Adolf Hitler had expressed strong admiration for the British emperor?s supremacy in colonising large parts of the world to make Britain an ?Empire where the sun never sets?. In planning to establish the colonial empire of the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation, he hoped that Germany would emulate British ?ruthlessness? and ?absence of moral scruples?.?I better understood Hitler?s appreciation very recently while visiting the Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands. It?s known as Kalapani (black water) for the mental and physical nadir that Indian political prisoners were jettisoned into when exiled to darkness here.
Aside from other problems, the immediate trigger for India?s 1857 First War of Independence was the tallow grease cartridge for the new-pattern 1853 Enfield rifle, where Indian soldiers had to bite the cartridge to release the powder. The grease used was rumoured to be beef tallow that offended Hindus and lard derived from pork that was offensive to Muslims. It could be argued that, as there were 3,00,000 Indian sepoys, numerically higher than the British army of 50,000 soldiers, the British could quell this revolt only with severe punishment of solitary confinement in the Andamans. Although the Cellular prison was constructed between 1896 and 1906, the revolting soldiers have been packed off to this penal colony set up since 1789.
The political prisoners who opposed British power with violence throughout India?s freedom struggle suffered life imprisonment in the Cellular jail. They suffered degraded conditions compounded with torturous hard labour. Many were sent to the gallows, others died of disease, starvation or committed suicide as they could not take the indignities heaped on them. Professor Pramod Srivastava of Lucknow University, recording the oral history of Kalapani from 19 erstwhile prisoners, revealed unknown horror stories, like prison cells teeming with scorpions and when a revolutionary complained of eye pain, the jail doctor poured alcohol resulting in vision loss. Yet, imagine, inspite of the heinous treatment the British meted out to our freedom fighters, we still continue to call the capital city Port Blair, the name that was given to honor Lieutenant Archibald Blair of the British East India Company, who first annexed the islands as British territory.
When you see the solid, five-pronged jail structure, it seems like the British had planned to stay forever. From the central tower, movements on all sides can be watched. This was a prison to torture and demoralise inmates. Compare it to the temporary-looking Auschwitz concentration camp built by Hitler to exterminate innocent Jewish, handicapped, homosexuals and gypsies as part of his Final Solution in his strategy of 1,000 years of the 3rd Reich. The other famous prison is Alcatraz, isolated off San Francisco bay, ostensibly for the correction of crooks.?
The mass of Indian tourists to the Cellular jail displayed no compassion as they stomped up and down the huge building. I saw them laughing, taking turns to pose as convicts behind the bars of dingy cells, or making mocking faces of being hurt and injured, while putting an arm around a statue that depicted a freedom fighter being flagellated. They were visiting as if this was the beautiful Taj Mahal. The problem is that British colonisation actually spread bacteria that infected everybody in our country to unwittingly become slaves to a culture alien to us. Our simple masses did not understand how the British manipulated the Indian upper class to retain British culture as supreme. Indian politicians, who were against violence for independence, were alleged to be collaborators of the British. So the rest of India never understood the history of British viciousness in the Cellular jail. Today, when people pay R10 to enjoy the prison visit, you don?t see any reflection of horror at what was perpetuated, much less hate towards the perpetrators.
In contrast, when I often visit the Auschwitz concentration camp, I feel a sense of solemnity, the sorrow among individuals from different countries, who condemn the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Of course, when you go to Alcatraz in San Francisco, you hear different stories of incredible bandits. The guides explain in two ways, the notorious prisoners and the ingenious rebel techniques they used, and the cruelty of security wardens.
Ambiguity of Indian society is phenomenal. Like slow poison, British culture was injected into the Indian bloodstream through the 200 years they colonised us. The method was so refined that, consciously or unconsciously, we swallowed the medicine of Lord Macauley, who was the inaugural member of the first Supreme Council of India that governed in 1834-1838. His objective was to break the moral fibre of Indians in subjugating them as, otherwise, the British were not in a position to dominate India. He advocated building ?a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect? who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern.?
So from the British Raj, 10 commandments were surreptitiously handed down to Indians: 1. Don?t challenge, respect your superior; 2. Compromise, adjust to every situation without revolting; 3.?Be content to be a second-category citizen; 4. Become the most competent clerk; 5. Speak proper English, imbibe British manners; 6. Don?t take responsibility, be a subordinate; 7. Use manpower rather than automation, and be dependent on Great Britain to provide modern means of productivity; 8. Play with caste, religion or other ways to perpetuate social turmoil, turning attention away from the ruler; 9. Marginalise the existing Indian education system, propagate English-medium schools, especially for elite Indians; 10. Speaking fluent English is the first criterion to get plum jobs.
The impact of these colonial 10 commandments is very high in India even today in business, education, politics and social areas. Hopefully, the coming generations of Zappers, those born into the liberalised era who follow no traditional role models, will nullify these colonial commandments, but it may take another 60-70 years.
Shombit Sengupta is an international consultant to top management on differentiating business strategy with execution excellence
(www.shiningconsulting.com)