C4 Dispatches - immigrants really good for Britain

[shaunbhoy]

Please... divide and rule is a well documented "technique" the British used. What about the fact that the British appointed some dude who had no clue on India to decide where the separation line should be. .

Divide and rule was a "technique" generally used to maintain control. It was not used as some form of spiteful strategy upon handing over independence.
Had it been we would have used it in other former colonies. The problems with partition came about due to a number of factors, a great many of which CAN be laid at the door of "Indians". Pick who you like from Jinnah, Nehru, Chandra Bose, the Muslim League, the Hindu Mahasabha, and a host of others who were laying the foundations for seperate Hindu and Muslim homelands well before independence of any sort ever became inevitable. The British "dude" you refer to was on a hiding to nothing from day one as it was always going to be impossible to please all the various groups.
I am not saying you should be thankful for the occupation, but for goodness' sake lose this victim mentality. The Raj could never have existed without the tacit approval of the ruling chieftains anyway, so the lot of the average rural indian would still have been a poor one even without British intervention.

[kingshuk]

And how many Brits did it take to rule India?

Less than 100,000...

But look on the bright side, you might have been colonised by the Belgians or the Japanese...

Yes and AFAIK the flemish call centre business is hardly booming.

[kingshuk]

But we're keeping the gold & jewels.

Wouldn't want Queenie to have a less magnificent crown.

I also saw Tipu Sultan's jewel encrusted chair sometime back in some museum. I think the chair should certainly go back - minus the jewels of course.

[sasguru]

You are forgetting a few important points.

The British gave India the concept of a western education, the English language, railways to move people into cities to work, industrialisation and technology.

Without this, India today would be on par with many African countries.

Now we are giving India all our jobs, so what we have taken, we are giving back.

In the interests of fairness, I have to say this post is complete and utter bollocks:

Western education- was denied to most Indians, only a small number managed to get a university education.
English - again by independence a tiny minority (the ones who managed to get to university) could speak English
Railways - were built to take the produce to the ports for export.
Industrialisation-India was mainly exploited for its raw materials and cheap labour. It is much more industrialised now than it was at independence.

As for jobs, no one is "giving" anyone anything. Private companies are following the free market imperative and moving labour to where it is cheap. Full marks to India for developing its education system to the point where it can take advantage of this.

[shaunbhoy]

In the interests of fairness, I have to say this post is complete and utter bollocks:

Western education- was denied to most Indians

Yes, denied as a result of the caste system, an inherently unfair policy utilised solely by the Hindus themselves. Hardly the fault of the British though. Do try and keep up sg there's a good fellow. I know you are glacially slow on the uptake but even so.

[3ill]

Yes, denied as a result of the caste system, an inherently unfair policy utilised solely by the Hindus themselves. Hardly the fault of the British though. Do try and keep up sg there's a good fellow. I know you are glacially slow on the uptake but even so.

The caste system was not the fault of the Brits, but that didn't stop them from taking advantage of it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_...m#British_Role

[sasguru]

Yes, denied as a result of the caste system, an inherently unfair policy utilised solely by the Hindus themselves. Hardly the fault of the British though. Do try and keep up sg there's a good fellow. I know you are glacially slow on the uptake but even so.

You really are thick as a plank aren't you? What has the (inherently unfair, I agree) caste system to do with the volume of people in higher education? Does it matter to you what the status is of the person to whom your job is outsourced?
The rather simple (but not to you, clearly) point I'm trying to make, is that current Indian success, such as it is, is solely due to the education system they developed after independence.

I might add that, alas, the opposite is happening is here. We are busy dismantling our own education system so we can have more celebrities and footbal stars. The stunted logical skills you display are a prime example of this.

[lilelvis2000]

Because we dragged you into the 20th century and left you with the superior educational system that endowed you with the ability to stand on your own two feet. The fact that you only allow those of the upper castes to utilise this system says more about you than it does about the Raj. And had you not chosen to spend so much of the last 60 years squabbling pointlessly with your neighbours, perhaps you would not have fallen so far behind.

LOL this is the funniest thing I have read in the last 60 years! Superior educational system??? Before the British arrived the vast majority of people recieved an education, during and after the Raj only the elites received an education.

Fallen behind?!? LOL Take trip to India mate. It ain't behind. On some things its quite far ahead. Maybe you were referring to Pakistan..where the military just loves to run a state where - by the bumbling of Jinna - the concept of dictorship was condoned.

[shaunbhoy]

You really are thick as a plank aren't you? What has the (inherently unfair, I agree) caste system to do with the volume of people in higher education?

Because without discrimination of this caste system a decent education might have been made available to everyone. I thought even a mollusc-brained yokel like you might have been able to grasp such a concept. Obviously not.

[shaunbhoy]

Fallen behind?!? LOL Take trip to India mate. It ain't behind. On some things its quite far ahead.

I spent almost a year putting a GSM system in Calcutta mate! There are certainly a few things it is far ahead in, corruption and backhanders for one, not to mention a prodigious amount of bureaucracy. It is also a world leader in keeping the downtrodden down whilst ensuring that the wealthy elite remain just that. Despite these failings I have a great deal of time for the place and the people, but please..............spare me this interminable whining about the problems that the British left you to deal with.