In September 1947, barely a month after India became independent from British rule, Vishwa Nath, the founding editor of the Delhi Press—that originally launched The Caravan in 1940—wrote a scathing editorial about the culture of public memory surrounding colonial rule in India. Although this was a time that was largely characterised by the triumph of independence, it was also replete with uncertainty around the ability of Indians to govern themselves. In his editorial, Nath rejects this notion and challenges the idea of an invisible colonial Britain. “Do these people forget the unending fight for liberty that the country has waged during the last 150 years,” he asks of those who believed that India gained independence solely due to the statesmanship of Britain. Nath concludes by taking to task those who denied Indians agency in their own struggle for independence, viewing it as British magnanimity instead.
15 August 1947 will go down in world history as a landmark. It was on this day that a vast sub-continent holding one fifth of the human race was freed from a foreign power’s domination.
It has become a tendency with our national leaders to sing unending songs about the manner in which this transfer of power has taken place; they point out that the way it has come about is unique in the history of the world, and is solely due to the statesmanship of the British.
COMMENT