Discourse: Forgive but do not forget

What is it and how often does it occur? Britain’s shambolic withdrawal from India in 1947 after two centuries of imperial rule was curiously without rancour, even though that original Brexit savagely partitioned the country and left it to tear itself apart. When Winston Churchill, some years after Indian Independence, asked Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who had spent more than a decade of his life in British jails, how he was so devoid of bitterness, Nehru replied: “We were taught by a great man never to fear and never to hate.” Whether this was a national strength or a civilisational weakness, India has long refused to bear any grudge against Britain for 200 years of imperial enslavement, plunder and exploitation. I recently wrote to the Government of India to propose that one of India's most renowned heritage buildings, the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, be converted into a museum that displays the truth of the British Raj - a museum, in other words, to colonial atrocities. Indeed, when my book appeared in Delhi British Prime Minister Theresa May was days away from a visit to India seeking investment from India in her post-Brexit economy.