The British owe us: Watch Shashi Tharoor argue why the Raj didn't do India any good

Did the British Raj modernise India, ushering in an era of industrialism? Many cite the railways, roads, a global worldview, western education and political ideologies to have been a leftover from the 200 years of colonialism. The truth, however, could not be farther. ‘Sone ki chidiya’, ‘a golden bird’ was Bharat’s moniker before it became India only to be looted and plundered by the British for two centuries. The ruthlessness of the colonial rulers cost India its economy, autonomy and its very essence of freedom. [caption id=“attachment_2126523” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shashi Tharoor. Reuters[/caption] Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP from Kerala, liberal and certainly a man who can hold an audience, couldn’t have made it any clearer than on the occasion when he spoke at the Oxford Union Society, that the British owe us one. Addressing other speakers, Tharoor said reparations needn’t be doled out as a tool of empowerment but as a means of atonement for the British Empire. Tharoor, while concluding says the question of reparations owed, how much must be paid and to whom, are not the pressing ones. It is rather accepting that a debt is owed, wrong has been done and to “simply say sorry” that would go far longer way than any monetary aid. Watch the brilliant speech below: