1/n The problem wasn't that relief was delayed or inefficiently distributed, there simply wasn't enough to go around (as Bengal had a real shortage of around 1 million tons).
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Hira Jungkow
@HiraJungkow
| 3rd year student | History, Economics & Economic History | Aspiring Writer | 
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Churchill’s view of India & Gandhi was long distorted. Now Hira Jungkow has blown away the lie that Churchill wished Gandhi dead in the 1943 famine. Gandhi certainly raised Churchill’s hackles, but wishing he would starve to death is not in the record.
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Here is an excellent article by about the oft-repeated claim that the British took away $45 trillion from India. That this number changed to $69 trillion in 2020 should tell you its fallacy.
quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/
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No.
It’s a lie.
It’s tiring seeing this tired old nonsense keep on coming up as though it’s gospel.
quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/
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This myth of trillions of dollars being sent from India to the UK is one of those cases of "If we make the lie big enough, people will believe it". Thankfully, , and others have clearly and concisely dismissed this nonsense. quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/
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Was the British Empire a ‘narco-state’, reducing the population of India to helpless dependence?
Or is this, asks , a myth propagated by far-right Hindu nationalists and their useful idiots in the West? ✍️
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15/n Calcutta Disturbances Enquiry Commission (abb. CDEC), WBSA.
Talbot, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, A Rejoinder: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111
Samaddar, Policing a Riot-Torn City: tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108
Nicholas Mansergh, Transfer of Power Vol. VIII (abb. TOP)
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14/n See Talbot (1984), pp. 31-2. In short, Part I of this documentary is perhaps useful only for those familiar with the matter to point out its many errors.
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13/n Towards the end of the documentary, much is made about Lord Mountbatten pushing forward the date for independence. That the reason for it being, Punjab spiralling into uncontrollable violence isn't given, an egregious omission by a supposedly path breaking documentary.
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12/n Mrs Kapila mentions the now ubiquitous term 'divide and rule' as an explanation for these communal riots. This travesty is unworthy of comment. I'd rather scholarship rectify this misinformation.
beckassets.blob.core.windows.net/product/readin
cambridge.org/core/journals/
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11/n something forgotten by Mrs Satia as she seeks to excoriate the British admin. Had they called in troops prematurely, it'd be the British admin. being violent. Since they waited & observed, this is proof of them being racist! Around 15:05
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10/n however, the mob reformed yet continued to clash after dispersing for a while (Samaddar, 2017, p. 44). By the 17th the riot had assumed a shape none could've predicted on the tense yet quiet afternoon of the 16th. Tragically these facts are conveniently
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9/n a large section of the police, exhausted after a nearly endless day of duty, had to be fed and provisioned (ibid). The crowds sadly were simply too rabid. In one incident, 2 policemen (Barnes & Smith) emptied their revolvers into a crowd
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8/n Army troops were insufficient to monitor the city in satisfactory numbers, establishing too many pickets would leave the Army unable to contain any fresh outbreak (CDCE, Vol II, p. 71). On top of that by the midnight of 16th and the small hours of 17th August,
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7/n was out of control. Curfew was declared @ 20:00, troops moved out of barracks by 00:30, commenced patrols between Vivekananda Road and Cooltoola Road by 01:45 (CDCE, Vol II, p. 70). The problems faced by the Governor + the Commanders were immense,
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6/n such as in Belgachia where a Muslim mob stabbed an Hindu motor driver, the forcible shutting of shops in Manicktolla, murder of an Hindu gentleman in Manicktolla + other scattered incidents) [CDCE, Vol II, pp. 84-85, 88]. However, by 18:00 the situation
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5/n, the 2nd York and Lancs were ordered into the Sealdah Rest Camp (where they arrived by 17:00). However, by 18:20, after the meeting at Ochterlony Monument had ended and violence had begun to spread in earnest (previously it was quiet and restricted to a few incidents
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4/n hadn't deteriorated to the point where the police would be unable to handle it, hence calling in troops at that stage without the benefit of hindsight would be excessive (CDCE, Vol II, p. 69; TOP, Vol 8, p. 296). However, predicting a possible outbreak of clashes
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3/n which is unsurprising considering her record (see my review of her latest book [TM] her ( zenodo.org/record/5703388 ), however initially His Excellency the Gov of Bengal didn't call in troops because by 15:00-16:00 hrs of the 16th of Aug. the situation,
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2/n Mrs Satia around 14:14 claims that the Governor delayed calling in troops which thus is proof of 'the lack of value for Indian life among British colonial administration'. Perhaps Mrs Satia is expounding on matters unfamiliar to her,
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Most of this stuff has been researched decades ago, but Professors of History like Lester (and others) will still act as if the benefits of the railways are just some right-wing talking point. I expect no less from amateurs like Tharoor & Sangera, but academics should aim higher.
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A graduate student whose takedown of Stanford's Priya Satia drew censure from his faculty advisors, warning he would be called a racist. The review was rejected at all academic outlets. Thanks to the non-mainstream media. twitter.com/NoKowXlhat/sta
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rebuttal by to Shashi Tharoorian nonsense regarding Indian railway.“Everywhere in every direction,the wanderer comes up against railroad track, meandering about like a colossal centipede.Yet there is romance and legend too amidst dust and smoke”, John W Mitchell 1934
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Almost whenever the British Raj in India is mentioned, the construction of the vast railway infrastructure pops up. But were the railways a good thing? Or, as many polemicists state, just another aspect of colonial oppression? wp.me/pdepR4-108
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Almost whenever the British Raj in India is mentioned, the construction of the vast railway infrastructure pops up. But were the railways a good thing? Or, as many polemicists state, just another aspect of colonial oppression? wp.me/pdepR4-108
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India's vast contribution in WW2: This post is five years old, but the latest comments—particularly Hira Jungkow's—are only days old, and worth the attention of thoughtful people.
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Alan Lester has acknowledged his mistake and graciously pointed out he was acting in good faith.
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Replying to @aljhlester @HiraJungkow and @TheCriticMag
Always try to act with integrity so have looked up original source now. You’re right to point out the act that my secondary source quoted was a satire on the attitude of the govt, criticised by Digby, rather than real legislation. I apologise for trusting the source.
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Always try to act with integrity so have looked up original source now. You’re right to point out the act that my secondary source quoted was a satire on the attitude of the govt, criticised by Digby, rather than real legislation. I apologise for trusting the source.
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Especially as your reference appears to be second-hand from Currie’s article.
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Replying to
, as this was clearly a satirical skit, surely you wouldn’t want to be lumped with Monbiot for inventing pseudo-academic references? I’m sure you’ll do the scholarly thing & correct your comment.
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Lester is referencing an act he found in the pages Mike Davis' polemic called the Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877. If one checks the source of this claim (as any historian should do with extraordinary claims) we would see that his own source calls this act a 'skit'.
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Kate Currie cites Digby, just like Davis and misinterprets him just as Davis. Digby specifically notes the act is a 'skit'; nothing is changed by this information.
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Upon being presented with facts, Alan Lester has blocked me. Of course one can condemn both the British government and Putin's censorship but why use a non-existent act to make that point? He also notes that his source is Kate Currie's (1991) article.
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He is, of course, not alone in this. has also referenced this non-existent act as if it were fact in his recent piece for
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Lester is referencing an act he found in the pages Mike Davis' polemic called the Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877. If one checks the source of this claim (as any historian should do with extraordinary claims) we would see that his own source calls this act a 'skit'.
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This is an exemplar of the intellectual laziness of certain scholars when comparing the West to Russia that Dr. Alexander Morrison has detailed in his latest piece for . I highly recommend it.
thecritic.co.uk/stop-insisting
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This govt defends reputation of British Empire while condemning Putin’s censorship. In 1877 the British Madras govt declared it a penal offence to publicise the deaths of 0.5M famine victims or to give private aid to the starving.
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South Asian history is dynamic and not unchanging, yet certain canards are set in aspic. I have no stomach to explain why Sir Winston Churchill isn’t India’s Hitler. If I’m understood, more words are unnecessary...
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My article on the Bengal Famine for
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Alzazeera is a known anti Hindu paper and this $45 trillions estimation is done by ‘Marxist’ Utsa Patnaik. Why is Indian Right Wing copy pasting Marxists nowadays 🧐 ?
quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/
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