Thursday, July 7, 2011

And some say we were better off under British?

I dont how often you guys have heard the sentiment, that India was better off under Britishers and we just moved to corrupt Politicians and so but I have heard it. From people around me, the media and some scholars.

But no one - none of the books told us that the very food we eat wouldnt be possible under British rule. Leading upto even death of 1/3rd of the population while the grains were still being exported out.
" ..
 For example, two of the worst famine-afflicted areas in the Madras Presidency, the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam, continued to export grains throughout the famine.[76] These famines were typically followed by various infectious diseases such as bubonic plague and influenza, which attacked and killed a population already weakened by starvation.[77]

........
........Jean Drèze finds that the post-Independence Indian government "largely remedied" the causes of the three major failures of 1880–1948 British famine policy, "an event which must count as marking the second great turning point in the history of famine relief in India over the past two centuries".[118]

So there thank god for the very food we eat.  

1 comment: