No, Mr Carlson! The British did not civilise India

As India marked 75th year of Independence from the clutches of British imperialism, the demise of Queen Elizabeth further rekindled the conversation around the atrocities of the crown across the globe. Amidst this rejuvenated discussion on whether the Queen had any remorse for Britain’s past or if King Charles should apologise on its behalf, the host of Fox News, Tucker Carlson, experienced an epiphany about the “benign” British Empire which “civilised” India.

“Strong countries dominate weak countries. This trend hasn’t changed. At least the English took their colonial responsibility seriously. They didn’t just take things, they added. We (US) left Afghanistan; we left airstrips, weapons and guns. When the British left India, they left civilization,” he was quoted as saying, “After 75 years of Independence, has that country produced a single building as beautiful as the Bombay Train station that the British colonialists built? No, sadly it has not.”

There are some statements that require a simple fact-check or a second opinion, and then there are some that warrant a history lesson, an education that would cost a fortune in any good institution. This write-up is an attempt to throw some light on why this statement by Carlson is more of the latter.

First of all, even if one ignores how paradoxical the terminology of “colonial responsibility” is, it was but a responsibility thrust upon the British by none other than British themselves. Literally nobody asked for the residents of an island nation to embark on a global voyage to first infiltrate a nation’s fortress via trade routes, annihilate its autonomy, and then fulfill their responsibility of civilising its residents.

It is ironical that the enlightenment values of liberty, fraternity and equality deemed as the peak achievements of Western philosophy and civilisation were all systematically shattered to pieces throughout the British occupation of not only India but all its colonies. The freedom of speech and expression, the bedrock of any civilised society, was denied to the millions in their own nation, while racism, which shouldn’t be a part of any civilised society, was an everyday affair.

Further astonishing is the fact that the peak of colonial era more or less coincided with the Renaissance period; implying that the enlightenment values, meant to de-escalate ongoing conflicts in the human society, were taken by the white man as a burden to set out and forcefully civilise the whole world.

Speaking of civilisation, countless internecine wars, invasions, conquests, sieges and two World Wars later, Europeans are still struggling to co-exist with each other as one people; while India is home to innumerable religious, ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups and sects living together as one for millennia.

Another chapter of history that Carlson seemed to have completely glossed over throughout his education is the birth of human civilisation itself. Scholars have identified four cradles of civilisation in the Old World: Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient China and Indus Valley Civilisation. [Charles Keith Maisels (1993). The Near East: Archaeology in the “Cradle of Civilization. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-04742-5. | Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early medieval India : from the Stone Age to the 12th century. New Delhi: Pearson Education. p. 137. ISBN 9788131711200.>

These were four historical instances where hunter-gatherer humans first laid out the rules of co-existence as a society. For the first time, humans created a societal hierarchy, codes of conduct and the infrastructure to sustain a considerable population.

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Out of these four, only one survived the tide of time and waves of incursions, i.e. the Indus Valley Civilisation. The Indus Valley civilisation, apart from being one of the oldest, was also the most widespread civilisation of its time. The archaeological excavation of its sites began much later during the early 20th century which makes it probable that Mesopotamia and Egypt might not be the ‘firsts’ in many accomplishments attributed to them. For instance, the excavations from the Harappan site have unearthed at least 5,000 inscribed artefacts with the longest inscription consisting of 26 symbols. This logo-syllabic writing system is very much in competition with Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics to be considered the first writing system ever developed.

The residents of Indus Valley did not devote a disproportionate amount of resources to building massive structures for the elite, nor did they bury the riches with the dead to accompany them in the afterlife; rather, the focus seemed to be on building a robust and complex infrastructure supporting an organised and sanitary lifestyle for the living residents.

The 5,000-year-old site at Mohenjo Daro is well-known for its intricate town planning with street grids and brick pavements, elaborate water supply and drainage with covered sewerage systems. They built homes with toilets in addition to monumental buildings such as the Great Granary and the Great Bath. At its peak , Mohenjo Daro, literally ‘Mound of the Dead’, housed anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 residents with a highly evolved social organisation.

Such was the genius of the residents of the Indus Valley Civilisation that as modern-day Pakistan is rattled with incessant rains and floods, Abdul Fatah Shaikh, the director of archeology and museum for the provincial government, comments : “The city of Larkana had four feet of standing water whereas at Mohenjo Daro, there was less than a foot of it. It proved that the original drainage system worked even 5,000 years after it was built”.

When Tucker Carlson comments on the “building” capabilities, he must be aware that Indians were building elaborate societal infrastructure at least 3,000 years before Roman conquest registered the British identity on the world map.

Moreover, the massive rock-cut Kailasa Temple, Matrimandir, Meenakshi Amman Temple, Barabar Caves, Hanging pillars of Lepakshi Temple, 12 Zodiac Pillars of Vidyashankara Temple, Whispering Gallery of Gol Gumbaj and Vijay Stambh are some of the marvels of engineering and planning from ancient India which are preserved even today. The world-renowned sites of the Taj Mahal, Humayun’s Tomb and Fatehpur Sikri were also not built after the British incursions.

“In 75 years of its Independence, has India produced a single building as beautiful as the Bombay Train station that the British colonialists built?” Yes. Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore, Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, Centre for Development Studies in Trivandrum, Palace of Assembly in Chandigarh and Lotus Temple in Delhi are some living examples for those willing to see.

The statements by Tucker Carlson are not only historically inaccurate but they reek of condescension, racism and apologia for crimes against humanity perpetrated by the British on the Indian populace. As per an estimate , 35 million Indians died because of British policy in a succession of famines, the Indian share of the global GDP got reduced from 47 per cent to 3 per cent and an estimated 800,000 Indians were killed in the quelling of the rebellion and its aftermath.

If there is one thing Carlson got right throughout his rant was, “When the British left India, they left a civilisation”, but it was a civilisation that had existed for thousands of years, a civilisation that was wounded, but a civilisation that bounced back within merely 75 years of its Independence.

The author takes special interest in history, culture and geo-politics. He is a proponent of religious reform and identifies himself as “an Indic Muslim exploring Vedic knowledge and cultural heritage through music”. When he is not writing columns, he enjoys playing drums and performing raps. Views expressed are personal.

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