test please delete

[DoctorStrangelove]

Entertainment: for some unfathomable reason I find myself watching "Four Weddings & a Funeral".

A lot of it seems to be in FF.

[NickFitz]

Entertainment: for some unfathomable reason I find myself watching "Four Weddings & a Funeral".

A lot of it seems to be in FF.

I vaguely remember seeing it once. My only real recollection is that a lot of the characters in it seemed like right dicks

[BR14]

I vaguely remember seeing it once. My only real recollection is that a lot of the characters in it seemed like right dicks

a bit like general then, particularly?

[NickFitz]

a bit like general then, particularly?

Very probably

[DoctorStrangelove]

Entertainment (continued): "Portillo's Empire Journey" on 5.

Starting off with the glories of Clive's India, don't you know.

Or how to create the greatest empire the world has ever seen, mostly by turning up and saying, very loudly & in English "Good morning, we've come to steal your country, if you don't mind".

[BR14]

turning up mobhanded wiv lots of men wiv projectile weapons and explosives, of course

[clearedforlanding]

a bit like general then, particularly?

[DoctorStrangelove]

As he points out, it was the East India Company that started it all off, with the chief thief being Clive.

The trick is, of course, not to do the fighting oneself, but to organise the natives to do it for you.

And we skate gently over the Opium Wars, onwards toward the Indian Mutiny of 1857, not that he's referred to it as such.

Ah, it's the "Rebellion".

The flittermice are busily flittering around outside, I think they're plotting our doom.


It's a neat trick to be able to rule 300 million people with a mere 20,000.

Bet the Septics couldn't have done it.

Though I suppose encouraging obedience by strapping mutineers to cannon helped a bit.

[NickFitz]

Tea has been roast gammon, sliced thick, with chips, fried eggs, and beans. Lovely, it was

[vetran]

As he points out, it was the East India Company that started it all off, with the chief thief being Clive.

The trick is, of course, not to do the fighting oneself, but to organise the natives to do it for you.

And we skate gently over the Opium Wars, onwards toward the Indian Mutiny of 1857, not that he's referred to it as such.

Ah, it's the "Rebellion".

The flittermice are busily flittering around outside, I think they're plotting our doom.


It's a neat trick to be able to rule 300 million people with a mere 20,000.

Bet the Septics couldn't have done it.

Though I suppose encouraging obedience by strapping mutineers to cannon helped a bit.

Yes its always the terrible British who did the Natives wrong and only they were evil. Funny now history seems to be written by those with their hands out.

Blowing from a gun - Wikipedia

Blowing from a gun was a reported means of execution as long ago as the 16th century, by the Mughal Empire, and was used until the 20th century. The method was utilized by Portuguese colonialists in the 16th and 17th centuries, from as early as 1509 across their empire from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka)^[2] to Mozambique^[3] to Brazil.^[4] The Mughals used the method throughout the 17th century and into the 18th, particularly against rebels.^[5]
This method of execution is most closely associated with the colonial government of the British Raj. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, "blowing from a gun" was a method the British used to execute rebels^[6] as well as for those natives found guilty of desertion.^[7] Using the methods previously practised by the Mughals, the British began implementing blowing from guns in the latter half of the 18th century.^[8]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...857-105066360/

. Indian soldiers in the East India Company's armies believed they risked defilement because the new rounds were being issued greased with the fat of pigs and cows–untrue, but sufficient to spark the most dangerous uprising against British imperial rule since the American Revolution.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/cont..._feature.shtml

There was a Parliamentary inquiry after which Clive was criticised for accepting huge payments, mainly from the Indian leaders he supported or helped into power, although it was acknowledged that he "did at the same time render great and meritorious services to his country".
This criticism was probably more than a little unfair. True, he had accepted lavish gifts from grateful Indian leaders, but he turned down far more than he accepted, and greed was certainly not his motivation.

Of course we could have left India to the French,Spanish, Germans or worse the Belgians because their Empires worked so well. Or we could have left it to the Mughals (previous conquerors descended from that nice chap Genghis Khan who was known for his mild nature) who when we arrived were slaughtering the population in quantity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire

The Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II (1759–1806) made futile attempts to reverse the Mughal decline but ultimately had to seek the protection of the Emir of Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Abdali, which led to the Third Battle of Panipat between the Maratha Empire and the Afghans (led by Abdali) in 1761. In 1771, the Marathas recaptured Delhi from Afghan control and in 1784 they officially became the protectors of the emperor in Delhi,^[53] a state of affairs that continued until after the Third Anglo-Maratha War. Thereafter, the British East India Company became the protectors of the Mughal dynasty in Delhi.^[52] The British East India Company took control of the former Mughal province of Bengal-Bihar in 1793 after it abolished local rule (Nizamat) that lasted until 1858, marking the beginning of British colonial era over the Indian Subcontinent. By 1857 a considerable part of former Mughal India was under the East India Company's control. After a crushing defeat in the war of 1857–1858 which he nominally led, the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was deposed by the British East India Company and exiled in 1858. Through the Government of India Act 1858 the British Crown assumed direct control of East India Company-held territories in India in the form of the new British Raj. In 1876 the British Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India.