Himalayan Times (1954)

Six

jftirr.alnitau Qimrii

Septemb.tr 2G, M?o4

DECLINE AND FALL OF BRI1ISH RULE IN INDIA

[ Following is the text of a talk bj Dr. Kailash Nath Katju, Minister for Home Affairs and
States, broadcast from the Delhi Station of All India Radio recently. J

"As we look baok upon
it in retrospect, British
rule in India has not been
a very long affair. Its
foundations were laid in
1757 by the battle of
Plassey and it came to
an end within less than
200 yers in 1947. 190
years is not a very Jong
period in a nation's history
And then, this period saw
all stages of British Rule j
its origin, its growth, its
senith and its decline and
fall. The 19th century saw
the rise and development
of the British Rule in all
its magnitude. One may
(i8 well compare the 19th
century to the 17th cen-
tury with the rule of Mo-
ghuls in India. Signs of
decay in the case of
Moghul rule began to ap-
pear with the death of
Aurangzeb in 1707 and
almost exactly 200 years
later, the dame thing be-
gan to be visible after
the en.l of Lord Curzon's
Vio royalty in 1906. The
last fifty years have been
most momentous, not only
in the history of India
but also in the history of
the world at large. We
have passed through two
world wars and tremen-
dous events have happened
everywhere. Imperial dy-
nasties have fallen. Sys-

tems of Government have
disappeared like a homn
of oards and everywhere
the word has gone through
a revolution.

In its length, therefore,
there is nothing very re-
markable about the British
Rule. Undoubtedly, it
cpvered the whole of the
Sub-oontinent of India.
The Moghuls ruled over
Afghanistan, the British
ruled over Burma. Another
outstanding difference was
that the Moghuls made
India their home, the
British never did so. They
always treated India as
a land of regrets and of
exile.

Mind Conquered
Then, that was the do-
minating feature of this
British Rule which makes
it out as something almost
revolutionary in our na-
tional history ? To my
mind, that feature was
that the British not only
conquered India in the
physical, maw-rial and po-
litical sense. They conqur-
ed the mind of India.
Till they came, our edu-
cational system was an
ancient one of the primi-
tive type, and it was
further restricted and in-
fluenced by all pur caste
restrictions. Hundreds of

millions of our people were
not only illeterate, but
were deprived of elemen-
tary human rights. Caste
system played havoc with
the intellectual develop-
ment . of the masses, lead,
ing to widespread super-
stition and reactionary
static thought. The British
came and they opened a
new vista before the In-
dian mind. East, and West
came together, and the
West for nearly a o ntuiy
simple dazzled the East
and the people of
India wondered, and
the result was extraordi-
nary. Everything ibat
came from the West was
considered good . every-
thing that was nf Indian
origin was bad ; most of
us were simply swept away
by the floods that came
from the West to the
East. Such a mastery of
the Indian mind was sel-
dom seen in the previous
hifiOry of India.

Religious Neutrality

These British rulers in
the beginning at least
showed political wisdom
and foresight They found
that the religiou^y of
Indians waB their strong
point or weak — one, if
you call it' so — : they
thought that in the pre-

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