Two weeks ago, Shashi Tharoor did something similar to the turn of a talented disk jockey. In a speech at the Oxford Union, the Congress Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram made an impassioned case for Britain to pay reparations to India and other former colonies for its imperial rule. The speech quickly went viral in India and became a cause of celebration across the political and media landscape, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining the crowds of endorsers. The reason the speech got such wide popularity is because Tharoor beautifully remixed an old Indian tune that has always brought Indians together – anti-colonialism.
Anti-colonialism began the first stirrings of the Indian independence movement. It was reified by Mahatma Gandhi in his salt agitations and rejection of western goods. The concept of swaraj, still dear to many Indians, too is the child of anti-colonialism. Anti-colonialism helped in the rise of the Congress in pre-independent India. And even after India achieved freedom, anti-colonialism has continued to serve the nation as a useful weapon in many duels.
For more than six decades, India has been using anti-colonialism as a defensive and an assertive strategy in international forums. Tharoor’s successful argument at the Oxford Union, therefore, is a visible variant of what successive Indian governments have been doing quietly.
Defensive strategy
Anti-colonialism’s employment as a defence mechanism goes back to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s speech in 1972 at the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm. At the meet, Mrs Gandhi argued for India’s refusal of “environmental-friendly” standards suggested by Western powers, which would have hurt its industrial progress. She questioned the morality of Western powers, who were preaching to the underdeveloped countries to respect the environment after exploiting both for centuries. She reminded Western powers about their own head start “through sheer ruthlessness, undisturbed by feelings of compassion or by abstract theories of freedom, equality or justice”. Whipping up Western remorse over the shameful treatment of colonised countries, she managed to avoid making environmental commitments that would have slowed down India’s industrialisation.
The anti-colonial theme was replayed even in 2011 by then Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who called for a review of the actions of industrialised nations in polluting the environment and then asking other countries to share the costs. Apart from environmental negotiations, India has used the anti-colonial theme in defensive manoeuvres in trade negotiations at the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, the World Trade Organization and in demands for civilian nuclear status. Anti-colonialism has also been used to counter Western criticism of India’s arms race with Pakistan, and to avoid signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would have contained India’s military nuclear programme.
Assertive strategy
India has also creatively used anti-colonialism as an assertive strategy and as a different path to great power status. The Western powers have always defined this status through military and economic might. In the decades when India had neither, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used anti-colonialism to make India the leader of underdeveloped nations, all of which had suffered at the hands of colonising powers. India used anti-colonialism again to build goodwill in the African Union. Middle Eastern powers like Iran find it easier to support India because India’s anti-colonial stance dovetails with its own anti-Western stance. Anti-colonialism is not exactly anti-Western, but there is scope for considerable overlap.
Today, the anti-colonial and anti-Western compatibility is also expected to be the basis of a new world alignment. The best example of such a coalition is the BRICS group of nations. India and South Africa share organic solidarity over anti-colonialism. Russia is openly hostile to Western powers, while China plays cloak-and-dagger games with them. In the 19th century, Brazil had its own anti-colonial movement, following the Portuguese and French occupation of the South Americas. Alliances, such as BRICS, demonstrate that anti-colonialism can be harnessed as a positive force to build global connections, independent of the American or European fulcrum.
A diplomat to the core, Shashi Tharoor drew on the anti-colonial tune precisely because he was aware of its potency in browbeating Western sanctimony. Tharoor may not be the first Indian who argued that Britain owed reparations to the countries it had colonised. But the reason Tharoor grabbed widespread attention is because he brought out anti-colonialism without its accompanying bitterness. His attitude can be best demonstrated in his closing arguments, where he demanded that Britain pay symbolic reparation to India. A pound a year can be a heavy tax on a guilty British conscience, and the best way to show present and future generations of Britons that Indians forgive but do not forget.
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Anti-colonialism began the first stirrings of the Indian independence movement. It was reified by Mahatma Gandhi in his salt agitations and rejection of western goods. The concept of swaraj, still dear to many Indians, too is the child of anti-colonialism. Anti-colonialism helped in the rise of the Congress in pre-independent India. And even after India achieved freedom, anti-colonialism has continued to serve the nation as a useful weapon in many duels.
For more than six decades, India has been using anti-colonialism as a defensive and an assertive strategy in international forums. Tharoor’s successful argument at the Oxford Union, therefore, is a visible variant of what successive Indian governments have been doing quietly.
Defensive strategy
Anti-colonialism’s employment as a defence mechanism goes back to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s speech in 1972 at the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm. At the meet, Mrs Gandhi argued for India’s refusal of “environmental-friendly” standards suggested by Western powers, which would have hurt its industrial progress. She questioned the morality of Western powers, who were preaching to the underdeveloped countries to respect the environment after exploiting both for centuries. She reminded Western powers about their own head start “through sheer ruthlessness, undisturbed by feelings of compassion or by abstract theories of freedom, equality or justice”. Whipping up Western remorse over the shameful treatment of colonised countries, she managed to avoid making environmental commitments that would have slowed down India’s industrialisation.
The anti-colonial theme was replayed even in 2011 by then Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who called for a review of the actions of industrialised nations in polluting the environment and then asking other countries to share the costs. Apart from environmental negotiations, India has used the anti-colonial theme in defensive manoeuvres in trade negotiations at the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, the World Trade Organization and in demands for civilian nuclear status. Anti-colonialism has also been used to counter Western criticism of India’s arms race with Pakistan, and to avoid signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would have contained India’s military nuclear programme.
Assertive strategy
India has also creatively used anti-colonialism as an assertive strategy and as a different path to great power status. The Western powers have always defined this status through military and economic might. In the decades when India had neither, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used anti-colonialism to make India the leader of underdeveloped nations, all of which had suffered at the hands of colonising powers. India used anti-colonialism again to build goodwill in the African Union. Middle Eastern powers like Iran find it easier to support India because India’s anti-colonial stance dovetails with its own anti-Western stance. Anti-colonialism is not exactly anti-Western, but there is scope for considerable overlap.
Today, the anti-colonial and anti-Western compatibility is also expected to be the basis of a new world alignment. The best example of such a coalition is the BRICS group of nations. India and South Africa share organic solidarity over anti-colonialism. Russia is openly hostile to Western powers, while China plays cloak-and-dagger games with them. In the 19th century, Brazil had its own anti-colonial movement, following the Portuguese and French occupation of the South Americas. Alliances, such as BRICS, demonstrate that anti-colonialism can be harnessed as a positive force to build global connections, independent of the American or European fulcrum.
A diplomat to the core, Shashi Tharoor drew on the anti-colonial tune precisely because he was aware of its potency in browbeating Western sanctimony. Tharoor may not be the first Indian who argued that Britain owed reparations to the countries it had colonised. But the reason Tharoor grabbed widespread attention is because he brought out anti-colonialism without its accompanying bitterness. His attitude can be best demonstrated in his closing arguments, where he demanded that Britain pay symbolic reparation to India. A pound a year can be a heavy tax on a guilty British conscience, and the best way to show present and future generations of Britons that Indians forgive but do not forget.