Today, India celebrates its 75th Republic Day.
India was once portrayed as a land of poverty with overpopulated cities filled with idol worshippers. This narrative was pushed by the colonisers who plundered this land.
Prof Phillip Oldenburg wrote, “The British rule saw a policy of de-industrialisation in India for the benefit of British exporters which left Indians in poverty.” Economist Angus Maddison said, “India’s share of the world economy went from 24.4 per cent in 1700 to 4.2 per cent in 1950.”
Prof Jason Hickel wrote, “100 million Indians died prematurely in the four decades of British rule.”
Indians were left to die of starvation when millions of tonnes of wheat were exported to Britain and its settler colonies.
History shows the massacres, intentional famines, and the use of concentration camps by the British Empire. Historian Mike Davis argues that Britain’s imperial policies “were often the exact moral equivalents of bombs dropped from 18,000 feet.”
In 1943, UK PM Winston Churchill said, “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.”
When Dr Eric Williams wrote on capitalism and slavery, Indian scholars had already written on colonisation and capitalism. Far from benefiting the Indian people, colonialism was a human tragedy that enriched the colonial masters.
Since 1930, Indian politicians have adopted a declaration of independence—‘The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually ... Therefore ... India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence.’
Republic Day marks the achievement of ‘Purna Swaraj’ for India.
On January 22, 2024, India experienced a watershed moment for Hindus with the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. A Supreme Court’s verdict in November 2019 cleared the ground for the temple to be built at the spot where the Babri Masjid had once stood.
Ayodhya was the original home of Ram. His rule began near the Sarayu River. Diwali, the largest celebrated Hindu festival, marks the end of Ram’s 14-year exile from his kingdom.
Hindus have now asserted their collective power and reclaimed their historical agency.
Christian pilgrims visit Jerusalem, where Jesus lived and walked. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre marks the place where Jesus was crucified, entombed, and resurrected. Jews have the Western Wall, one of the holiest places they visit. Muslims go to Mecca, the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad. At last, Hindus now have a revered place in their homeland.
In the December 16, 2023, issue of the Hindustan Times, Anirudh Bhattacharya revealed the objections of Canadians over a 55-foot-tall Hanuman statue being built in Brampton. He noted, “The trends of growing anti-immigration sentiment in Canada as well as that escalating Hinduphobia.”
There have been many negative narratives from the liberal Anglo-Saxon Global news media about the Ram temple. They also adopted an anti-Narendra Modi stance, describing him as authoritarian, megalomaniac and communal. DW, BBC, and Al Jareeza have been guilty of pushing subtle but steady anti-Indian propaganda.
Seventy-three-year-old Modi, now bidding for a third term in office as prime minister, has successfully pushed Hindu nationalism to the centre of Indian politics. The population democratically elected him on his promise to build this temple, end Kashmir and Jammu’s autonomy, develop the economy, have a uniform civil code, and clamp down on corruption.
Modi has pushed India to become a major manufacturing hub. India is now the fifth-largest economy, surpassing the UK and France.
In its latest World Economic League Table report, the Centre for Economics and Business Research predicted that India will sustain robust growth, averaging 6.5 per cent from 2024 to 2028, to surpass Japan and Germany as the world’s third-largest economy by 2032, and will emerge as the largest economic superpower by the end of the century, with the gross domestic product (GDP) 90 per cent larger than China’s and 30 per cent larger than the US.
Some may not like this: the Western capitalists who fear change to their economic order, those wanting to maintain their geopolitical interests, China and the US, who may resent being surpassed as economic giants, the religious zealots who spend millions of dollars to convert ‘Hindu pagans’.
Indians may have walked on the moon but they need to tread cautiously during their economic ascent. We may see attempts to destabilise India by funding and supporting Kashmir and Sikh militants. The Western press has already started its selective propaganda, espousing its liberal ideology while ignoring the will of India’s electorate.
India may have gotten its freedom 75 years ago but on January 22, 2024, India got its soul.
