Congress politician and author Shashi Tharoor was visiting London to participate in the Empire debate at the Supreme Court on Thursday 18 September by the Indo British heritage trust to mark the 400th anniversary of the two country's relations.
During the three-hour session the distinguished panel, including Tharoor, renowned author and historian William Dalrymple, Pakistani politician Nelofar Bakhtyar, BBC war correspondent Martin Bell, Tory MP Kwasi Kwarteng and climate change and sustainability expert Nick Robins discussed the legacy of British colonisation. The debate was chaired by the Home Affairs Select Committee Chairman, Rt Hon Keith Vaz, MP.
On the following day, just before he left for Nepal, Mr Tharoor met a few members of the Indian Journalists' Association at the India club, where he discussed about the Scottish referendum and the close ties with the India club, because of his late father Chandan Tharoor.
Chandan Tharoor, with Krishna Menon was one of the first to suggest that the Indian journalists in Britain should have an independent pad of their own- eventually India club was formed. Chandan, who was not a journalist but worked for the Amrita Bazaar Patrika moved back to Mumbai in 1958.
During the interaction, Tharoor emphasised that India has played a key role in helping Scots prosper economically and drew upon history to highlight India's contributions in strengthening the Scottish union.
He went on to explain that when the East India Company had set out to colonise India, the Scots were under the same Monarch as the English, yet was a separate nation. Therefore, “the Scots had their own expedition to colonise in the West, eg Panamas, and many others, and unfortunately every one of them failed.”
"It was with the Act of Union in 1707 that Scots became eligible to participate in the goodies of the East India Company and a disproportionate number of Scots were employed by the East India Company.
“As a result the profits they were repatriating home is what put Scotland out of poverty. So India had an extremely key role in giving the Scots an incentive to remain with the British nation.”
The Thiruvananthapuram MP then went on to talk about Indian nationalism in the light of Scottish referendum.
"We have nations within India. But we all live together as one country and our nationalism transcends these sub-nationalisms. To my mind, that is one of the great strengths of India which is worth actively fighting for and preserving...
However, he concluded by saying that the Scots choosing to remain with England has been “a good and healthy signal to give to the rest of the world, not just India.”
