and violence, and deferred to the foreign occupiers.
The British colonization also colonized our minds. During my childhood it was common to consider lighter-skinned Indian babies more beautiful. We were made to feel inferior. We adopted British culture and values to survive both physically and psychologically. Indians continue to admire British customs, literature, and language—for example, in the English-only schools where middle-class Indian parents desire to send their children. My Anglo-centric elementary school made me believe that British rule had been good for us Indians.
The admiration for oppressors by the oppressed comes from miseducation and psychological and physical domination. Oppressed people throughout the world are often fascinated by U.S. imperialism, even though it has impoverished and destroyed so many lives.
For me, healing from colonialism means returning to the ownership of my own body and mind.
New York City, New York, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders in the transformation of society
(Present Time 207, April 2022)