Although we all knew about massacre of innocent Indian people by an overzealous British officer, TV programmes to mark century of this tragic event, “Jallianwala Bagh Massacre” has revealed some interesting but disturbing character of British Raj.
One such dictate was for Indians to salute white British person one may encounter, passing by on the street, failing to salute will end up for the poor person to crawl on all four like an animal, no matter how young or old one may be.
Although we were born, brought-up in East Africa, under British rule, we had uncomplicated life, as society was simple, divided in three segments, naturally most favoured ones were British, followed by Asians and then Africans. But we had some interesting contradiction, encounters with ruling class!
It was mainly on sports field, namely cricket. As British were a tiny minority, they were always on losing side. But they used to take defeat in their stride! However when it came to playing for national side, it was altogether different matter! There used to be at least six, even seven English players and four to five Asians; all seven Englishmen would bat in top order, although hardly a couple of them deserved to be selected for national side!
This strange phenomenon used to lead to surprising scoreboard, losing first six to seven wickets for less than fifty runs when Asian players would enter the fray, get opportunity to bat and score may end up 200 t0 250 all out, practically all runs scored by last five players!
I was in Civil Service, relatively on higher position of Assistant Accountant; all positions above this grade were filled by Englishmen. One of my duties was to allocate accommodations to British officers and to provide them with loans to buy essential household items, including cars and to settle their mileage and other such claims.
One newly qualified Dental Surgeon came to see me, when I allocated him beautiful bungalow, in Oyster Bay, right in front of mighty roaring Indian Ocean. He was so pleased that he used to come and see me once a week during lunch break. We became good friends, used to meet outside office hours for a drink or a meal. Suddenly he stopped visiting me and when we met outside, I asked him why. He was so apologist, telling me that he was told not to mix with Asians or Africans socially, that he should keep his distance and upheld his dignity! Well everything changed after independence! One’s ego is like river; it may swell, but never burst over rival’s banks! That was British Raj!
Bhupendra M. Gandhi
By email
