What the British Really Did to India.

From The Bastani Factor 

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
GED/HEO

It is important to not feel ashamed of something you haven't done or participated in as Bastani says. But it's also important to speak the truth and always side with the exploited not the exploiter. The obstacle to looking at things like this objectively so we can fully understand what happened, why it happened and the affect historical events in the capitalist era have on entire populations, is the concept of nationalism and all its trappings like patriotism. 

When the Indian man in the video talks of "Englishmen" or the "British" in a disparaging way, it is not based in racial animosity or personal dislike of another culture or race of people. There is real history behind it and there are two sides with very different experiences. And the British or English he is referring to are not the poverty stricken exploited wretches working in the factories of British capitalism a few thousand miles away.

Of course it is workers who are the cannon fodder for imperialism. Both English, Irish and workers from other colonized countries were drafted in to the colonial power's military machine; my great grandfather was one of them. All empires do this, the Romans did it, Genghis Khan did it. The leaders, officers, politicians, business people that direct the operations are from a different class who have different interests from Indian workers and the workers who claim the same nationality.

Why the nationalism, race, color or religious card is always played by ruling classes in one way or another is obvious; if English workers see the Indian worker as our ally, as a person in the same boat basically, then what naturally flows from that is solidarity and eventually united action. It undermines the national question; it undermines racial and all other forms of division the ruling class uses to maintain its power and wealth.

This is why, especially in the US, the term class or class struggle terrifies the ruling class, the billionaires and their apologists in academia, the pulpit and their agents in the workers organizations, trade unions and political parties. It is why identity politics is promoted to center stage.

I think we know this deep down, it is what we call class consciousness, a common understanding of our place in an exploitative society and our potential to change it and society along with it.  The enemy is powerful though, treacherous, and has the reins of power in their hands. But they are not the only ruling class that has held that power and lost it.

There are great lessons in studying history with an open mind and always from the point of view of the worker, the peasant, the colonized not the colonizer, that section of society whose means of subsistence and survival is based on selling their labor power rather than those who buy it.

In the struggle to change history and build a new society based on cooperation, solidarity and a respect for the natural world in which we live, lessons are learned and leaders who see the way forward rise to the occasion as well. Working class history and the history of the oppressed in general is full of leaders, dedicated men and women committed to building this new society; they are present in history and are present today.