The Abuse of History.
On Sunday mornings I try to take it easy, watch a bit of News and chill dude.! So last Sunday I caiught part of some discussion programme where 4 people were discussing The British Empire. Needless to say PC reared its smooth narrow and ignorant head immediately.According to one "writer" the British had "invaded India" -despite searching through my many volumes of Indian History I failed to find any evidence of this at all - no date when the fleet landed its troops no location nothing ,nada, nix ,nowt. Needless to say India at the supposed time of this "invasion" did not exist as one coutry. The Mughal Empire was falling to bits and war was a normal part of political life but let not mere facts get in the way of his royalties on his next set of packeaged crap Further the maker of a programme on Sophia Singh opined that her grandfather Ranjit Singh- founder of the Sikh state had "fought for Freedom and Justice" and that the Punjab was peaceful under his benign rule (!!!!!) and implied that this fighting was against the British- Ranjit of course never fought the British and was dead before the Sikh Wars began indeed the HEIC were his allies and of course the Khalsa invaded British India not the other way around. Entirely ignoring the facts or actually lying to re-enforce a fashionable politically correct dogma is now common amongst "popular" historian/journalists of a certain stamp. In the same programme some social media numpty opined that the USA had dragged "us"- ie the UK into all its wars in the last century thereby demonstrating an astonishing ignorance of the actual facts- (WW1 and WW2 for a start) wonder if he was the same ignorant pillock who recently said that Jim Callaghan had been a US President!
Obviously all of this lot regularly attend Thickies R Us
Now we Historical Wargamers abuse History all the time- using it for our own quite minor ends but rarely if ever with the misleading motives of the above or rarely being that thick despite my occaisional waspish assertions to the contrary ). Not only that but those of us who actually take notice of History know when we are abusing it and also - mostly - know where and why we are doing so . Hopefully at our best we are like Historical Novelists- the ones who put "Historical Notes" at the end of their novels- say well "This is what actaully happend and this is where I deviated from it for my novel "
So do we go down the PC route or do we as chaps who know whereof we speak "Keep the Faith"
You've only got to watch programmes like Who do you think you are (the Billy Connolly edition especially) and the various programmes that covered the involvement of Indian troops (and Africans) in the 1st World War to see further examples of PC yet incorrect statements. Also, belief in India amongst many about "the Raj" is very skewed and very narrow minded and ignores the good stuff of which there was oodles (sorry, bad pun). The funny thing is that my wife was an ex-pat in India for 20 years and remembers that the more educated Indians are more British than the British still!
ReplyDelete"Rubbish the Brits" has been a bloodsport for the last 30 or so years- mostly taken up by "ourselves".as you have to wave you PC credentials about to prove what a splendidly enlighted citzen you are.
DeleteI rarely watch TV history now as it will be mostly bollocks and often misleading bollocks at that. this was an exception my own fault then!
The Indian Government lionises Subbas Charndra Bose and Mohan Singh- prime movers in the pro-Japanese Free Indian Army- Known as JIF brigades by the Indian Army - Japanese Indian Forces yet there was a scandal in the 90s about how vets who fought agaist the Japanese were being denied pensions.
Facts are no longer relevant its about perceptions and "feelings" . Judging the past by todays very different values makes a good book or a programme for the the sensation hungry victim culture.
See yo Saturday ?
Indeed you will Andy
DeleteAndy,
ReplyDeleteCan I suggest you do what I now do, turn these programmes off, because they really are bad for your health. Everyone [ well those under 35] knows that the British Empire was an evil organisation that exploited the poor kind states natives and left nothing when we departed.
I can remember a history lesson at junior school where we studied an old map of the empire, and my teacher stating that the empire came about really by accident, and had very little planning to it.
I still believe that to a great extent, which is probably totally wrong. My argument for all these popular detractors is, only the British could literally give an empire away, and in the main stay friends with the nations they helped create, not a bad legacy really and so typically British. As for the Guardinistas etc, up yours delors!
Robbie- Really by accident- In India certainly that is partly true- Not so sure about Africa- As for America- well again mostly true- and not really an Empire anyway but a bunch of bolshy self -governing colonies - even before the AWI.
DeleteBut you are right its my fault for watching the crap in the first place.
But yes we did mostly avoid the bloody wars of Independence that say the French had- Indo-China and Algeria for instance. by letting the kids leave home as it were India and Pakistan in 1947and most of Africa in the 1960s
Speaking as a 1st gen Canadian colonial educated in the 70's and 80's. The Empire and the British in particular were responsible for pretty much everything that went wrong in North America. We killed all the Indians (no mention of the French contributions) repressed the Quebecois (no mention of them being abandoned by the French crown, no mention of having their language, religion and culture protected from America domination unlike the Cajuns see next), sent the poor Acadians into exile (What's the problem with swearing an oath not to overthrow the current government and being allowed to stay on your farms), Hanging the unmentioned Father of Confederation Louis Riel (who had some legit grievances but also listened to God in his head). And those are just the highlights.
ReplyDeleteThe Empire did indeed cause a lot of grief and was run for the benefit of Britain. But - let's also look at how those poor repressed natives have been running things since the Empire pulled out 60+ years ago. You know places like Zimbabwe, Malaya, India/Bangladesh/Pakistan/Sri Lanka and South Africa.
Pat no real argument there- When they caught Reil was it after the North West Rebellion - battles of Duck Lake Batoche etc? I may be wrong here but I don't think any actual British troops were involved in that - when did Canada become a "Dominion"?
DeleteThere is always differences of opinion, my pre national curriculum history teacher in a pre pc world who's opinion was we won the Spanish civil war, that Benito MussolinI was the best leader Italy ever had and alright Hitler had some bad bits but really wasn't as bad as Stalin arguments can be made about all of these I guess, okay most, but history is subjective, lots of people in northern Ireland I would suggest have a better general knowledge of their history than the rest of the UK but clearly they don't agree , the exhibition in the Belfast museum on the troubles you could argue is pc but I thought it was pretty good and balanced .
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Yes Opinions differ but facts don't change merely how they are presented- Stalin DID kill more than Adolf managed they were both bad bad dudes but Uncle Joe was on our side so we ignore what a bad sod he was until 1946 when he is the enemy.
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't my point FACTS are not subjective only interpretations. Ranjit did not fight the British- fact. We did some bad sh"t- Amritsar for a start - fact. India did not exist as a country- fact. The EIC were invited in by the Mughals -fact Before- and indeed during the British presence India was invaded more than once by Persian- Nadir Shah looted Delhi and pinched the Peacock throne- Aghans Thier leade blinded - personally so its said the then Emperor Shah Alam.
In those TV travesties Sharpe in India one episode called CHITU a "freedom fighter"- In actuality His horde of Pindari raiders cut a blood soaked swath through Mahratta and British territory slaughtering thousands of Indian peasants and until cornered running away from the British and the Nizams forces sent to sort him out. Again facts
How is what those chaps did any worse than the worst that the Brish arguablely did?
What has happened to even handedness? Or is everyone only out to make a few quid and a rep!
Oh I am happy to take your point over India, there was no government policy of conquest there just private enterprise competing with other European companies, it was as Robbie says accidental and occasionally opportunistic empire building by the British and with noticeable exceptions mostly benign. Making bandits into freedom fighters and fitting them into your narrative view isn't all that new but I guess that's what we are talking about.
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