The centenary of the First World War comes at a time of great
generational change, as the millennials and the first digital natives
come of age. Coinciding also with the start of the Asian century, this presents
a perfect opportunity to rejuvenate the Commonwealth.
Democratic institutions are threatened around the world. As the
free world faces fundamentalist Islam, and a rising authoritarian China and
Russia, there is an urgent need to focus on and assert the values of the free
world. A great mass of the population of free countries
belongs to the Commonwealth of Nations. With Europe in structural decline and
the US turning inwards, it is vital that the Commonwealth takes up the fight
for democratic and liberal values.
The rise of the British Empire changed the world forever. No other
historical force has shaped the modern world to such an extent or
touched as many people on such a scale. It is the reason that I, an ethnic
Indian am writing this in English, the language I am most familiar with, in Australia, a country I easily assimilated into.
In what Daniel Hannan has described as 'Anglobalisation', the
British Empire and later the Commonwealth has left behind a global community
sharing a common language, legal system, academic culture, and to a lesser
extent a cultural milieu. Yet the predominant emotion associated with the
British Empire over the last hundred years have been acrimony, resentment and
betrayal. This has translated into apathy for the Commonwealth.
This is not terribly surprising. The last hundred years witnessed
the worst excesses of British imperialism. India was rewarded for its loyalty
and bravery in World War I not with self-government but with a brutality that
dwarfed the worst caricatures of the Kaiser. For sacrificing hundreds of
thousands of its sons, the Punjab was rewarded with martial law and the
slaughter of Jalianwala Bagh, where hundreds of unarmed men, women and children
were enclosed and shot dead in cold blood by an unrepentant General
Dyer. To rub salt in Indian wounds, Dyer received little formal reprimand, and
was hailed as a hero by sections of British society, with the Morning Post collecting
the equivalent of a million pounds to present to him. Britain snubbed Indian
demands for dominion status on par with the white realms, ultimately losing the
goodwill of its Indian subjects.
In the rest of the Anglosphere, the last hundred years witnessed
Britain abandoning its family to cosy up with its neighbours, when it joined
the EU and abandoned its trade links with Australia and New Zealand, who could
not compete with the generously subsidised agricultural industry of
Europe.
It is therefore not surprising that there is little love
for the Commonwealth and the soul of the old British Empire that it
embodies. The decolonisation process happened relatively recently, and
there are still many who remember life in the shadows of a Union Jack.
Singapore and Malaysia only became independent 57 years ago. It is understandable that the views of that generation and those that followed them
are shaped by the struggle against a foreign imperial power, often with a
racial dimension.
My grandparents lived in a world where the white man literally
ruled. My parents grew up in the shadow of colonialism, where the white man no
longer ruled, but towered as a superior wealthy caste that ruled in all
but name. Theirs was the first generation of the great Indian diaspora, which
fought racism to give their children a better future in faraway lands.
Generation Y is really the first to be born unburdened of this
history. This generational change coinciding with the centenary of World War I
presents a unique opportunity to rejuvenate the Commonwealth. For the first
time, all the descendants of the British Empire can
genuinely count themselves as beneficiaries of that historical phenomenon
which has forced us into a common patrimony. Regardless of the horrors and
injustices our ancestors inflicted or suffered, we are today fortunate to be born
in the Anglosphere- a loose, informal community of free countries which
offers us a gateway into every continent on Earth and almost every major
culture.
For the first time, a generation can look back at the
remarkable events of the First World War without being influenced by personal
experiences of colonialism or its aftermath. We can objectively see the diverse
peoples of the Anglosphere coming together to defend an empire that although
imperfect, was the genesis of our modern lives.
The focus on Commonwealth contributions to the World War I in
Britain this year has dusted off sepia-tinged, forgotten stories from a period
of the British Raj, when the Indian Independence movement was still a struggle
within, not against the system. A time when there was a degree of respect and
good faith between the British rulers and their Indian subjects, who like
Gandhi were proud subjects only demanding their right of self-rule. We see
photos of letters sent by Queen Mary to her “Indian sisters” who had been
widowed by the War, and hear BBC programs of a hospital at the Royal Pavilion
in Brighton set up for wounded Indian soldiers, where the British were most
careful with dietary requirements (having learnt their lessons from the 1857
mutiny).[1]
India comes of Age
As the
western world succumbs to its demographic and fiscal deficit, it is India’s
moral duty to carry the torch of the Anglosphere into this century. After a
thousand years of subjugation, its time has come. The election of Narendra Modi
could prove to be a turning point in Indian and world history. Modi, the first
PM to be born in independent India, embodies the optimism and confidence of
India’s burgeoning, aspirational youth.
At
first sight, the election of a man who shuns English in favour of Hindi and the
first PM from outside the anglicised Delhi elite would appear to be bad news
for the Anglosphere. However, this would be taking a myopic view. Modi’s Hindu nationalism is necessary to allow India to shrug off
its last vestiges of colonial complex and come to its own in the eyes of the
world.
While
India may have won freedom, it has remained culturally colonised. English
trappings such as a convent education and fluency in English are still viewed
as social status symbols. The higher up you climb in Indian society, the more
anglicised you need to be. This was so ingrained that it showed until recently even
in the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party, where senior leaders such as LK
Advani belonged to what author Tavleen Singh has described as the elite world
of the ‘Delhi Durbar.’ Modi is the first politician from the grassroots of the
real India to shatter the glass ceiling to high office.
India can
best contribute to the Anglosphere if she rediscovers her place there as a self-confident nation true
to herself and her ancient, diverse and pluralistic Hindu civilisation. India has always been its own civilisation, but it was brought into the modern age by the Raj, and will continue to have a natural affinity to the Anglosphere.
When
Modi first entered Parliament as the PM, his first act was replete with accidental
symbolism. As he approached the steps of the Central Hall of Parliament, Modi went
down on his knees and touched his head to the sacred temple of democracy, in
the manner Hindus enter a temple. It was a humble tribute to the voters who put
him there and encapsulated a beautiful cross-cultural acknowledgement of
universal truths. Here was the personification of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) paying homage in the most Indian way to Westminster
democracy.
That
act was symbolic of the exciting potential India has in store if it takes up the torch of righteousness and liberty in the international community. The most precious values of the Anglosphere
are universal in nature. A true statesman like Modi steeped in the Hindu
tradition of dharma (righteousness) should quickly find common ground with the
Anglosphere and its allies in pursuit of the common values of democracy, religious
freedom and liberalism. While liberal values have not been especially prevalent
in modern India, they do have deep roots in Indian culture and civilisation, as
discussed in Amartya Sen's The Argumentative
Indian.
A
resurgent, newly confident India can put its unique cultural stamp on the
universal values that have been borne by all progressive societies in human
history. Perhaps the best way for India to get back at Britain for the Raj
would be to remind an ailing Britannia of what Anglosphere values really are,
and what she has lost.
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