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"Does Britain owe reparations to her former colonies?"

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I despair of British people sometime.

When this guy says Indian share of wealth went from 23% to 4%, then surely the average British person has the intellectual capacity to debunk this immediately?

I cannot BELIEVE this motion was passed.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by N-R-G
The British empire for a start being more relevant than the Greeks.


Why is it more relevant?

Nobody in Britain today is responsible for something that happened over 100 years ago.

We are not responsible for the actions of our forefathers.
nope - I owe india nothing, seeing as I've never done anything even remotely connected to india
Original post by ESPORTIVA LUTA
Yeah you said India at the time was an alliance of several trading alliances......maybe hundreds of years before (and still they were either empires and kingdoms)

But when the east India co came rolling through, india was ruled by an absolute monarchy, the mughal empire.

The east India co didn't form a unified india. The mughals did.

And thousands of years before ashoka did.

I'm not sure where you got this idea that India at the time didn't even exist

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The Mughals didn't unify India.

The East India company set the basis for it. The British Raj, oor the nationalisation of the East India company created it.

Mughals were just another empire seeking control.
Reply 64
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N-R-G
17
Original post by DiddyDec
Why is it more relevant?

Nobody in Britain today is responsible for something that happened over 100 years ago.

We are not responsible for the actions of our forefathers.


There is a difference between you as an individual and us as a nation we are responsible for paying the existing debt held to the decedents of nations we screwed over.
Original post by N-R-G
There is a difference between you as an individual and us as a nation we are responsible for paying the existing debt held to the decedents of nations we screwed over.


What debt?

Give me a figure.
Reply 66
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N-R-G
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Original post by DiddyDec
What debt?

Give me a figure.


There is no figure just a moral debt of a nation.
Original post by N-R-G
There is no figure just a moral debt of a nation.


A moral debt? And what is the cost to pay off a moral debt?
Original post by MatureStudent36
The Mughals didn't unify India.

The East India company set the basis for it. The British Raj, oor the nationalisation of the East India company created it.

Mughals were just another empire seeking control.


The mughals ruled over what is mostly now India.

All the east India co did was establish a base and gradually take over the mughal territory.

There were maybe at most just over 1000 Brits in India. Most of the ruling was done by maharajas, who took orders from those Brits.

Lol you clown, you say the mughals were just another empire seeking control.............what the hell do you think the British empire was?!??!?!

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Reply 69
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N-R-G
17
Original post by DiddyDec
A moral debt? And what is the cost to pay off a moral debt?


Its an attitude you adopt that accepts that what Britons did was wrong.
Original post by N-R-G
Its an attitude you adopt that accepts that what Britons did was wrong.


Pretty sure most educated accept that already.

Not everything Britain did was wrong but I can agree there were some bad patches.
Reply 71
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N-R-G
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Original post by DiddyDec
Pretty sure most educated accept that already.

Not everything Britain did was wrong but I can agree there were some bad patches.


To me that is all I can do but it would be good if the nation did so too.
Original post by Yawn!
Read up on the Maratha Empire.....and don't comment on issues you know nothing about.


India was never a united whole it was divided by many Kings and rulers with varying sized territory under their control. Though to take your point, you want the descendents of one empire to pay reparations to the descendents of another empire which itself came to prominence largely through wars of conquest against another empire? That's a very crooked line of morality.
Well, those who voted for the motion to be passed weren't fools but some of the most brilliant minded individuals in the world.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India

However, I've got this article about the economic history of India which will make you embrace that fact instead of debunking it.
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 74
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2071067
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Original post by MatureStudent36
Can we charge them for setting up their legal, judiciary, civil service, military and transport infrastructure?

An Indian nationalist playing to the home crowd and blaming today's problems on other people.


This is bull, the British rulers simply took over the existing Mughal power structure. Barely anything changed in India except for where the tax money went.

Nobody can deny that the British milked India for all it was worth however the empire collapsed, we don't have the money anymore. By rights we should at least give back all the art and jewels because when Germany did the same thing it was "looted". That's victor's justice for you.
Original post by willock91
They have a space programme and we still give them aid. They need to just pipe down


Britain keep giving them aid even though India repeatedly said they didn't want it. It was nothing more than an attempt political bargaining tool to encourage more investment in the UK. They neither need nor want the money. Hell, the UK gives foreign aid to Brazil and wants to give it out to China, which could buy us out 10 times over.

As for the main OP, no it's stupid to expect Britain to pay reparations, especially when they hardly need it right now. It's true that Britain did much more harm than good to the people there, but if anyone's to blame, it's the Indian Raj's who were the ones who kept allowing their citizens to exploited like that while profiteering from the East India Trade Company.
Original post by TimmonaPortella
Hm it does seem so. That seems entirely appropriate.



I'm pretty sure asking for reparations is asking for money.

Well, if you watch the video carefully, especially the conclusion part, you'd know that what people are actually expecting is more of an apology rather than foreign aid which as the world's third largest economy (ranked higher than Britain) in terms of purchasing power parity (Source: world bank), India doesn't expect.
Original post by Yawn!
Big fan of Shashi Tharoor (Shame he's in the Congress Party). He's a very intelligent, informed individual. I seen quite a few of his debates, and I'm glad to see he didn't disappoint here.

NOTE: I'm only talking in context of India, since I have no knowledge to talk on behalf of other nations.

There's actually two questions here that the, shall we say, less intelligent posters have missed...1) Does Britain OWE her former colonies 2) Should Britain pay reparations to her former colonies?

The answer to the second question, in my opinion is no.

India does not need British reparations or aid money. India's GDP (PPP) 2014 is $7.2 Trillion. The UK's is $2.5 Trillion. India is already richer than the UK as a nation. It spends almost three times on defense PPP than the UK. And that's in 2014, imagine 2020 or 2030.

To put it bluntly, India doesn't need the UK's peanuts. India has more than enough resources. While the British Empire was largely responsible for India's poverty being created, India has more than enough resources to sort itself out today and in the future.

The answer to the first question is yes.

Britain does OWE India....hugely. India's wealth and resources powered Britain in her superpower days and contributed to her status as a rich nation today. Millions of Indians fought (many died) for Britain in both world wars. And for this Indians had their education system, industry and economy destroyed. Their wealth and resources stolen. And TENS OF MILLIONS of Indian men, women and children murdered in their own country by the British.

It's hard to see how Britain could ever make up for it to tbh. But a little humility wouldn't hurt. Especially if you see what young Indians are saying about 'Britishers' these days. They see all this stuff you know. And they aren't p****d because of the Empire, they're p****d because of the vile arrogance of today's British people. (Typified by some of the posters here).


Is the bold statement supposed to be ironic? You talk about the "vile arrogance" of today's British people at the end of what is one of the most blindly nationalistic posts I have seen in a long time.
(edited 8 years ago)
The way BRICS countries are accelerating in terms of development, we'll be the ones asking them for aid in the near future. We've already sold everything off to make a quick buck rather than investing in the future. Britain needs to seriously invest in it's economy in the long term or we'll end up in the dust and irrelevant, as we are already slowly becoming.
Original post by capitalismstinks
I despair of British people sometime.

When this guy says Indian share of wealth went from 23% to 4%, then surely the average British person has the intellectual capacity to debunk this immediately?



How? It's a well sourced figure from numerous economists and historians. It's not untrue at all.

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