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| colonial atrocities,Blowing natives before cannons boloji.com/ |
Famous British Historian and an expert in Britain's colonial history of oppressive rule William Dalrymple, who never fails to call a spade a spade said, 'a museum would highlight British 'war criminals' such as commander-in-chief of India Sir Colin Campbell and a host of others, here we take a brief look at a couple of them.
In the wake of an incident in March 1991 in downtown Minneapolis, USA in which a black American suspect Floyd, and his merciless killing in the broad day light by a white cop, the people in Britain and elsewhere had begun to look at the atrocities their country committed in the colonies in the past century and earlier period.
About British imperialistic atrocities centuries ago in India, Britain's continued refusal to apologise are looked upon by the sensible Indians as a symbol of arrogance, racial superiority. The beleaguered nation was left almost bankrupt after freedom in August, 1947. The Indian treasury was almost emptied by the fleeing Britons. A divided India, fatigued and emaciated population, it was an uphill task for the early nation builders to take the country forward in the midsts of odds.
An assortment of statues of Lords, Royalty, Dukes and others left behind by the colonists, keep the embers of rage burning and as William Dalrymple at the Jaipur Literature Festival (Sept. 2020) pointed out 'the statues in the center of many Indian cities are of no value to the Indians' and they may cause heartburn and irritation when you go past them. Instead of knocking them off the pedestals, a colonial museum would be appropriate that will bring to light the criminality of certain colonial officers in India like Sir Colin Campbell, John Nicholson, Colonel James Neil and a host of others who were never punished by the British government for the breach of military norms.
In the British schools, the syllabus covers ' Henry VIII to Wilberforce who was instrumental in liberating blacks from slavery. There is no mention of Imperialistic excesses across the colonies, particularly, in India that resulted in killing, mayhem and reprisals. From India much of the historical treasures were stolen era-wise including amazing bronze, marble, wooden sculptures, etc and, at last, shifted to the British National Museum, London for display.
About the British school children they are convinced that the British imperialism was useful to the natives by way of liberating slaves, following anti-racism policies and improving the overall standard of life in the subcontinent. The British school children are fed with concocted, distorted and and truncated British India history full of lies and half-lives, far from reality. No word about their atrocities, massacres and bloodletting on the Indian soil. No mention of Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April, 1919 under Brig, Gen Reginald Dyer approved by the Punjab provvice Gov. Michael O' Dwyer, ICS.
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| Field marshal Colin Campbell dailymail.co.uk |
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| Order of the Bath, Star of a Knight Grand nam.ac.uk |
Above image: Order of the Bath, Star of a Knight Grand Cross awarded to Major-General Sir Colin Campbell, 1855 - coolness-and-precision. A special award by Queen Vitoria to a cold-blooded murderer in India.
Sir Colin Campbell' statue is in Glasgow, The Field Marshal with a statue in Clydeside, Glasgow, oversaw cruel punishment on rebelling soldiers - including firing them from a cannon after forcing them to lick blood. After defeating Tantya Tope at Cawnpore in December 1857, Campbell returned to Lucknow the following March for the final capture of the city. Here near the Kothi palace he presided over the killing of 700 rebels in March, 1857. With his gunners, he blasted through the palace and captured it in the middle of March. During these vigilante operations his men under his command committed many indiscriminate reprisals against Indians - a tit-for -tat for the\ mutineers earlier massacres of Europeans and Christians.
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| Statue of James Neil,Madras madras musings . |
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| Gen. John Nicholson dailymail.co.uk |
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| Gen. John Nicholson hehindu.com |
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| .facebook.com |
He was a celebrated martyr in his country where the people did not understand the pains and sufferings of the Indian natives, but across India, to the natives, he is an emblem of colonial oppression and brute forces. Once a brutal officer, now his celebrated statue was pushed to the dark corner of the museum. It may be a benign memorabilia of bygone era, but the impudent aura is very much on him. The British, cunning as they were, erected this imposing statue on top of a tall pedestal, in the center of the city, making the surrounding things look dwarf with a dual purpose - assertion of their might to remind the natives to ''behave themselves'' and to 'immortalise' their hero of 1857 revolt.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8737365/Controversial-statues-placed-museum-colonialism-leading-historian-claims.html
https://caravanmagazine.in/commentary/indias-troubled-relationship-with-colonial-era-statues
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